ABSTRACT
The radical changes in the Rabindranath’s dramaturgical and the theatrical structures were made possible on two counts: first, his shift to Santiniketan with the emergence of the asram-school there; second, his ability to combine in himself the roles of the playwright and the practitioner. Satyendranath Dutta’s review of the Calcutta production of Phalguni (1916) underscores how various layers/age groups of the Santiniketan community had been used for the cast of this production: The five and six year old children sang, danced and chattered with the blissful ease of the birds. The success of the programme set Rabindranath thinking about a celebration of the advent of the autumn. He began composing songs for the proposed event, but soon a dramatic structure weaved itself around the songs, and Sarodotsav emerged. For the 1908 Sarodotsav performance, he first cast Kshitimohan Sen as Thakurdada.
