Rathna Shekar Reddy

Rathna Shekar Reddy is an Indian actor. He is the co-founder of the prominent Hyderabad-based theatre group Samahaara, along with writer-director Anjali Parvati Koda. He starred in Telugu films such as the National Award-winning Telugu film, Naa Bangaaru Talli (Ente in Malayalam).

Career

Reddy is a Hyderabadi theatre and Telugu film actor and an alumnus of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Gregor Samsa and others, and his work in movies like Ishq (Telugu) and Ente (Malayalam). His body of work includes The Imaginary Invalid, Fiddler on the Roof, Purushotham, Wait Until Dark, and The Last Wish Baby.

Reddy conducts theatre workshops, produces and directs plays for both Samahaara and outside institutions like schools, colleges, corporations and others. His movies include Mana Kuralle, in which he plays a negative lead, Antha Scene Ledu, lead in the award-winning Naa Bangaaru Thalli, Yuddham Sharanam and others. His TV show Wow Emi Ruchi, for which he was the host for more than a 100 episodes, gained him tremendous popularity on the small screen.

Samahaara

Rathna Shekar began with touring their maiden production The Crest of the Peacock, an educational play on mathematics across the twin cities to schools and colleges, staging more than 50 shows. Their plays, Purushotham-He, the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers have gotten critical acclaim. They have worked on many productions since including another original play, Dominic Wesley, written by Koda, directed by UK-based Stu Denison, Unlucky (based on Samuel Beckett's plays) also directed by Denison, Rabindranath Tagore's Post Office, Woody Allen's God, Athol Fugard's The Island and many workshop productions.

The group Samahaara under the guidance of Rathna Shekar Reddy is credited with making theatre popular and involving the young crowd in Hyderabad. Their most significant contribution to the Theatre of India, apart from their original productions, has been organizing four editions of The Hyderabad Theatre Festival, namely The Hyderabad Theatre Festival 2009, The Hyderabad Theatre and Short-Film Festival 2010. the Samahaara Hyderabad Theatre and Rock Music Festival 2011, and the Hyderabad Theatre Festival 2012. The festival has been instrumental in bringing together the various amateur and professional theatre groups in Hyderabad and improving the quality and scale of the plays. The platform of HTF as it is abbreviated has been a great boost for theatre groups in Hyderabad.

Another project, the Samahaara Theatre Cooperative, involves selecting a group of actors, providing them with training, and offering opportunities to perform on stage over the course of a year. Other theatre groups in the city have recognized the contribution of Samahaara and Rathna Shekar by crediting a surge in audience interest to him and to Samahaara's annual Hyderabad Theatre Festival. Also the continued efforts in educating and training people in theatre has seen a dramatic rise in interest from the audience.

Theatre workshops

After returning from New York, Shekar started to freelance by conducting workshops, directing plays and figuring out ways to build a career in theatre, as Hyderabad did not have an established scene. Stu Denison from the UK and David Zinder from Israel. The workshops help promote theatre awareness and increase professional approach and scope in the city. His workshops offer a mix of outdoor theatre activities, reading, analysis, discussion and performances. He has recently completed one hundred workshops, while Samahaara has hosted double that.

Theatre

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (English) (Actor-Director) Court Martial by Swadesh Deepak (Hindi) (Actor-Director) The Bear by Anton Chekhov (English) (Actor-Director) The Proposal by Anton Chekhov (English) (Actor-Director) Hamlet by William Shakespeare (English) (Actor-Director) Dominic Wesley by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Actor-Director) The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (English) (Actor) Purushotham by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Actor-Director) The Crest of the Peacock by Sarada Devi (English) (Actor) Maranoparanth by Surendra Varma (Hindi) (Actor) Urubhangam by Bhasa (Telugu) (Actor) Pranam Khareedu by A.S.Rao (Telugu) (Actor-Director) Bhagavat Ajjukiyam by Bhavabhuthi (Telugu) (Actor) Nagamandala by Girish Karnad (Telugu) (Actor) Prajanayakudu Prakasham by Prof. M.N.Sharma (Telugu) (Actor) Amballa Banda by Bhoopal Reddy (Telugu) (Actor) Dongatakam by Vishwanatha Kaviraju (Telugu) (Actor) Taj Mahal Ka Tender by Ajay Shukla (Hindi) (Director) Karna by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Director) Beauty and the Beast (Musical) by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (English) (Director) A Distant Plateau by Paul Skye (English) (Director) 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose (English) (Director) Jungle Book (Musical) by Rudyard Kipling (English) (Director) Gregor Samsa by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Director) The Good Doctor by Neil Simon (English) (Director) The Wizard of Oz (Musical) by L Frank Baum (English) (Director) Sound of Music (Musical) by Earnest Lehman (English) (Director) Farewell by Team Samahaara (Multilingual) (Director) Princess and the frog by The Brothers Grimm (English) (Director) Charlie’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas (English) (Director) The Last wish Baby Adapted by Anjali Parvati Koda and Team Samahaara (Multilingual) (Director) Beyond the land of Hattamala by Badal Sarkar (English) (Director) Wait until dark by Frederick Knott (English) (Director) Fiddler on the roof (Musical) by Joseph Stein (English) (Director) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (English) (Director) Imaginary Invalid by Molière (English) (Director) Isosceles Triangle by C H Phansalkar (Director)

Filmography

Television Rathna Shekar Reddy hosted a TV Show Wow Emi Ruchi for more than 100 shows.