Faculty

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/11209/8744

The institutional repository for scholarship by the faculty of Bennington College

Browse

Browsing Faculty by Author "de Bruin, Hanne M."

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Kaṭṭaikkūttu’s Performance Spaces
    (2021-05-24) de Bruin, Hanne M.; Rees, Sue
    Kaṭṭaikkūttu performances can be seen as examples of complex interweaving at different levels, including the use of multiple media, the ways in which the persona of an actor ‘interweaves’ or coincides with that of the character he embodies (to the extent that the division between self and acted other and between real and play at times becomes thin, and the way in which the substance of the location impacts on the medium of performance. Overnight performances are literally grounded in the soil of the village (ūr) or colony, a physical and emotional condition that contributes not only to defining locality, community and personhood within a Tamil cultural context but also to flowing over and interweaving with the substance of performance in that particular location and space. When Kaṭṭaikkūttu is taken out of its rural, overnight context and transplanted onto an urban (proscenium) stage for audiences unfamiliar with the theatre’s actual and dramatic language, this results in a certain degree of distancing of performers, medium and spectators and, consequently, diminishes the spectators’ ownership of the performance. The specific constellation of Karnatic Kaṭṭaikkūttu’s performance spaces, in particular those with racked seating, reduced the proximity of performers and spectators and the possibility for their interaction.