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Shayoni Mitra

BIOGRAPHY:

Shayoni Mitra received her PhD and M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University. She also holds M.A. and B.A. degrees in English Literature from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. Her dissertation “Contesting Capital: A History of Postcolonial Political Performance in Delhi” looks at the intersection of theatre and politics over the last fifty years both on the stage and on the street of the Indian Capital. Her scholarly essays and reviews appear in TDR, CSSAAME and are forthcoming in Asian Theatre Journal. In addition she writes on Indian theatre in several magazines including Frontline and Nukkad Janam Samwad. Mitra was also an actor with the street theatre group Jana Natya Manch for several years, performing in over two hundred shows all over the country.

INTERESTS:

My dissertation, “Contesting Capital: A History of Political Theatre in Delhi" explores the political performances of the post-Independence era both on stage and on the streets of India’s capital city. I analyze the theatrical works of mass movements, street theatre groups, women’s organizations and individual practitioners. My primary concern is with the efficacy of political performance. Taking cue from Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of political fields, I argue that dramatic practices are embedded in the dynamics of state and popular power and locate my analysis at nexus of theatre and organized politics. Also, following Antonio Gramsci, I focus on political performance as a means of challenging dominant hegemony and look at theatre as cultural tool of the subalterns. My analysis of how political performers subvert the very notion of ‘mainstage’ and ‘national culture’ and take theatre to the margins questions the category of the ‘political.’ What it means to be political at different times is seen through how theatre has responded to Delhi’s shifting configurations of electoral power.

“Contesting Capital” not only extends the study of modern Indian theatre beyond the well-made play to include street theatre and other forms of protest performance, but also goes beyond text and playwright to analyze the stagecraft of the director and bodily practices of the actor with a dense and heterogeneous field of power. I come to this topic as a scholar and actor, having performed with Jana Natya Manch from 2000-2003 in all their proscenium and street plays of that period. In the years since I have been returning to Delhi each year to further my research and continue my collaborations with the theatre community there in identifying persons, groups and eras with significant contributions to the corpus of political performance which have yet to be documented and analyzed in the extant theatre history.

This experience also informs my teaching, which encourages transnational and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of theatre and to performance more broadly. My pedagogy stresses primary research, peer learning, integration of research and artistic practice, transnational perspectives, and community engagement. I am interested in teaching courses and collaborating on projects in Performance Studies, Indian theatre, The Avant Garde and the Theatre of New York, Asian Performance Practices, Feminist and Postcolonial performance.

DEGREES:

PhD Department of Performance Studies, New York University, 2009.

M.A Department of Performance Studies, New York University, 2004.

M.A. English, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, 2003.

B.A. English, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, 2001.

AWARDS:

MacCracken Graduate Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University, 2004-2008.

Paulette Godard Summer Fellowship, Department of Performance Studies, New York University, 2006.

GSAS Summer Travel Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University, 2006.

Tuition Waiver for Masters program, Department. of Performance Studies, New York University, 2003-2004.

Sanwa Bank Scholarship, St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, September 2000.