Nautanki - The Musical Theatre of North India

Drawing on more than 4 decades of experience working in Nautanki as a writer, director, singer, and actor, Sharma''s book is the first major study to analyse Nautanki not only through its literary bases, but also through live performances, considering it both in a historical vein and as contemporary theatre on the ground. What entertained India''s masses and elites before the arrival of cinema in India? When did "modern" theatre begin in India? In this book, renowned theatre scholar and fifth-generation Nautanki artist, Devendra Sharma, examines the theatrical form of Nautanki - its history, organisational structure, narratives, poetics, musical structures, artists, and performance spaces - which flourished in North India in the 19th and the 20th centuries, and is still popular in the 21st century. In a concise format, Sharma explores how this socially and politically relevant theatre full of beautiful music, swashbuckling heroes, magic, romance, and contemporary themes, once charmed audiences throughout India''s countryside towns. This book unravels a critical shift in the history of Indian theatre, the move from unbounded performance spaces to proscenium stages in big cities, and how this changed the meaning of theatre in India. It examines how forces of globalization and modernization have profoundly changed India''s theatrical landscape, arguably side-lining one of its most robust theatre forms of the 19th and 20th centuries. Nautanki is essential reading for anybody interested in Indian theatre, world theatre, musical theatre, opera, and Bollywood.>

Product details

• Authors: Devendra Sharma
• Assisted by: Simon Shepherd (Editor of the series), Shepherd Simon (Editor of the series)
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.02.2025
• EAN: 9781350296725
• ISBN: 978-1-350-29672-5
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 128 mm x 206 mm x 18 mm
• Series: Forms of Drama
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Musicals, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Broadway & Musicals, MUSIC / Ethnomusicology, India, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Theatre Studies, 21st century, c 2000 to c 2100, World Music, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Asian History, Music of film and stage, HISTORY / Asia / South / General