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.: An Official Website of Ajoka Theatre & Ajoka Productions :: A Theatre For Social Change
Marketing for a Cause
Ajoka Theatre is looking for a Marketing specialist to prepare fund-raising and marketing strategy for Ajoka’s next 3-year plan, to work on full time, part time or commission basis. The candidate’s should have appropriate qualifications and experience of working in the NGO sector. Interested candidates should apply with detailed CV by 15 February, 2012 at the following address:
Ajoka Coordination Office 2nd Floor 65-Commercial area Cavalry ground, Lahore Cantt. Contact:042-36677047 or at: ajokatheatre@gmail.com
Amrika Chalo (Destination USA)
A Serious Comedy
Sometimes there are national or international issues which become so serious and
sensitive, that they have to be addressed through satire. “Amrika Chalo- Destination USA” is a satirical response to the love-hate relationship between Pakistan and US. We hate the US policies but many of us would love to visit US or even settle there. We have serious reservations about US policy towards Muslim world, the military interventions, domination, “do more” demands, drone attacks… the list is long and unending. For the visible and invisible policy-makers, it is a question of national interest and geopolitics but there are others including the so-called “Ghairat Brigade” for whom every thing which is wrong can be conveniently attributed to the US. On the other hand the American values of liberty, freedom and morality are too often contradicted by its high-ended imperialist policies. But “Amrika Chalo” is not a polemical play about international politics or US-Pak relations. It is a light-hearted self-critical view of our double standards and hypocrisies and is a lot of fun too.
The location of the play is the visa section of the US Embassy where a number of applicants for US visa have gathered for interviews. They include a businessman, a would-be illegal immigrant, a student, an artist, a mullah, a politician and aged parents of a Pakistani-American US resident. Their reasons for visiting the land of opportunity range from seeking refuge to selling samosas and as expected, they are put through a grilling process of interrogation and security checks. And then a group of unexpected and undesirable visitors arrive…
The play has been written and directed by Shahid Nadeem. M. Aslam has composed the music and Wahab Shah has done the choreography.
Recent Performances
- Ajoka new paly "Amrika Chalo" performence 22-24 December 2012 premier of "Amrika chalo " Alhamra , Lahore.
- 28 December 2011 "Amrika Chalo " PNCA Islamabad.
- 1st performence of "DARA" 13th nov 2011 , 8th National Theatre Festival 2011 , Amritsar Panjab Natshala ,Amritsar.
- 2nd performence of "DARA" 17th nov , Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad.
Recent Performances
• Ajoka performed ts famous play “Dara” on 31 October at the Alhamra Hall, Lahore.
• Ajoka’s new play “Mera Rang Day Basanti Chola” was performed at Alhamra Lahore on 14-15 September 2011 and at PNCA Islamabad on 8-9 October 2011.    
"HOTEL MOHENJODARO" on
19th April at 7:30 p.m
based on a short story by GHULAM ABBAS
adapted and directed by SHAHID NADEEM VENUE: HALL#2, ALHAMRA, THE MALL, LAHORE.       
Islamabad 17 August 2009
Eminent playwright and PTV’s Deputy Managing Director Shahid Nadeem has been awarded President’s Award for Pride of Performance for Literature (Playwright). Nadeem is Pakistan’s leading playwright who has contributed over 30 original plays in Urdu and Punjabi. His plays have been widely performed in Pakistan, India and other countries. His collections have been published in Pakistan and India and his plays have been included in MA Punjabi syllabus in India. Oxford University Press recently published a collection of English translations of his plays. While reviewing this collection, the Time Time Magazine said “ Nadeem’s theatre is passionately fired faith in Pakistan’s potential for change and in sanctity of life”. His plays have been trendsetters because of their innovative form and bold themes. He is also well-known as TV playwright and director. His telefilm “An Act of Terror” was nominated for British Film & Television Academy (BAFTA) awards this year. Shahid Nadeem is Executive Director of Pakistan’s leading theatre group Ajoka and his latest play on “Dara Shikoh” will be presented by Ajoka soon..  
NEWS LETTER-ISSUE 24
JULY 2009
MUSAFAT THEATRE FESTIVAL - 17MAY TO 24MAY (ALHAMRA the mall,Lahore,Pakistan)
MUSAFAT THEATRE FESTIVAL - 30MAY TO 4JUNE (KARACHI ARTS COUNCIL,KARACHI,Pakistan)
Burqavaganza in Lahore/ Islamabad
Ajoka Theatre performed its play “ Burqavaganza” in Lahore at Alhamra on 23rd August, 2008 and in Islamabad at National Art Gallery Auditorium on 25 August on the occasion of the book launching ceremony of Shahid Nadeem’s “ Selected Plays” . This play is also included in the book. Burqavagnza was very well received by the audience of Lahore and Islamabad.
Ajoka Triumphant Karachi Tour
Ajoka organized a mini-festival of Shahid Nadeem; plays on the occasion of the Karachi launch of his “Selected Plays”. The launch was preceded by a panel discussion on the “Theatre in the time of Jihad” organized by the Second Floor Book shop/ Piece Niche on 12th October. The book launch was organized by the Oxford University Press at the Karachi Arts Council. The panelists included Sheema Karmani, Ameena Syed, Madeeha Gauhar and Shahid Nadeem while Khalid Ahmed and his students read extracts for the English translations in the book. The ceremony was followed by a performance of Burqavaganza. Next day, Ajoka presented Bullah and the mini-festival concluded in the Hotel Mohenjodaro on 15-October. All shows were jam-packed and given prolonged standing ovations.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHES SHAHID NADEEM’S SELECTED PLAYS
Oxford University Press Pakistan has published Shahid Nadeem’s selected plays in a collection which is a landmark in Pakistani Theatre. This is the frist-ever collection of a Pakistani playwright’s plays translated into English , produced by a leading international publishing house. OUP introduced the book in following words:
“This selection of seven of Shahid Nadeem’s Plays published for the first time in English translations, fully displays the author’s dazzling range and ability. Each play is memorably distinct in both subject and treatment, but underlying the variety is a passionate concern with major social issues, especially oppression of women and the poor, and the distorting restrictions of corruption and hypocrisy. Although such subjects could hardly be more serious, Shahid Nadeem always keeps the audience’s interest and enjoyment. Hypocrites, he shows, can be undermined by laughter. Hence the storms of controversy which his plays have roused, whether Dukhini on the trafficking of women from Bangladesh to Pakistan, Bulha on orthodox rejection of the great seventeenth-century Sufi mystic poet Bulleh Shah, or most recently, the banned Burqavaganza.”
“COLD PLAYS”
A playwright captures his country’s pain
PLAYWRIGHT SHAHID NADEEM was a three-time political prisoner in Pakistan, and it shows. All seven works in his newly translated Selected Plays share extreme sensibilities, depicting a universe of overcrowded jail cells, slums and parched villages in which the blackest of deeds are committed. The most ambitious work, a historical drama chronicling the life of the 18th century Sufi poet Bulleh Shah (Spelled “Bulha” in the play) grapples, in the words of one character, with the “dark side of the human self” – exile, fatwas, persecution, genocide. There’s murder in The Third Knock, forced abortion in Acquittal, sex trafficking in Woman of Sorrow and extortion in Black Is My Robe. Even the most upbeat play, A Granny for All Seasons, about individual freedoms, is clouded by the dark legacy of partition. But strangely enough, the cumulative effect of reading these works is uplifting. Despite appearances, Nadeem is no pessimist. In fact, Selected Plays can be moralistic, even histrionic, with endless interludes of Punjabi folk songs and qawwali choruses. They are not horrors but shock dramas (one, Burqavaganza, was banned last year by Pakistan’s Minister of Culture).. Ultimately, Nadeem’s theatre is passionately fired by faith in Pakistan’s potential for change and in the sanctity of life. If only those who ram explosives into hotels and busy markets would feel the same way.
(Time Magazine 3rd Nov,2008)
Chaak Chakkar Premiered
Ajoka premiered a new production of “Chaak Chakkar”, an Urdu adaptation of BRECHT`s Caucasian Chalk Circle. The play was performed on 8th ~10th October at Alhamra, Lahore. The cast included Hania Cheema, Nirvaan Nadeem and Usman Zia while Ajoka chairperson Uzra Butt gave a special appearance.
PICS OF BOOK LAUNCH "SELECTED PLAYS" BY SHAHID NADEEM
  
Ajoka is a voluntary organisation based in Pakistan, working in the field of theatre and electronic media, providing high quality entertainment
with a social purpose.
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MOST RECENT
Amrika Chalo
Mera Rang De Basanti Chola
The dreams Can come true
Dara
Raja Rasalu
Chaak Chakkar
Hotel Mohenjodaro
Burqavaganza
Maon Ke Naam
Surkh Gulaaba'n Da
Mausum
Mausum
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