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Roysten Abel

ROYSTEN ABEL

  
Nationality:    Indian
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Roysten was born in Kerala, South India. He did his schooling in Good Shepherd International School, Ooty and it was here that he started writing and directing plays. Little did he know then that he would continue doing this for life? He went to study commerce in college but dropped out twice after enrolling in two different colleges. Bored with commerce and business, which he had to do at his parent's insistence some strange providence made him ask himself what he had enjoyed most in his life till then and the only thing he could think of were the plays he had done in school. Off he discarded the family business, joined drama school, and informed his parents after he had taken admission. Roy graduated from the national school of drama in 1994 and then went to apprentice with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the same year. He came back to India in 1995, founded the Indian Shakespeare Company, and as the name suggests his initial work was lot of Straight Shakespeare. A major turning point in Roy's life was in 1999 when he devised and directed Othello a play in black and white, which was his first original work. It went on to win the Scotsman fringe first award and since then has toured extensively around the world. This work got him national and international recognition and what followed was a spate of original works, which he conceived and directed. Some of these plays were produced in India and some in Europe. He then started to work, with out of work street performers (Magicians, Jugglers, Impersonators, Snake charmers, Acrobats, Musicians, Puppeteers etc.) This work got noticed in Italy and he was invited to conceive and direct a play on the Italian Film maker Federico Fellini in Rimini, which is Fellini's hometown in Italy. In that same winter he came down to India and created a play called the Spirit of Anne Frank, which starred the biggest female stars in the country. Soon after this he went on to do his first feature film In Othello which was his first step into cinema. Another turning point in his life happened when he discovered the joy of creating theatre with musicians.He then went on to make two major productions, "The Manganiyar seduction" and "A Hundred Charmers" which has been traveling the world. Roy then went on to create "The Kitchen" which he devised with 12 Mizhav drummers and two actors/cooks. This project was commissioned by Sydney festival. Holland Festival and Auckland festival. He recently premiered " The Manganiyar Classroom" in which he worked with the children of the Manganiyars. He is also in the process of setting up A state of the art School for the Manganiyar Children which he hopes will be up and running by2018.

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below is a list of Roysten Abel's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         At the Fringe  A Beggars Opera         At the fringe a beggars opera 2         Dami al meno un raje di sole         Goodbye Desdemona         Hundred Snake Charmers, A         Jiyo Indo Spanish play         Kitchen, The         Ladki Seedhi Rahegi         Love: a distant dialogue?         Macbeth         Mahanirvan         Manganiyar classroom, The         Manganiyar Seduction, The         Measure for Measure         Merchant of Venice         Moliere by Bulgakov         Mother I did not eat the butter         Much ado about Nautanki         Othello - a Play in Black and White         Romeo and Juliet in Technicolor         Spirit of Anne Frank, The

At the Fringe  A Beggars Opera

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1st Produced:
Edinburgh Fringe, Rome, Sicily    2001

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At the fringe a beggars opera 2

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1st Produced:
Torino, Modena, Rimini, (Italy)    2002

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Dami al meno un raje di sole

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1st Produced:
Italy (A play based on the legendary filmmaker Fellini done in Fellinis home town Rimini, Italy.)    2002

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Goodbye Desdemona

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1st Produced:
Indian Shakespeare Company, New Delhi    2000

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Hundred Snake Charmers, A

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1st Produced:
Delhi    2006

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Jiyo Indo Spanish play

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1st Produced:
Barcelona (Spain)    2004

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Kitchen, The

Synopsis:
The Kitchen tells the story of a husband and wife, who enact a drama without words whilst stirring huge steaming vats of payasam - a traditional Indian dessert. Behind them, under coppery light, twelve drummers beat out a surging rhythm on their sacred mizhavu drums, while the fragrance of aromatic rice wafts through the theatre. The surging sounds from the drums, the beautifully lit spectacle on stage and the scents of the spices soon combine to reach a boiling point, delighting a ll the senses, including taste, as the audience is invited to share the payasam afterwards. It's a reality cooking show unlike any other, a multi-sensory explosion of taste, sight, smell and sound that involves 100 kilos of rice, sugar, almonds, milk, raisins, cardamom and ghee!

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1st Produced:
Bangalore India    2013

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Genre:
piece 75 min

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  drummers

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Ladki Seedhi Rahegi

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1st Produced:
New Delhi    2005

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Love: a distant dialogue?

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1st Produced:
India, Italy.Japan    2002

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To Buy This Play:
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Macbeth

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1st Produced:
National School of Drama, New Delhi    1996

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Mahanirvan

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1st Produced:
Sri Ram Repertory Co., New Delhi    1997

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Manganiyar classroom, The

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1st Produced:
Bangalore India    2014

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Manganiyar Seduction, The

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1st Produced:
Bombay, Rome, Salzburg    2007

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Measure for Measure

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1st Produced:
United Players Guild, New Delhi    1995

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Merchant of Venice

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1st Produced:
National School of Drama, New Delhi    1993

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Moliere by Bulgakov

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1st Produced:
National Repertory, New Delhi    1994

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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Mother I did not eat the butter

Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
New Delhi    2006

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1st Published:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Much ado about Nautanki

Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
New Delhi    2001

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1st Published:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Othello - a Play in Black and White

Synopsis:
Roysten Abel takes William Shakespeares Othello and places it in a company of Indian actors who do English theatre. The milieu of the actors being a very affluent one is disturbed when a Kathakali trained actor (a traditional Indian dance form) is given the lead role of Othello, hence the plot of the play and the plot of the company are on similar lines. This gives Othello: A Play in Black and White the magic of Shakespeare entering into the life of the actors where the lines of acting and the lines of living get crossed to create various different sparks of theatricality.

Notes:
Indian Shakespeare Company, New Delhi won the scotsman fringe first award at the Edinburgh festival and performed at the Cairo international theatre festival

1st Produced:
Delhi    1998

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To Buy This Play:
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Romeo and Juliet in Technicolor

Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
National School of Drama, New Delhi    2000

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
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Spirit of Anne Frank, The

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Ahmedabad    2002

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
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Parts:
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Further Reference:
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