The 65th birth anniversary celebration of late iconic playwright and thespian Selim Al Deen will begin today at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy with a show of the playwright’s noted play Hargaj.
Theatre troupe Swapnadal will stage the play as the beginning of its five-day celebration, which will take place at
Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka and in Mymensingh.Besides Swapnadal’s five-day celebration programme, other theatre troupes and cultural organisations have also chalked out different programmes to celebrate Deen’s birth anniversary.
Selim Al Deen Foundation, in association with Dhaka Theatre, will observe the day with a two-day colourful programme, featuring theatre production, seminar and speeches at the theatre halls of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on August 17 and 18.
Chittagong-based threatre troupes Natyadhara and Pantomime Movement will also celebrate the playwright’s birth anniversary on August 17 and 18 at Chittagong Shilpakala Academy. The two-day programme consists of seminars, workshop and documentary screening.
Theatre activists of the country will also place wreaths of flower on the playwright’s grave at Jahangirnagar University on August 18.
Selim Al-Deen, dubbed as natyacharya (great master of theatre) was born in Feni on August 18, 1949. Deen obtained a Master degree from the Bangla department at Dhaka University. He joined Jahangirnagar University in 1974 as a faculty in Bangla department, and, later on, became the founding chairman of Drama and Dramatics department of the university.
Deen exhibited an inclination towards playwriting from his university days. He wrote his first drama in 1968 while he was still a university-student. His first radio play was Biporit Tomosay (On the other side of Darkness) which was broadcast in 1969. His first play for the theatre was Shorpo Bishoyok Golpo (Story about Snakes) which was staged in 1972.
In 1973, Selim Al Deen, along with others, founded Dhaka Theatre, one of the leading theatre troupes of the country since then. Deen is also credited to found the Village Theatre movement.
However, his major contribution to theatre of the country lies in his ambitious and quite well-informed stance in regard to the history of Bangla theatre. Deen argued that theatre in this region is older than that of Europe, and that Bangla theatre has a distinct style of its own, which he termed as ‘kathya-natya’.
His plays like Kittonkhola, Bashon, Atotai, Saifulmulk Badiuzzaman, Keramat Mangal, Haat Hodai, Chaka, Joiboti Koinnar Mon, Hargaj, Muntaserer Fantasy, Nimojjan and others have enriched the oeuvre of Bangladeshi theatre immensely.
Selim Al Deen died in Dhaka on January 14, 2008.
-With New Age input
