THANK YOU :-) BAV SILVER JUBILEE COMITTEE thanks all the particpants, coordinators, sponsors and spectators for making the 18th July program a grand success.
Transfusion Program – BAV Silver Jubilee Celebrations
Report on the 18th July Program
The 18th July program, which was the next instalment of BAV’s Silver Jubilee celebrations was a great success. It met all the key objectives
Had wide community participation with more than 60 participants on the day
Strong involvement from the younger members of the community, with more than 30 younger community members participating
Built on the proud Bengali heritage to take it to a wider audience. The representatives of both the Multicultural Commission and The Honourable Consul Anita Nayyar both highlighted this point and their obvious enjoyment of the program
Enjoyed by over 350 people who filled the hall, while the back stage teemed with participants getting ready to play their roles
It started off with a speech by Dr. Ramen Bagchi, one of the oldest Bengalis in Melbourne tracing the history and setting the scene for moving forward.
Mr. Bijoykrishna Ambali and his troop then sang two rousing inaugural songs praising Mothers India and Bengal respectively.
This followed a visual retrospective of many of the BAV activities over the last 25 years put together by Pratish Bandyopadhyay. The audience was thoroughly entertained by the fond memories it brought back.
There was a short break, where the audience trooped outside to enjoy a colourful and vibrant exhibition of the proud Bengali heritage across all walks of life put up by Mithu Bhattacharya and her team.
The second half of the program started with rendering of a selection of Bengali songs from Tagore, Nazrul and of more recent vintage presented by Sudeshna Bhattacharya and her team of performers. The variety and professionalism of the singers were outstanding.
This was followed by a Journey in Poems, which covered the last 100 years of Bengali poems starting with Tagore’s spiritual lyricism, right down to practicality in 2009 Bengal. The musical support through guitar, violin and tabla added a new dimension.
Next came the astounding presentation – A migrant’s journey to Dreamland. The concept was developed by the trio of Seema Gupta, Sharmistha Bannerjee and Anindita Sengupta. With a wonderful script interweaving the Bengali migrant’s journey to the land of Oz, it mesmerised the audience with songs, dances, playacting and visuals. It weaved its backwards and forwards from the traditional to the modern. The energy, variety and colour was endless charged no doubt by the spirit and enthusiasm of the young at heart, young and very very young members of the community.
After that performance the audience needed a break to catch their breadth. They had a chance to explore the exhibition and mingle. On return, the play Bahannoborti was staged under the expert direction of Tarun Bhattacharya. The unfolding affairs of the 3 brothers had the audience captivated with laughter and silence telling the actors how well the play was received by the audience.
During the program, snacks were catered for. Sankalan the annual magazine was also published and picked up by the members. DVDs of past programs were sold in a stall outside.
The outstanding success of the program was made possible by the participants and you, the audience. Most importantly, it was our sponsors who made it possible for the program to be a free one.
The sponsors were
Event Photos:-
Now please mark your diaries for 25 – 27th and 29th for the Transfusion play in English based around a Bengali migrant’s experience in Australia. It is being written and directed professionally through a grant from Melbourne City Council. It will be staged at The Arthouse Theatre in NorthMelbourneTown Hall. 28th of November will be a variety program in the same vanue under the Transfusion banner. Both programs are ticketed.
++ ATTENTION SITE VISITORS ++
If you have taken some good photos of the event and want us to publish* them in the BAV Web album, please email the photo/s (in JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF format) to us at info@bavwebsite.org.au
SILVER JUBILEE CELEBRATION.......continues
26th October to 1st November, 2009 - NORTH MELBOURNE TOWN HALL
With the aid of a grant from the Melbourne City Council, we have engaged with a professional playright, director and producer to produce a play with movements which will “Transfuse” the history of BAV and our Bangali roots with those of the wider Australian community and the younger generation of Bangalis.
This will be staged as a professional production at the NorthMelbourneTown Hall.
The professionals we are working with have the track record of working successfully with communities like the East Timorise, Italian and Chinese in producing successful productions which have run in commercial venues. If successful, the production can be run commercially and gives the opportunity for our community members to take their skills to the next level.
We need community members young and old to be actively engaged in this program. Please let us know by emailing to silverjubilee@bavwebsite.org.auASAP.
*Please note, any photo sent by you is non-returnable and becomes a property of BAV. BAV reserves all right and the sole discretionary to publish or reject any photo sent by you
