SHILPA – THE INDIAN SINGER APP

SHILPA – THE INDIAN SINGER APP
2013

Shilpa - The Indian Singer App (Teaser)

Winner of the Secondo Festival Switzerland 2014
Winner of the ZKB Patronage Prize at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel 2014

SHILPA – THE INDIAN SINGER APP is the European edition of C SHARP C BLUNT, a performance about the paradoxical professional lives of Indian female performers in the Indian entertainment industry. In this production, MD Pallavi and Sophia Stepf focus on the latest European edition of Shilpa, a ‘singer app’ for smartphones. Shilpa is user-friendly and charming. Shilpa is the first singer app in a theatre. She operates live and interactively.

Please enter one line of text.
Please hum a melody.
Please choose sexyness, on a scale of 1-10.

A music theatre performance, a living app, a search for amusing feminism, and a satirical commentary on the economy of the entertainment industry.

Language: English, with variations of German subtitles

Idea and concept  Sophia Stepf & MD Pallavi
Performer MD Pallavi
Director Sophia Stepf
Text collabotators Swar Thounaojam, Rituparna Bhattacharya, Irawati Karnik
Live sound Nikhil Nagaraj (Andi Otto)
Collaboration Lisa Stepf
AD Marie Winnie Wilka
Production Management ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro

A Flinntheater Production. Supported by Kulturamt der Stadt Kassel, Hessisches Ministerium für Kunst und Wissenschaft, Gerhard-Fieseler-Stiftung, Fonds Darstellende Künste, WELL Being Stiftung, Sparda Bank Hessen, Goethe-Institut "Max Mueller Bhavan" Bangalore

Opening: 6.9.13 Sophiensaele Berlin

Performances: 7. bis 8.9.13 Sophiensaele Berlin, 12. bis 15.9.13 Kulturhaus Dock 4 Kassel, 15.3.14 Secondo Festival/ Theater Tuchlaube Aarau, 22.-24.8.2014 Zürcher Theater Spektakel / 28.,29.4. und 1.5.2015 Theater Tuchlaube Aarau / 7. & 8.11. / LICHTHOF Theater Hamburg (India Week) 13.11. / Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt (Made in Hessen. 100%) 14.11. / Pavillion Hannover

 

Funkaus Europa - Mitschnitt SHILPA 060913 MMaio by Flinn Works

Press

‘What an actress, what a singer! What a humourous, witty, politically-charged and gloriously interpreted One-Woman-Show.’
(Tagesanzeiger, 24 August 2014)

'MD Pallavi’s stamina in this virtuosic one-woman-show captures an audience with rare ease. The
audience is challenged to reconsider their role as a passive consumer of the disturbing power relationships represented in the media and everyday life. The young director Sophia Stepf makes a layered and complex performance, with an intelligent and economical use of the theatrical apparatus. With Flinntheater she works with sensitivity towards context, in terms of how the work is made and how it is presented. «Shilpa- The Indian Singer App» has a dynamic rhythm, has a vibrant energy and becomes a poignant theatrical statement.'
(Jury Statement of the ZKB Patronage Prize at Zürcher Theater Spektakel, August 2014)

‘Pallavi is both an outstanding singer and a brilliant actress with a huge range of expressions in her armory, she takes us through the characters with playful ease. Sophia Stepf directs this razor sharp, sad, hilarious and very intelligent performance. She weaves metaphors and symbols of seemingly disparate worlds and ideas to create an inner logic for the play describing how pop culture and religion define the lives of women in a globalized world. The play retains a unique sense of humor which makes it a must watch for German audiences.’
(Deutsche Welle, 2 October 2013)