Notes
<i>Celebrating the Bard of Avon </i>
Paying tribute to the Bard of Avon is a task that itself calls for sublimity. For such an endeavour at once demands a cluster of skill, enthusiasm and an endless love on the part of those concerned. And when it comes to the matter of staging his famous plays on stage, it demands a variety of skills, varied enthusiasm and incessant efforts, to say the least. Shakespeare buffs are of course familiar with the subtle intricacies of the great minds in his tragedies and comedies. They know how difficult it is to dramatize them on the stage. Performers in his comedies, especially, face different kinds of challenges in as much as the subtleties in the great characters like Rosalind, Hermia, Helena, Bottom, Oberon and Puck are to be portrayed. Imagine the range involved in enacting the famous forest of Arden scene. Note how aptly the Hollywood icon Jack Lemmon puts it: "It's hard enough to write a good drama; it's much harder to write a good comedy. Which is what life is." He of course had that point in mind while working on them, the comedies of the Bard! The Department of English Language and Literature (DELL) of Premier University, Chittagong, organised a three-day Shakespeare Drama Festival marking the Bard's 447th birth anniversary that ended on 27 April this year at the university seminar hall. Three dramas were staged --- As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet in Love. The first two are Shakespeare's immortal creations while the last one was Prof Dr Mohit Ul Alam's maiden play. Eighth semester students performed in the first one on 25 April; fifth semester students performed in the second on 26 April, while sixth semester students performed in the last one on 27 April. Directing the performances were five young teachers: Roushan Jahan Chowdhury, Shahidul Alam Chowdhury, Syeda Roushan Ara Hasmin, Shantanu Das and Syeda Salma Akhtar. The coordinator of the event, Lecturer Shaibal Dev Roy, hosted the whole event. It was a display of sheer energy and enthusiasm on the part of the young actors, a manifestation of the truth that they have the potential to present literary traditions through a diverse presentation of skills. Their spirit was lively and kicking; their deliberations, dialogue delivery and movements were spontaneous. The stage setting and the multicolored costumes were a bewitching spectacle. Fortunately for us, Prof. Mohit Ul Alam, a Shakespeare pundit, flew from Dhaka to be with us and enjoyed watching his play Hamlet in Love enacted on stage. In his remarks before the audience, he dwelt on Shakespeare and his art before responding to queries from the audience. The skilled performance of the students and the department's holding of the festival overwhelmed him. He had proudly initiated this healthy trend, along with many others, in the department in 2003. The festival was a grand success. With echoes of the joyous celebrations ringing in the mind, we look forward to yet another dawn of literary beauty.
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