Austin Shakespeare is inviting actors, dancers, musicians and singers from the MENASA (Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian communities) plus Black, Latinx, Asian and Anglo participants to join us for a free actor’s workshop to explore the epic poem, The Mahābhārata.
The Mahābhārata is a series of stories of heroes and love, virtue and betrayal, honesty and integrity. The huge epic is a tapestry woven with mystery, war and moral challenges.
With this workshop, Austin Shakespeare is beginning the development of a work will culminate in public performances by an ensemble at a future date.
Sign up for this workshop via email with Shanée Woodbridge today at auditions@austinshakespeare.org
The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their successors.
The Mahabharata teaches the valuable lesson of duty. Despite the bad hand that they had been dealt, the Pandavas took it in their stride and waited for their time.
Synopsis:
The core story of the work is that of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapura, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan. The two collateral branches of the family that participate in the struggle are the Kaurava and the Pandava. Although the Kaurava is the senior branch of the family, Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava, is younger than Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava. Both Duryodhana and Yudhishthira claim to be first in line to inherit the throne.
The struggle culminates in the great battle of Kurukshetra, in which the Pandavas are ultimately victorious. The battle produces complex conflicts of kinship and friendship, instances of family loyalty and duty taking precedence over what is right, as well as the converse.
The Mahābhārata itself ends with the death of Krishna, and the subsequent end of his dynasty and ascent of the Pandava brothers to heaven. It also marks the beginning of the Hindu age of Kali Yuga, the fourth and final age of humankind, in which great values and noble ideas have crumbled, and people are heading towards the complete dissolution of right action, morality, and virtue.
This program produced in coordination with the Asian American Resource Center Artist Access Program. The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. For assistance please contact (512) 974-3916 or Relay Texas 7-1-1.