Sustainable Artistry: Making Theater that Enriches, Protects and Amplifies the Community
Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion – or DEAI – a now familiar acronym thanks to the tireless work of organizers, thought-leaders and activists. Large corporations are holding company-wide workshops, public schools are negotiating with community politics to bring this infrastructure into schools, theaters are radicalizing the artistic process and committing to a more accessible environment […]
‘Jungle Book’ gets a 21st-century reboot in Palo Alto by EnActe Arts
By just about any measure, Rudyard Kipling is way out of sync with contemporary culture. Born in Bombay (now Mumbai) during the first decade of the British Raj, the English novelist and poet has come to embody the colonial enterprise, though his love of India wends through many of his best known tales. Can his […]
‘The Jungle Book’ gets a thoughtful update
At this point “The Jungle Book” is more associated with happy-go-lucky singing animals from the animated 1967 Disney film than the actual late 19th-century book of the same name that was the movie’s source. But Sunnyvale-based theater company EnActe Arts took “The Jungle Book” back to the page — and made some updates for modern […]
This Fall EnActe Arts is opening its most ambitious production to date – THE JUNGLE BOOK: RUDYARD REVISED
This Fall EnActe Arts is opening its most ambitious production to date – THE JUNGLE BOOK:RUDYARD REVISED When Indiaspora member Vinita Belani founded Enacte Arts in 2013 to bring Jean-Claude Carriere’s legendary re-telling of the Mahabharata to American audiences, she established a fundamental principle that has guided the theater company ever since: reimagine the canon […]
A Conservation Conversation with Dr. Krithi Karanth
It was a fresh morning in Bangalore and Dr. Karanth was glowing. Meanwhile, in my New York apartment, I grinned out from the shadows of a poorly lit Zoom window at 11pm. But let me tell you – after the conversation we had – it was hard to go to sleep! I was feeling inspired […]
The Jungle Book As You’ve Never Seen It!
“In the original version the tiger is the bad guy. In ours he is not,” – Director Vinita Sud Belani A blur of arms, hands and voices could be seen and heard in the basement living area of a Saratoga home. Rehearsals were in progress for EnActe Arts upcoming production of “The Jungle Book: Rudyard […]
Reimagining Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ in Post-Colonial Age of Black Lives Matter and MeToo Movements
California-based EnActe Arts reclaims the world’s best-loved jungle story in a theatrical production that is set of a national tour. “The Jungle Book” is arguably one of humanity’s best-loved tales. An irrepressibly adorable kid, a jungle full of the most fascinating animals, an evil tiger, and a bereft mother unexpectedly reunited with her lost child […]
Costumes of The Jungle
Oona Natesan: Costume Designer, Critical Thinker, and Creative Powerhouse by Mukta Phatak We’ve all seen it: the elaborate lion headpiece, the epic four-man dragon puppet, two actors inside of a horse costume, an adorable child in a too large hat with foam cat ears, even the occasional actual dog on stage (I’m looking at you, […]
The Creative Process: Writing with Collective Wisdom
Every year, the EnActe Conservatory chooses a text to study and adapt into a piece of theater that explodes out from the source material. In 2019, the students decided on The Jungle Book. The beloved classic was originally written by Rudyard Kipling (a white, British man) and later adapted into its most well-known contemporary form, […]
