Auroville Theatre Group

Auroville Theatre Group

Auroville Theatre Group

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The Auroville Theatre Group is dedicated to presenting the most renowned classic and contemporary scripts while showcasing the unifying human experience on stage and behind the curtain.

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PROJECTS

Have a look at some pieces we've performed starting from our most recent.

COMPANY

The Auroville Theatre Group has been performing in Auroville for about 10 years now. Many actors have come and gone: several have started their stage careers with ATG. The theatre scene in Auroville being pretty fluid, actors work with more than one company, move around from show to show. One thing has remained constant: Jill Navarre, ATG artistic director ever since the first performance of Waiting for Godot, followed by Legend of the Kaliveli Siddha, The Greedy Man, Nishta, or The Strange Disappearance of Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Sacrifice, Milarepa, The Tempest (to name a few).


The scripts are chosen for their beauty of language and depth of expression. We always ask the question: What does this story mean to us, here and now? So, the plays that we choose should have some relevance to the Auroville experience, its multicultural, international aspect (actors and designers coming from different parts of the world), and should be connected in some way to what Auroville is all about: an expression of the search for human unity, its triumphs as well as its failures, man’s aspiration for progress, the evolution of consciousness, unity in diversity, our connection with the Divine. What does it mean to work with the Auroville Theatre Group? What is the credo of the group? Here’s one idea:


“Theatre is about transformation. It is about finding yourself and touching the deepest part in order to offer it up to the Divine – to the audience. And how do we open our hearts to allow this transformation to take place? We use the strongest power that we know: the power of love. It’s not a mysterious process. And yet, it contains the essential mysterious questions of life: How can love transform? What is this power? Every day, we come and start again. And every day, there is some progress, understanding, some laughter, and even some tears; because you cannot change without pain, and frustration and denial and resistance. Then, the love has to be there, even stronger than the strongest resistance because it leads to a discovery of one’s psychic being – to a feeling of connectedness, of light and great, great joy. And we are here for that – not only here in Auroville, but, all of us are here, here on Earth – to make it happen, to allow the spirit to work in the world and … we can do it. We must do it together.”

DIRECTOR

Our Clients

JILL D. NAVARRE was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and grew up in New York. Writing poetry for 10 years, Jill has had numerous poems published in the U.S. and Canada. In 1977, Jill began working in theater at the Coconut Grove Playhouse (selling tickets for Ain’t Misbehavin’) and went on to study playwriting and directing in New York (Gene Frankel’s writers/directors workshop). She has won awards for directing Rivers of Blood, (best director, 1989 Source Theatre Festival, Washington, D.C.) and playwriting, The Cradle will Fall (1990, Washington DC Council of the Arts Larry Neal Award, first prize).


One of the founding members of the Sanctuary Theatre, (Washington, D.C.), she worked as Box Office Manager, and PR Director. Jill produced the New Play series, helping many young playwrights to present new work. Jill is co-author of The Sannyasi a screenplay adapted from the novel by Satprem By the Body of the Earth or the Sannyasin.

Our Clients

Since 1990, Jill has lived in the International township of Auroville, South India, where she is Artistic Director of the Auroville Theatre Group and has directed more than 30 plays, including “The Rainmaker” by N.Richard Nash, “Sacrifice” by Rabindranath Tagore and “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare. Jill has led theatre/acting workshops in India and Thailand. She has written a rock musical called “Peter Pan: Lost and Found” which was performed by the Moradokmai Theatre Troupe in Thailand, during the Summer of 2012. In December, 2012, Jill directed “Ibsen” an opera-in-progress written by American playwright and actor, Ronald Rand.


In the Summer of 2002, Jill worked as Acting Coach on the Portland, Oregon, USA production of “Exile from the Sun” a short film written and directed by Michael Poitevin. For the last 20 years, ATG has performed more than 30 plays in Auroville, Pondicherry and Bangalore. The latest production was “King Lear”, by William Shakespeare, performed at Adi Shakti Theatre.

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Contact

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Cell: +91 94 86 41 61 73


Office: +91 0413 262 2840


Jill.Navarre@gmail.com