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Pritham Chakravarthy: Performing Aravanis’ Life Stories

Pritham Chakravarthy: Performing Aravanis’ Life Stories <i>Aravanis</i> (transsexuals or transgenders) experience a moment called <i>nirvanam</i> (transcendence), when they are surgically transformed from woman-in-a-man’s-body to woman. Pritham Chakravarthy, an assistant professor of dramaturgy and film history at the Ramanaidu Film Institute in Hyderabad, presents the life of an <i>aravani</i>, culminating in this moment, in her 2001 one-woman play <i>Nirvanam</i> (Trancendence). This article is an exploration of that play and its performance and reception both within the <i>aravani</i> community itself and for broader audiences. It is based on extensive interviews with Chakravarthy herself as well as film <i>Our Family</i>, and my personal experiences as an audience member at some of Chakravarthy’s applied theatre performances. She developed <i>Nirvanam</i> at the request of the <i>aravani</i> community, and many of them have been actively involved through interviews and critiques of performances. Through her sharing of life stories in performance, Chakravarthy emphasizes women’s agency, choice, and power in an Indian context to inspire hope and recognition instead of despair, she is able to transform narratives that may be both traumatic and quotidian into stories to which caste-privileged, educated, middle-class intellectuals can relate. Her work grapples with the politics of representation and issues of the body as she attempts to expand both her own and her audiences’ points of understanding and experience as well as to benefit in some way the communities she is representing. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Theatre Journal University of Hawai'I Press

Pritham Chakravarthy: Performing Aravanis’ Life Stories

Rudisill, Kristen
Asian Theatre Journal , Volume 32 (2) – Sep 14, 2015
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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 The University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-2109

Abstract

<i>Aravanis</i> (transsexuals or transgenders) experience a moment called <i>nirvanam</i> (transcendence), when they are surgically transformed from woman-in-a-man’s-body to woman. Pritham Chakravarthy, an assistant professor of dramaturgy and film history at the Ramanaidu Film Institute in Hyderabad, presents the life of an <i>aravani</i>, culminating in this moment, in her 2001 one-woman play <i>Nirvanam</i> (Trancendence). This article is an exploration of that play and its performance and reception both within the <i>aravani</i> community itself and for broader audiences. It is based on extensive interviews with Chakravarthy herself as well as film <i>Our Family</i>, and my personal experiences as an audience member at some of Chakravarthy’s applied theatre performances. She developed <i>Nirvanam</i> at the request of the <i>aravani</i> community, and many of them have been actively involved through interviews and critiques of performances. Through her sharing of life stories in performance, Chakravarthy emphasizes women’s agency, choice, and power in an Indian context to inspire hope and recognition instead of despair, she is able to transform narratives that may be both traumatic and quotidian into stories to which caste-privileged, educated, middle-class intellectuals can relate. Her work grapples with the politics of representation and issues of the body as she attempts to expand both her own and her audiences’ points of understanding and experience as well as to benefit in some way the communities she is representing.

Journal

Asian Theatre Journal – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Sep 14, 2015

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