Shrikant Navalagiri

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA aims to bring together professional backstage theatre artists from the villages across North Karnataka to share their skills and weave the stories of their backstage lives into stage texts and performances. Shrikant Navalagiri will be the Coordinator for this project. 

Shrikant Navalagiri is a theatre artist based in Bagalkot district, Karnataka. He has Diploma in Theatre Training from Bhartiya Ranga Shikshana Kendra, Rangayana, Mysore and is an active theatre practitioner. Apart from organising theatre workshops for students of schools and colleges in Bagalkot, Shrikant has worked as a repertory artist in Dharwad Rangayana for three years. In 2017, he organised the local artists of Bagalkot to start his own art team, Sangama Kala mattu Samskritika Sangha. He has toured several parts of Karnataka with various plays and theatre troupes. Given his experience, Shrikant is best suited to be the Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project of IFA.

Shrikant notes that the professional theatre companies of North Karnataka have been known for their elaborate and spectacular sets. As such, the success of professional theatre depends heavily on the backstage artists who continue to work behind the scenes in various capacities, such as sound and light technicians, stage designers, costume designers, make-up artists, and musicians. These artists include people who have seen company plays come to town, who are performers themselves, who have possibly seen plays in village fairs, and people who have lineage in background arts. In this project, Shrikant will attempt to investigate the contributions these artists have made to the growth of professional theatre in North Karnataka.

Shrikant aims to interview the backstage artists who have been involved and who continue to work in professional theatre in different districts and towns of North Karnataka such as Vijayapura, Gadag, Dharwad, Hubli, Mariammanahalli in Hospete, Hanagalla in Koppal district, Haveri district, Badami, Guledagudda, Illakal, Sulebavi, Hamsunur, Bilagi and Kaladagi. Additionally, he plans to attempt publishing these interviews online and in newspapers as short stories. A total of eight to ten backstage artists will be selected to conduct workshops on background arts, where participants will pick up new skills, hear about their personal experiences, and discuss the significance of background arts. Finally, the artists who would have attended the workshop will collaborate to weave the stories from the workshop into a stage text and devise a 30-minute piece.

The outcome of this project will be a theatre performance based on the backstage theatre art and artists of North Karnataka. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be a handbook of documented interviews of the backstage artists.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme in how it engages with the history and practice of backstage arts in professional theatre companies, which remains a largely unexplored area in theatre research. 

IFA will ensure that the project is implemented on time and that the funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with the Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.