Get Set to Enter Story Land with Kathakar Storytellers Festival

NEW DELHI:
As the days turn shorter and chillier heralding the onset of winter, time is ripe to pull out the woollens and settle down with a cup of piping hot chai to listen to captivating stories, from lands far away and closer to home.
From Kamishibai, the paper theatre art once a phenomenon in Japan, to shadow puppeteering from Kerala and tales from China, Mongolia, Turkey and Iraq on the Spice Route, traditional oral storytelling is in focus for the 6th edition of the ‘Kathakar – International Storytellers Festival’, which brings together raconteurs from the UK, Japan and India for three days starting November 11.
This is also the fourth year that the festival is being hosted by The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA). The event from November 11- November 13 is being held in collaboration with NGO Nivesh.
Participating storytellers include Sarah Rundle, Katy Cawkwell and Giles Abbott from the UK and Spice Arthur 702 Kamishibai group from Japan.
Poet-actor Danish Husain from Mumbai brings with him Qissebazi while the Tholpavakoothu Sangam, a troupe from Kerala will narrate the traditional the Kamba Ramayana through shadow puppetry. Delhi-based contemporary storyteller Jaishree Sethi is set to bring alive the Jatak Katha and age-old folk tales from Rajasthan.
There is a session devoted to the life story of Deendayal Upadhyaya and a panel discussion on the ‘Contemporising Stories’.
Morning sessions are exclusively marked for school students and needs to be
pre-booked while those in the evening are open to the public. Entry is free and seating is strictly on a first-cum, first-served basis.
The festival travels next to Bengaluru on November 14 and to Mumbai on November 17.