Amanda Culp Research and Publications

Shakuntala or the Lost Ring

Advertisement for the Kalidasa Elphinstone Society’s production of Shakuntala in the Bombay Gazette, 1867. Photograph taken during field research.

Shakuntala, Act V

Performed at the annal Kalidasa Samaroh (Kalidasa Theater Festival) at the Kalidasa Akadmi in Ujjain. Photograph taken during field research (2015).

Publicity Image for Shakuntala

Performed on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, California (1914). This production was the second ever performance of the”mountain play,” an annual outdoor theatrical event on Mt Tam that continues to this day. Image courtesy of the Marin Free Library.

"Shakuntala"

One of the most recognizable artistic interpretations of Kalidasa’s drama, this painting by Raja Ravi Varma, (1870) depicts a moment at the end of Act 1, where Shakuntala feigns having a thorn in her foot so that she can steal one final glance at Dushyanta.

"Shakuntala"

Still from the Mountain Play on Mt. Tamalpais, (May 17, 1914). Image courtesy of the Marin Free Library.

"Shakuntala"

Directed by V. Raghavan for Samskrita Ranga (1961), perhaps an echo of Raja Ravi Varma’s famous painting.

"Shakuntala"

Directed by Vijaya Mehta, this production of Shakuntala was performed in Marathi (1979), German (1980) and Hindi (1985).

Research

My current book project is a performance history of the pre-modern Sanskrit drama the Abhijñānaśakuntala by Kalidasa. Often translated as The Recognition of Shakuntala, or simply Shakuntala for short, this powerful play of love lost and regained has been a staple of world literary canons since it was first translated into English in 1789. My project is the first sustained study of the play as work of theater, investigating how it has been imagined on stages in Europe and India since the mid-Eighteenth century. It considers productions by artists such as William Poel, Aurélien Lugné-Poe, Prithviraj Kapoor, and Rustom Bharucha, and draws on an archive of materials collected over eight months of field work in India, England, France, Germany, Poland, Denmark and the US. Operating at the intersection of theater historiography, performance theory, and South Asian studies, this project argues for performance history as a crucial methodology for charting the unexplored currents of intercultural exchange that have shaped global theatre practice since the mid-nineteenth century.

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

“Shakuntala’s Storytellers: Translation and Performance in the Age of World Literature (1789-1899).” Theatre Journal vol 20 no. 2, June 2018: 133-152.

“Prakrits in Performance: Theatricality and Multilingual Drama in Pre-Modern India.” Asian Theatre Journal, vol 38 no 2, September 2021: 561-575.

Essays in Edited Collections

“Imagining the Sanskrit Stage” in The Routledge Companion to Scenography, edited by Arnold Aronson, (New York: Routledge, 2018), 202-206.

“Love, Politics, and the Pre-Modern Theatre: Perspectives on Kalidasa’s Shakuntala” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Literature, edited by Ken Seigneurie, (West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2020).

“How Do We Remember Śakuntalā?: The Mahābhārata and Kālidāsa’s Drama on the Contemporary Indian Stage” in Many Mahābhāratas, edited by Nell Hawley and Sohini Pillai, (SUNY Press, 2021).

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Dr. Culp presenting at the 46th Annual Conference on South Asia in 2017.

Presentations

“Rustom Bharucha’s Black Shakuntala: Staging a Sanskrit Heroine in Heggodu.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education Annual Conference, 2022.

“(Re)Scripting History For the Record.” American Society for Theatre Research Annual Conference, 2021.

“Inside the Virtual Koothambalam,” Association for Asian Performance Annual Conference, 2021

“Performing Gender in Mahabharata Plays: The Case of Brihannala and Shikhandin,” Association for Asian Performance Annual Conference, 2020.

“Prakrits in Performance: Theatricality and Multilingual Drama in Pre-Modern India,” Association for Asian Performance, Emerging Scholars Panel. Annual Conference, 2020.

“Many Languages, Many Publics?: Unpacking Multilingual Performance in Pre-Modern India.” American Society for Theatre Research Annual Conference, 2019.

“It's Only a Play: Arousing Bewilderment in Sanskrit Drama.” American Society for Theatre Research Annual Conference, 2018.

“Rustom Bharucha’s Black Shakuntala.” American Society for Theatre Research Annual Conference, 2017.

“How Do You Solve a Problem like Shakuntala: considering alternative endings to Kalidasa’s drama on the contemporary Indian stage.” 46th Annual Conference on South Asia, 2017.

“Expanding the classical canon in American theatre.” The Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists ConFest, 2016.

“Shakuntala and Colonial Translation.” Panel on Theatre and Colonial Translation in India. 42nd Annual Conference on South Asia, 2013.

Talks and Lectures

“Feminist Performance and the Classical Arts of India.” Northeastern University. 2021.

“Kalidasa’s Shakuntala.” University of Florida, Gainesville. 2021.

“Black Shakuntala.” College of William and Mary. Williamsburg. 2020.

“A Tale of Two Heroines: Shakuntala in the Mahabharata and Kalidasa’s Drama.” UC Berkeley. 2019.

“Imagining the Sanskrit Stage in Shudraka’s The Little Clay Cart.” Yale University. New Haven, CT. 2018.

“Reading Performance Practice in the Sanskrit Dramatic Canon.” National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Mexico City. 2017.

“Introduction to Sanskrit Theatre.” Guest Lecture. Cornish College of the Arts. Seattle, WA. 2016.

“Polity and Performance in the Sanskrit Cosmopolis.” South Asia Graduate Students Forum. Columbia University. New York, NY. 2014.

“Sakharam Binderin Production.” Yale University (sponsored by the Moore Fund). 2013.

“The Little Clay Cartand Sanskrit Theatre.” The New School. New York, NY. 2012.