Sudipto Chatterjee (Bengali: সুদীপ্ত চট্টোপাধ্যায়; born: 26 July 1964) is an Indian performance scholar actor, playwright and poet. His solo performance Man of the Heart, capturing the life and the times of Lalon Fakir, has been widely appreciated and revered.
Born in Kolkata to Sisir Chatterjee (a litterateur and Professor of English, Jadavpur University) and Tripti Chatterjee (a teacher, South Point School, Kolkata), Sudipto is the youngest of three siblings. Sudipto was mentored right from his childhood by the works of his neighbour the famous playwright, actor and founder-member of the Kolkata-based Bengali theatre group Nandikar, Ajitesh Bandhopadhyay. Sudipto wrote, adapted plays from his teenage and was awarded by the Government of West Bengal for his adaptation of the play "The Crucible" in 1984. After finishing school (Don Bosco School, Park Circus), Sudipto joined the prestigious St. Xavier's College, Kolkata to study English. It is during his time in St Xaviers, that Sudipto got involved in serious theatre with another stalwart of Bengali theatre, Ramaprasad Banik. Sudipto, acted in Banik's productions during this era. During this time he was also involved in several television productions (as actor and screenwriter) and plays (in Bengali).
Sudipto, then pursued further study on dramatics at National Theater Institute, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Waterford CT, USA, and completed his PhD with distinction from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York City. During his stay in the USA, Sudipto wrote and organised various plays, working with Epic Actors Workshop. In New York, Chatterjee worked under the guidance of Richard Schechner, both academically and practically.
He started his teaching career at the Department of Drama and Dance at Tufts University (1999–2003) and then the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at University of California, Berkeley (2003–2007), before moving to the UK. He was a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Department of English and Drama, Loughborough University(2007-2013). During this period he was also a visiting faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, as a Senior Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies and Arts and Aesthetics (2010). In 2011-12, Chatterjee was a Research Fellow at the International Research Center »Interweaving Performance Cultures«, Freie Universität Berlin. He is currently Professor in Cultural Studies at the prestigious the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, where he specializes in Performance Studies.
Sudipto also made a few short films and documentaries, notable among which is "Free To Sing? The Music of Suman Chatterjee" a feature-length video documentary on music of Kabir Suman.
His first anthology of Bengali poetry, "Asamparka" (অসম্পর্ক) was published by Bhashabandhan at the Kolkata Book Fair in January 2014.
He is currently the President and Artistic Director at Spectactors, Kolkata.
Rajar Mrityu (Bengali: রাজার মৃত্যু)/[Performer and director, being staged in India by Spectactors.]
Khodāi (Bengali: খোদাই)/Chisel [full-length on the life of Camille Claudel, two versions in Bengali & English], work-in-progress
Othello's Occupation [full-length in English & Bengali], work-in-progress
Man of the Heart [full-length solo-performance play], 2005–2012
Proteeti (Bengali: প্রতীতি)/Telos [full-length in Bengali], 2004
Desire Under the Elms/Bāsanā Bŗkhs'amūle (Bengali: বাসনা বৃক্ষমূলে)[Eugene O'Neill], 2002
Rāt Juré (Bengali: রাত জুড়ে), Parabaas (Bengali: পরবাস) (webzine), Vol. 1, No. 2-5, 1997–1998
Ags'uddhi (Bengali: আগ্শুদ্ধি)[adaptation of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"], S.A.S., Calcutta, Summer, 1988
Typist [adaptation of Murray Schisgal's "The Typist"], Kolkata Du Hajar, Calcutta, April 1987
Nā-Maraṇ (Bengali: না-মরণ)/Un-Death [full-length folk play in Bengali], 1986
Mukhomukhi (Bengali: মুখোমুখি) ["Face To Face", a play for the radio], Anamoy (Bengali: অনাময়), Calcutta, September 1986
The Colonial Staged: Theatre in Colonial Calcutta, Seagull (London and Calcutta), 2007.
Rajar Mrityu (Bengali: রাজার মৃত্যু)[Translated the play Death of Yazdgerd, by Iranian playwright Bahram Beyzai in Bengali,
Bisarjan, first full-length English translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali play of the same name, commissioned by the South Asian Theatre Festival for the 150th anniversary of Tagore, New Jersey, Seagull Publishers (London, New York & Calcutta), forthcoming 2013
Indian Popular Theatres, London, Routledge (London and New York), forthcoming 2013
Annotated English translation Shudraka’s ancient Sanskrit play The Little Clay Cart in The Norton Anthology of Drama (Eds J. Ellen Gainor, S. Garner, and M. Puchner), WW Norton (New York), 2009
Rights of Man, English translation of Utpal Dutt’s Bengali play Manushher Adhikaré, with Neilesh Bose. Seagull Publishers (London, New York, Calcutta), 2009
“Christopher Columbus O Spain-er Rani Isabella-r Sangam Parinati, January 1492” [“Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship, January 1492” by Salman Rushdie], in Alam Khorshed & Sajjad Chowdhury (eds.), Dwadas Kahini [12 Tales] (Cetana Prakasani: Dhaka, 1995)
“Smrti: Bisad Nirjhar” [“La Memoria: Esa Fuente del Dolor” by José Camilo Cela], with Aniruddha Das and Alam Khorshed, in Alam Khorshed & Sajjad Chowdhury (eds.),Dwadas Kahini – [12 Tales] (Cetana Prakasani: Dhaka, 1995)
“Poems of Joy Goswami", Voice of Bangladesh, March 1993
"Adāb" [ Samaresh Basu ], SAMAR, Fall 1995
"Suman Chatterjee's Songs", SAMAR, Winter, 1994
Asamparka (অসম্পর্ক), Bhashabandhan, 2014
Aniket Barnamala, Anustup (forthcoming)
Poems published in Bengali periodicals: Anuśtup, Jijnāsā, Yuktāksar, Desh, and Bāromās (Calcutta), Chintā (Dhaka), Paricay and Prabāsi (New York), Parabaas (Bengali: পরবাস) (webzine), Parśi (Bengali: পড়শি) (Northern California), 1984–present
In P. Lal ed., The Xaverian Treasury, 125th year Commemorative volume of writings from St.Xavier's College, Calcutta, 1985
Films, documentaries and music
Lead actor in the Bengali feature film "Tope", directed by acclaimed award-winning filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta.
For Len Dixon (with Proshot Kalami), on Leonard Dixon a pioneering theatre educator from South Africa, 2007
Telling Tall Tales: Epic Women, a video documentary on Pandvani, a solo-performance tradition in Chhattisgarh, India, 2005
The Jewel in the Man/Manush Ratan, an album of songs by Lalon Phokir (nineteenth century 14 Baul and Sufi poet from the Bengali oral tradition) performed and recorded by self, Indiescope, 2005
Ni Chicha Ni Limona (Not Chili, Nor Lemon)/Lebu na Lanka, an album of modern Bengali songs with lyrics and voice by self (music dir: Samrat Chakrabarti), unpublished, 2004
Music Direction for Basana Brkhsamule, a Bengali version of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, Calcutta (India), June–July 2001
Free To Sing? The Music of Suman Chatterjee, a feature-length video documentary, 1997
Made in India in New York, 1996
(Dia)Sporadic, 6 min. short, 1994
Several television programmes and plays (in Bengali) in Calcutta (1975–89)
Interweaving Performance Cultures, Fellowship at the International Research Center,Freie Universität, Berlin, September 2011 – August 2012.
Global Theatre Histories Project, International Partner/Member, Ludwig Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 2010–15.
Loughborough University, Reward for Artistic Achievement (December 2007).
Ford Foundation Visiting Fellowship in Manipur, India (December 2005).
Presidential Chairs Fellowship (University of California, Berkeley) for teaching (2004–05).
Committee on Research Grant (University of California, Berkeley) for continuing book project, Indian Popular Theatres (2004).
Outstanding Achievement Award for directing Nuraldeen's Lifetime, Drama Circle, New York (1999).
Michael Kirby Memorial Award for Distinguished Dissertation, The Colonial Stage (d):Hybridity, Woman, and the Nation in Nineteenth Century Bengali Theatre, Tisch School of the Arts,New York University (1998).
Best Director, British Council, Calcutta (1988).
Best Director, New Directions Festival, University of Calcutta (1988).
Best Production for Bengali adaptation of The Crucible, State Government of West Bengal,India (1984)
