KARAGAM
A Tamil Traditional Musical Production
Festive Arts Theatre - Our Tampines Hub
1st & 2nd December 2018
ABOUT THE PLAY
Since AK Theatre’s first production, Singa which had the elements of Koothu, Rajesh Kannan our creative director, has carefully weaved in the traditional art forms in all productions, namely, Anandhakoothu, Villupattu, Parai Isai, Pavai Koothu and more.
The first in the series of Koothu festival, Karagam the ancient art form, is celebrated. In this Tamil traditional musical, one can see Karagam being born and blooming. The stories unveil in a relaxed village setup and the storyline, when carefully observed, will depict the failures - failures of successful people.
The making of Karagam involves 4 steps – crafting a pot from the metal, adding soil and clay to the pot, placing of wood in it and tying it together with string and flowers. The stories will lend elements to build the Karagam and eventually, the failures will be placed on the heads and celebrated. Karagam is thus born.
CAST MEMBERS
CREATIVE TEAM
DIRECTOR
Krishnna Kumarri
CHOREOGRAPHER
Shajir Khan
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Akshara Thiru
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Syahrudin Pasha Dasa
STAGE MANAGER
Vengadesh Vijayakumar
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Rajesh Kannan
MAKE UP
Shajir Khan
Krishnna Kumarri
CONCEPT & STORY
Anandha Kannan
SCRIPTWRITERS
Vivek Chendhurpandi
Rani Kanna
Kalah Rajesh Kannan
Anandha Kannan
Akshara Thiru
SOUND
Kalaa Connection
VOCALIST
Vikneshwaran Shanmuganathan
NADHASWARAM
Sudhakar Raji
ARTS MANAGER
Vivek Chendhurpandi
CREATIVE TEAM
Shajir Khan
Sangeetha Segar
Malar Ratnam
M Swrna Rubni
Logeshwari Durairaj
Krishnna Kumarri
PRODUCTION TEAM
Logeshwari Durairaj
Aiswarya
Lionell Heeran Raj
Antony Beno David
PUBLICITY TEAM
Lionell Heeran Raj
Antony Beno David
Abi Kannan
DAMARU SINGAPORE
Akshara Thiru
Sangeetha Segar
M Swrna Rubni
Nanthinii D/O Yegambaram
V Radhe
Ponmozhi D/O Sembian
Rathi D/O Ravi Chandran
Kumaran S/O Utravathy
N Kaneshvara
NJ Pravin
Muthu Vishva S/O Saravanan
Arinn Jaay Kannan
Navaneeshwaran S/O Loganathan
ADMINISTRATION
Srikala
Revathy
Sathiesh Kumar
CONSULTANT
Thenmozhi Rajendiran
Rajkumar
Guru Nathan
SPECIAL THANKS
Sunil, Liberty Fashion
Raju, Goodday Impex
R Chandaran, ACT 3 Theatrics
Kalimuthu, The Serangoon CC IAEC
Jeeva Raghunath
Japhire Gopi Kannan, JA Group of Companies
Captain Govindarajoo
FROM THE DIRECTOR
The mere mention of Karagam will bring to your mind a picture of intense focus, grace and balance. And we needed all of these as we started our work on this project a year ago. The one and only objective we had in mind was to ignite the divine beauty of this art and to reach to our people.
I extend my sincere thanks to Anandha Kannan for the story and concept, the discussion of which led to an immediate connect with this storyline. We wanted to craft an organic representation that mirrors the realistic traditional art form and have worked with dancers, musicians, singers and storytellers.
We performed our training sessions in India with Mrs Thenmozhi Rajendran and Mr Rajendran. Our thanks to Rajendran sir for helping us to assemble the Karagam. My love to all who have come together to realise the dream work!
FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER
Karagam dates back to at least 100 years of existence and we are thrilled to reconstruct this glorious art form for today’s generation. Every move of our Karagam was formulated for a classicalized version that is traditionally delivered to our audience.
It was a pleasure to work along with Krishnna Kumarri, Logeshwari and Akshara Thiru. When we first commenced the project, it was not easy to formulate the pace. And now looking back, we feel that the time spent over it is worth all the effort and the outcome.
We are extremely pleased to present our Karagam production not only to Singapore, but to the whole world. And now, our hope lingers that those interested will be taking it up with vigour and delight. Finally I dedicate this dance to my Guru Manimaran.
FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR
A lot of research has gone into the music, culture and on the artistes involved with Karagam for this project. The beauty of Parai Isai and Naiyandi is something that I hold dearly, which drove me to form the first Dravidar Melam in Singapore - a combination of Parai, Thavil, Urumi, Pambai and Thudumbu.
Staging these art forms has been an amazing experience, thanks to the dancers, singers and other musicians such as the Nadaswaram player, who were able to draw out the essence of the Tamil folk traditions and bring them to life.
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