Lucknow :

Renowned theatre personality and Padma Shri, Prof Raj Bisaria is all set to weave another feather in his cap with the Madhya Pradesh government honouring him with its prestigious ‘Kalidas Samman’ national award for 2015-16 for achievement in theatre. The ceremony will be held on November 10 in Ujjain, which is also the birthday of the 80 year old.

“I got a call from the ministry’s cultural department in the afternoon today and I am grateful to them for the honour. I will be the first person from Uttar Pradesh to receive the national award in the theatre category,” he said. “It is also the year that TAW-Theatre Arts Workshop that I established in 1966, has completed its 50th year of continuous run,” he shared.

The annual award constituted in 1980 awards personalities in the four fields of classical dance, classical music, theatre and plastic arts. Previously, the likes of Pandit

Ravi Shankar, Pandit Jasraj, MF Husain, Shambhu Mitra, Habib Tanvir, Ebrahim Alkazi among others have been its recipients.

With over 100 productions to his name, Bisaria started TAW with plays in English with the first play being Shakespeare’s Othello. Bisaria also founded the Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1975. Apart from theatre, TAW also introduced other allied performing arts for the very first time, including Irshad Panjatan’s Indian mine in 1967 and modern dance by an American dance company, Indian classical dance by Sonal Mansingh in 1970 and other forms including Hindi theatre, environmental theatre presentation, painting and miniature exhibits.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City News> Lucknow News / by Yusra Husain / November 07th, 2016