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Cal State Northridge’s Newest Fulbright Fellow to Direct Plays in Sri Lanka

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., May 24, 2007) — The student who walked into Cal State Northridge theatre professor Heinrich Falk’s office in the mid-1990s was a lawyer looking for a new life in theatre.

Falk, at that time the director of graduate studies for CSUN’s Theatre Department, helped Namel Weeramuni enter its master’s degree program. Several years later, degree in hand, Weeramuni went on to realize his dream: to build and run a theater in his native Sri Lanka.

Now, as Falk prepares to realize a dream of his own, his former student and friend Weeramuni will have a role to play. CSUN’s newest recipient of a Fulbright Scholar grant, Falk soon will be directing a play and conducting a workshop in the theater Weeramuni built.

As a Fulbright Fellow, the professor emeritus will depart in October 2007 for Colombo, in southwest Sri Lanka, to lecture on American drama for the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, contribute to the postgraduate program of the Department of Languages and Cultural Studies, and direct a play for its English literary festival.

His work with Weeramuni’s Punchi Theatre (Little Theatre), a welcome addition to his scholarly activities in Colombo, will represent a kind of homecoming for Falk. In 2004, he directed Colombian playwright Enrique Buenaventura’s "In the Right Hand of God the Father" as the inaugural production for the newly built theater. Falk and Weeramuni adapted the work to the Sri Lankan culture, employing a range of actors, from professionals to young people who had never been on a stage.

The return to the flourishing Sri Lankan theatre world will enable Falk to enrich the offerings of CSUN’s Theatre Department, where as an adjunct professor he serves as the international theatre programs coordinator, among other duties.

"Sri Lanka has a theatrical and artistic style that we have not yet incorporated in any significant way into our theatre program here at CSUN," he said. "Our department over the years has had a considerable interest in promoting international programs, so I see this as one more activity in a much longer, ongoing process. It will have a beneficial impact on our CSUN students."

Three languages are spoken in Sri Lanka—Sinhala and Tamil, the two official languages, and English. Though Falk speaks neither of the official languages, most of his colleagues and actors are bilingual. Besides, he said, his 2004 experience taught him that theatre people always find a way to communicate.

The production he will direct at the university will be in English, "undoubtedly an American play, as part of the Sri Lankan students’ experience of American drama." For the Punchi Theatre production, he said, "what I’ll attempt to do is blend not only the Western and Sri Lankan styles, but also to incorporate some element of each language into it.

"For me, it will be a learning experience in which I hope to become sensitive and responsive to a different academic culture and a different way of working," he continued. "Hopefully, some of the ways in which I work will be conveyed to them. That’s what the Fulbright program is all about: genuine cultural exchange."

The Fulbright program was introduced to Congress in 1945 by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. Approved by Congress and signed into law by President Truman in 1946, the program awards grants to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since the program’s inception, more than 250,000 participants have been chosen for their leadership potential.

The Fulbright program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The primary source of funding for the program is through an annual appropriation made by the United States Congress to the Department of State.