art exhibitions and dance performances, then it's theatre. The theatre
scene in the city might be in a nascent stage, but there is no denying
that Hyderabad theatre is making its presence felt. Theatre groups are
sprouting everywhere. The young have begun to take to the form more
seriously. Hit culture spots like Lamakaan on any given evening and
you'll see either a script being written, a play being rehearsed or
youngsters brainstorming. While it's always sunny in the theatre-land,
there is something missing in the scene. While ideas, characters,
stories and actors are aplenty, the technicalities, stage presence and
skill are lacking.
Cool quotient
"It has become fashionableto be a called a theatre person. Youngsters
are not working with professional theatre groups which can teach
ethics and discipline. Doing theatre is not a bed of roses or a social
get-together," says Vinay Varma of city-based theatre group,
Sutradhar. Ratna Shekhar Reddy, founder of Samahaara agrees, "Having
conducted numerous workshops and festivals, I have come across a
number of people who want to do it because it's 'cool' or 'in'. They
need to realise that 'coolness' will eventually pass, quality is what
really matters.
Theatre isn't just about having the moolah and picking out the best
venue.The stage is a subjective space and all you need is the actor
and his space. While some of the best plays have been staged using
minimal props and costumes, ironically some of the big theatre events
inthe city have failed to impress. A theatre group's performance at
Shilpa Kala Vedika recently met with bad response from the audience,
numbers reducedto a mere 40 by the end of the play. There were almost
50-60 people working on the play but couldn't get the basics right.
Talking about money, R.K. Sinha, founder of Dramanon says that theatre
is not much of quantity as it is of quality. "The experience gets lost
in gimmicks; you cannot substitute acting and direction with props and
venues." Having money, however he feels is not a bad thing, it's what
it is used for. "You can either reach a big audience or gettrained and
give the best performance you can," he adds. All hope is not lost,
Rehaan of Curtain Call Production talks about the failed production,
'Of musicand dreams', "We started with good intention, but it went
kaput. We have take a brief moment and we have asked for the first
700members to come and watch the play again for free. We are working
on where we went wrong. Weare trying to get kids out of movie theatre
to do something productive, but theatre is subject to vulnerabilities
like on-stage mishaps," says Rehaan.
Back to basics
Firdous Abdul Mujeeb, director at D for Dramatics says that big events
have been major flops. "Where is the craft? People I guess need to
work backwards. Calling yourself a professional doesn't work. Start
small, go back to the basics. The current crop of young theatre
enthusiasts are getting lost in the game of profit and loss," she
says. In the bid to market and be seen, expensive venues are being
booked and to makeup that cost, tickets are being sold at Rs. 1000 and
Rs. 500. All the while, the content of theatre doesn't match up to
neither — the price of the ticket or the ambience at the venue. Rahul
Premchander, a theatre actor experimented with theatrefour years back.
"I realised that theatre was helping me shape my individuality.People
get into theatre without realising that stage-craft is very important
too," he says.
Most theatre personalities agree that the best PR a play or a
production house can get is a happy audience. No amount of money,
marketing, event management can do that. Poor productions eventually
might damage the theatre fraternity, especially if they are
aggressively advertised and touted to be the 'best'.
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