Books

TREMBLAY, Richard (2020). The Kathakali Explor­er – Per­form­ing His­to­ry. The Ker­ala Kala­man­dalam Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 234.

ISBN 978 – 81-942102 – 2‑1

Dis­trib­uted in Cana­da /USA by SILENTCULTURE on
Ama­zon™
Avail­able in store: Coop-UQAM, Mon­tre­al (Metro Berri UQAM)
eBook: Google Play™
  • THE KATHAKALI EXPLORER  — Per­form­ing History

The Kathakali Explor­er is about the work and lives of A. M. and L. Mer­warth, two eth­nol­o­gists who were tasked with con­duct­ing research in colo­nial India at the begin­ning of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. Com­mis­sioned at the time by the Muse­um of Eth­nol­o­gy in St. Peters­burg, their mis­sion was to cov­er as broad­ly as pos­si­ble the visu­al and per­form­ing arts, lan­guages, and lit­er­a­ture of the Dra­vid­i­an cul­tures. The eth­nol­o­gists also doc­u­ment­ed the dai­ly lives of the peo­ples of the Indi­an sub­con­ti­nent. In doing so, they wrote the first mono­graph on Kathakali dance (accord­ing to the anthro­pol­o­gist Kurath, the first ‘eth­no­chore­og­ra­phy’) fol­low­ing a night-long per­for­mance they attend­ed on Jan­u­ary 14, 1916, in Kot­tayam in the state of present-day Ker­ala. This mono­graph is trans­lat­ed, com­ment­ed on, and anno­tat­ed in our crit­i­cal work. It is accom­pa­nied by a bib­li­og­ra­phy and fol­lowed by an unpub­lished trans­la­tion of the two researchers’ trav­el­ogue, cov­er­ing their life and work among the peo­ple with whom they lived dur­ing the tire­less quest for knowl­edge that took them from the Dec­can plateaus to the Kash­mir val­ley.  (Keep on read­ing)

TREMBLAY, Richard (2024). The Sto­ry Mak­er Per­forms Live Tonight. Re-enact­ing the past. SILENTCULTURE per­for­mance, 75.

ISBN 978 – 1‑7382267 – 1‑9

Dis­trib­uted in Cana­da /USA by SILENTCULTURE
  • The Sto­ry Mak­er Per­forms Live Tonight — Reen­act­ing the past

The Sto­ry Mak­er Per­forms Live Tonight is a pre­sen­ta­tion guide deal­ing with the recon­struc­tion of a Kahakali (char­ac­ter dance) per­for­mance enti­tled Narakā­suravad­ham and pre­sent­ed in 1916 in Kot­tayam (Ker­ala). The doc­u­men­ta­tion draws from a mono­graph pre­pared by an eth­nol­o­gist, high­light­ing pho­tos from the peri­od and the draw­ings from which the recon­struc­tion can be worked out.

Trem­blay, Richard (2024). The Sto­ry Mak­er Per­forms Live Tonight. Re-enact­ing the past. Mon­tre­al, SILENTCULTURE per­for­mance Publ. 75 p.

  • Can a Kathakali (‘sto­ry-play’) hold a per­for­mance reading?
TREMBLAY, Richard (2023). ‘Can a Kathakali (“sto­ry-play”) hold a per­for­mance read­ing?’ Indi­an The­atre Jour­nal, 7:1, pp. 37 – 45,’ .

ISSN : 2059 – 0660
E‑ISSN : 2059 – 0679

Dis­tri­b­u­tion online: Indi­an The­atre Jour­nal, UK, Intel­lect™

Pub­lished by Indi­an The­atre Jour­nal, ‘Can a Kathakali (“sto­ry-play”) hold a per­for­mance read­ing?’ offers a crit­i­cal approach to the process of cre­at­ing a dance where ‘form’ pre­cedes ‘con­tent’. The arti­cle reviews the pre­sen­ta­tion of a pre­miere in Kathakali (char­ac­ter dance) with the unusu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion of an extract from the Natyashas­tra, a trea­tise on dance and the­ater belong­ing to the Indi­an sub­con­ti­nent. Nāṭyōt­pat­ti (‘the birth of the­ater’) is a cre­ation pre­sent­ed at the tra­di­tion­al house the­ater (Kūt­tam­palam) of the Kala­man­dalam Nation­al Insti­tute, in Ker­ala.

Trem­blay, Richard (2023), ‘Can a Kathakali (“sto­ry-play”) hold a per­for­mance read­ing?’, Indi­an The­atre Jour­nal, 7:1, pp. 37 – 45, https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​3​8​6​/​i​t​j​_​0​0​0​3​0_1 p.