Dr. Md. Israfeel (Israfeel Shaheen)
Professor
Professor Dr. Israfeel Shaheen joined in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at University of Dhaka in 1997. He is a well-known theatre-director and theatre-educator in Bangladesh and in the international theatre community.
In 1991, He received his MA in ‘Drama Direction’ from the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, India. He then earned his PhD on ‘Performance Studies: the Street Theatre of Bangladesh and India’ from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India in 1999. He was the chairman of the department (Department of Theatre) from 2006 to 2009. He taught drama and theatre in several times at Rabindra Bharati University in India from 1991 to 1999. He has published more than 50 research articles in Bengali in various recognized journals in Bangladesh and India. His notable book is ‘The Street theatre of Bangladesh’ (Bangladesher Patha Natak). He has edited a full-length research book publication called ‘Performing Arts in Bangladesh’ (Bangladesh Asiatic Society 2007). He has also conducted theatre workshops in various countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan, South Korea, China, Russia, UAE, USA, UK, Egypt, Philippines, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, andRepublic of Czech. He serving as is the Founding Executive Director of the ‘Bangladesh Centre for Performance and Cultural Studies’ (BCPCS), an Executive Member of the Bangladesh ITI Centre, and a founding member of the UNESCO-International Theater Institute Global Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts at Shanghai in China, A representative member of APB (Asia Pacific Bureau), the founding chairman of the Bangladesh Theatre for Development Network.
Dr. Israfeel Shaheen has directed more than 40 plays in Bangladesh and international theatre community so far. His directed plays include Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice,A Doll's House,The Lady from the Sea, Three Sisters, The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot,The Round Heads and Pointed Heads, TheTaming of the Shrew, Mricchaakatik andUrubhangam etc. are notable. He is interested in creating pure truth in the reality of the stage by working closely with the actors through continuously training the body, voice, speech, mind, feeling, thought and imagination. His one of the unique qualities for theatre practice, by traveling in a particular community and staying as a group of the community, is to establish the closest connection to the entity. He is very much aware of creating new artistic languages and constantly inventing new rhetoric (method). His directed plays show the desire of the actor to have the strongest vibe of spiritual determination. Especially, His penetrating skill of the actor’s psycho-physical instincts from the unconscious level to the conscious level makes his dramatic moments interesting.
Recently, his directed plays Siddhanta, Sanjbelar Bilap, Panjore Chandraban, and Macbeth etc. have been staged at various festivals including Bharat Rang Mahotsav, Theatre Olympics organized by National School of Drama in Delhi, India, and Youth Theatre Festival of South Korea.
He has acted in several plays directed by renowned producers at home and abroad. His acting in The Tempest directed by Deborah Warner is remarkable among them. From 1982 to 1988, he worked actively in the Aranyak Natyadal. He is currently conducting cultural research and performance research at the Bangladesh Centre for Performance and Cultural Studies (BCPCS). He was awarded the 'Munir Chowdhury Padak’ from the important theatre troupe of Bangladesh named 'Theatre,' for his special contribution to the theatre of Bangladesh. At present, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, he is working on the theatrical and cultural practice-based research aimed at upholding the spiritual and moral excellence of the inmates of the prisons, and working as a supervisor for MPhil and PhD Program (Prison Theatre and Cultural Researcher) on this issue.
This renowned theatre educator (academician) and director of Bangladesh has been playing a role in judging aesthetics through his relentless efforts and theoretical and practical participation in the field of theatre at the national and international level.
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