Actress Momena Choudhury is travelling to UK with her theatre troupe Shunyan to take part in the mini-season of plays on conflict, a theatre festival which is being organised by Chickenshed Theatre. There the troupe will stage their play Lal Jomin on October 3, the play features Momena Choudhury in a single act performance. The group flies for UK today. Recently Momena Choudhury spoke with daily sun regarding the upcoming tour and more. “I have been involved with theatre for a long time now however this is the first time that I am going abroad for theatre performance, so I am both happy and exited and I am looking forward to the upcoming trip,” said actress Momena Choudhury.
“The play revolves on our Liberation War so I will be representing our country at a theatre festival abroad which is a great feeling indeed,” the actress added.
Speaking about her journey to the cultural arena Momena Choudhury said, “I have been involved with cultural activities from a very young age. Since my early childhood days I have been attracted towards singing. I became involved with the cultural arena in 1983 through Bogra Youth Choir, an organisation which used to address social issues with songs. The songs were often accompanied with performance. I used to take part in the performances regularly. In 1987 I joined Bogra theatre,” said Momena Choudhury.
“My debut in theatre happened with the play Bashon. From 1988- 1989 I worked in the theatre troupe Oboshisto Monchayan Parishad. While in the troupe I worked in the play Protyashito Prolaap, in my second performance in a theatre production. The troupe was based on Gazipur,” said Momena Choudhury. “In the mean time Masum Aziz, Golam Sarwar and Mannan Hira went to Gazipur to conduct a workshop. I met them there. They encouraged me to come to Dhaka and do theatre. So I came to Dhaka and joined Aranyak in 1990,” While in Aranyak Momena Choudhury has worked in a large number of plays and productions when asked to name a few of them the actress said, “I have worked in Iblish, Khela Khela, Naamtar Pala, Pathor, Joy Joyonti, Shonkrnati, Moyur Shinghashon, Ebong Bidyasagar and so on. I have also worked with Bangla Theatre, in their production Lebedev.”“In all the plays I have acted with co-actors but Lal Jomin provided me with something new. The play is a one act play and solo acting requires lot more effort and focus,” said Momena Choudhury. “Lal Jomin is a story of a girl who went to liberation war at barely fourteen years of age. She was captured and tortured by the Pakistani’s for nine long months. After independence she returned to her village. Time went by at its own pace. The girl now at her old age starts to wonder about the liberation war and the dreams which inspired the people to take part in the war looking at the contemporary situation around her,” said Sudip Chakroborthy, the director of the play.
Julfikar Chanchal is in charge of the music of Lal Jomin,“The music used in the production are mainly our folk music. However I have also incorporated sounds to reflect nature, sudden events and so on,” Sudip Chakroborty, Julfikar Chanchal and Momena Choudhury will be flying to UK to-day as part of three member team to take part in a theatre festival called mini-season of plays by Chickenshed Theatre. Lal Jomin is written by Mannan Hira. The tour is sponsored by Biman Bangladesh Airlines and supported by British Council.
-With Daily Sun input
