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Shilpee Theatre Group is a professional theatre organization established in 2006. Explore our website to know more about us.   


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Welcome to The Shilpee Theatre

Upcoming: Global Film Screening Event of “AIDA RETURNS”

MARCH 18, 2024 (Chaitra 5, 2080) at 5.00 to 6.30 PM | Free ENTRY | Shilpee Theatre Group, Battisputali | 01-4569621

Watch the trailer at: https://vimeo.com/777005171 

About the Film:

  • Director: Carol Mansour
  • Producer and researcher: Muna Khalidi
  • Camera: Tanya Habjouka, Angelique Abboud, Carol Mansour
  • Editor: Carol Mansour
  • Sound design: Rana Eid
  • Color correction: Marwan Zayed
  • Language: Arabic and French (translation English and French)
  • Translation (English & French) and subtitling: Rima Jureidini
  • Film Screening Venue: Gothale Theatre at Shilpee Theatre Group, Battisputali, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Time: 5 PM
  • Contact for more information: 01-4569621 | 9749843632

This film is a poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer’s disease, but finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more. 

Close to four years after Aida’s passing away, the director’s friend and colleague Tanya who lives in Ramallah came to visit Beirut. When she heard about Aida’s wishes and yearning for Yafa, Tanya suggested that she herself carries the ashes back. The film accompanies director Carol Mansour as she engineers a way to return her mother to Yafa in search of eternal rest and peace for her. A return that is aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers all coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey. This journey is at the same time very private and personal, while resonating with hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families as well as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees awaiting their return home.

This film is a tribute to the lost past of the director’s family, an attempt to restore part of both an individual and a collective memory, and a poetic nod and affirmation to all those exiled Palestinians forbidden from returning to their hometowns, even after death. 

 


‘We must all do theatre, to find out who we are and to discover who we could become.’

-Augusto Boal (A Brazilian theater practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist).

Theatre, for us at Shilpee Theatre Group, is a culture.

  • A culture of connecting people through stories.
  • A culture of finding solutions together for a social problem.
  • A culture to create an environment where art and literature come in contact with everyday life.
  • A culture to openly express and bring forward the voice of the voiceless.
  • A culture to respect diversity, preserve our history and bind people of varied backgrounds through art.
  • A culture to encourage a passion for art, be a platform for learning and keep the theatre alive in the hearts of many.

Shilpee Theatre Group is a professional theatre organisation established since 2006 in Kathmandu as a national NGO. It aims to promote theatre as a culture integrated into our daily life. Theatre is a mirror of our society, our lifestyle and our stories. It is not only fun to be a part of theatre but its methods also enrich us as human beings. 

We welcome you to regular performances at our 210 seat capacity Gothale Theatre. Dabali Cafe and a theatre library will also await you. For those interested to learn acting, storytelling, and various theatre forms, are welcome to join regular training sessions conducted at our workshop space ‘Abhimanch’. And if you are just in the mood to talk art, literature, theatre or politics, our gates are always open. 


सामाजिक र राजनैतिक सुधारका लागि रङ्गमञ्चको सक्रिय भूमिका हुनु पर्दछ भन्ने शिल्पीको विश्वास रहेको छ । सामाजिक गतिशीलताको लागि रङ्गमञ्च मार्फत पहल गरिनु पर्छ भन्ने शिल्पीको मान्यता छ । रङ्गमञ्चका धेरैवटा शैलीहरूको प्रयोग गर्दै शिल्पीले सिमान्तकृत र पिछडिएका वर्गहरूको मुद्दामा नाटक मार्फत सामजमा आवाज उठाउने गर्दछ । समाजमै भईरहेका अन्यायहरूबाटै प्रभावित भई नाटकको कथा बुनेर नाटक बन्दछन् । यस्ता नाटकहरूले समाजमा ऐनाको रूपमा काम गर्छ जहाँ समाजका सदस्यहरूले समाजको कुन पक्षमा गल्ती भईरहेको छ भनेर सहज रूपमा बुझ्ने मौका पाउँछन् र त्यसलाई सुधारतर्फ लैजान पहल गर्दछन् ।

शिल्पीको लागि रङ्गमञ्च भनेको संस्कृति हो ।

  • संस्कृति जसले कथाहरू मार्फत एकअर्कालाई जोड्छ ।
  • संस्कृति जसले सामुहिक रूपमा सामाजिक समस्याहरूको समाधान भेट्टाउँछ ।
  • संस्कृति जहाँ कला र साहित्यलाई दैनिक जीवनमा जोड्न सकिने वातावरण तयार हुन्छ ।
  • संस्कृति जहाँ विविधताको सम्मान हुन्छ, हाम्रो ईतिहासको संरक्षण हुन्छ र भिन्न पृष्टभूमिका मानिसहरुलाई एकअर्कासँग जोड्छ ।
  • संस्कृति जहाँ कलाप्रतिको समर्पणले प्रोत्साहन पाउँछ, सिकाईको क्रम निरन्तर चल्दछ र रङ्गमञ्चलाई जिवन्त राख्दछ ।

शिल्पी कला समूह नाफा रहित संस्था हो । शिल्पीको यात्रा २००६ मा सुरूवात भयो र त्यसपछि सक्रिय रूपमा मानिसहरूलाई रङ्गमञ्चसँग जोड्ने काम गरिरहेको छ । शिल्पीले सहभागितामुलक रङ्गमञ्च (फोरम थियटर वा पिछडिएका वर्गहरूको रङ्गमञ्च) परियोजनाका क्रममा नेपाल अधिराज्यभरी नाटक यात्रा गर्दछ । शिल्पी थियटर नियमित मञ्चनको लागि २१० सिट क्षमता भएको गोठाले नाटकघरको साथमा तपाईहरूलाई स्वागत गर्दछ । डबली क्याफे र पुस्तकालय पनि परिसरमा उपलब्ध छ । अभिनय, कथावाचन र रङ्गमञ्चका थुप्रै प्रकारहरूको अध्ययन गर्न चाहनेहरूको लागि पनि यो एक उपयुक्त स्थान हो जहाँ समय समयमा नाट्य कार्यशालाहरु सञ्चालन भईरहन्छन् । कलाको, साहित्यको, रङ्गमञ्च या राजनीतिको बारेमा कुरा गर्न चाहनेहरूको लागि शिल्पीको ढोका सधैँ खुला छ ।