Natyasala: a prototype for study purposes
The "Natyasala Prototype" shown here is a scale model presented at the 1986 symposium "Presentation of the Performing Arts" at the Max Mueller Bhavan (Goethe-Institute) Madras in conjunction with the Sangeet Natak Akademi New Delhi.
The question to be probed into was: “How to present the performing arts in a congenial yet affordable manner?” And among the primary objectives was to investigate how traditional craftsmen can be involved (again) in the designing and realisation of a theatre for our times. This would enable town and city dwellers to enjoy craftsmanship in their neighbourhood and, at the same time, offer a cost-effective solution for rural artistes to develop performing spaces that serve their specific needs, no matter where they are.
Initiator, concept and initial prototype layout: Ludwig Pesch
Scale model design and presentation drawings: Shahriar Dehghan
Photographs by Ludwig Pesch
There is nothing wrong in doing away with the dichotomy between physical and metaphysical at the level of aesthetic experience ...
To be a sahrdaya* is to become surcharged with an overpowering longing for ideal beauty.
Vidya Niwas Misra in East West Poetics, pp. 52-53 Sahitya Akademi. New Delhi 1994
(* sahrdaya lit. "a person of taste")
