Well known academic, intellectual and veteran street drama guru Gamini Hattotuwegama passed away on Thursday night, at the National Hospital in Colombo. He was 71.

Hattotuwegama founded the Wayside and Street Theatre Movement in 1974.

He joined the English Department of the University of Kelaniya in 1965 and helped to set up a Department of Fine Arts in 1974. The theatre training workshops Hattotuwegama conducted in this connection have laid the foundation for his pioneering contributions to the establishment of the concept of non-formal education in Sri Lanka.