Member Since – 01/2023

Parakrama Niriella – Founder of Janakaraliya Mobile Theatre (Theatre Of the People), An Alternate Aesthetic Social Intervention in Sri Lanka. He Studied Drama & Theatre from the Art Centre Theatre Academy of the Lionel Wendt Memorial Centre in Colombo from 1974. His career began as a Pioneer member of the first Street Drama group in Sri Lanka and later expanded his creative activities into the fields of Cinema and Television where he has number of productions which brought him fame and prestigious awards locally and internationally. Most of his themes were based on the development of humanity and has also discussed co-existence between man and nature, in his creations. Since 2003, his main responsibility and devotion has been taking of “Jana Karaliya” (Theatre of the people) Mobile Theatre and its Travelling multi-ethnic drama group throughout the country. To convey the social message of plurality and peace in society that is accepted as historically necessary in the context of the much polarized conflict, Niriella’s “Janakaraliya” was conceived and developed as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic group of young professional theatre artistes. It was also understood that this had to have mobility to reach the majority of the rural marginalized people and folk artists who had no access to social dialogue, exchange of experience and exposure to new thinking and approaches.