Theater actor Jalabala Vaidya. , Photo Credit: PTI
Noted theater actress and co-founder of the capital’s prestigious Akshara Theater Jalabala Vaidya passed away in New Delhi on April 9, her daughter and theater director Anasuya Vaidya Shetty said. She was 86 years old.
Born in London to Indian writer and freedom fighter Suresh Vaidya and English classical singer Madge Frankies, Jalabala Vaidya started out as a journalist, writing for various national newspapers and magazines in Delhi.
She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Tagore Award, the Delhi Natya Sangh Award, the Andhra Pradesh Natya Akademi Award, honorary citizenship of the city of Baltimore, USA, and the Delhi government’s senior honor in February for her lifetime contribution to the performing arts. ,
Jalabala Vaidya was married to noted journalist and columnist, C.P.
His theatrical career began in 1968 full circle, a theatrical selection of poems and stories, which became an instant success on its first European performance tour. critical acclaim for full circle Sharman was invited to write and direct a play. Ramayana For the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s World Theater Season. Sharman wrote the play for a cast of 25 actors, but it became internationally famous as a one-woman performance, with Jalbala Vaidya playing all the characters in a traditional ‘katha’-based style.
Sharman’s RamayanaA contemporary interpretation of the epic as a play in English is still the only Indian production that has played on Broadway where the new York Times It was called ‘India’s Gift to Broadway’.
Jalabala Vaidya’s performance Ramayana – Broadway, West End, United Nations Headquarters, National Arts Centers in various countries as well as over 35 cities and towns in India, received rave reviews from leading Indian and International newspapers.
He co-founded the Akshara National Classical Theater in New Delhi with Sharman. It is an exquisite arts complex and a much-loved venue for theater performances designed and built by Sharman, where he played the lead in over 20 plays, including Full Circle, LarFlarFlarF, The Ramayana, Let’s Laugh Again, The Bhagavad Gita, The Kabuliwala, Gitanjali, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, etc.
Also a director, Jalbala Vaidya conducted various plays at the Akshara Theater as well as its highly successful dramatic book-reading series.
In recent times, he presented another version of Ramayanawhere he continued to perform the opening and closing acts of the play, supported by a troupe of young actors from the Akshara repertory.
Jalabala Vaidya produced, performed and narrated most of the television films of Akshara Theatre, such as India Alive, The Kashmir Story, The Sufi Wayetc. He has also written five books: Ho, this is full, that is full, life is but a dream And akshara acting method,
She is survived by three grandchildren, singer-actress Nysa Shetty, actor Dhruv Shetty and writer Yashna Shetty.