Our own ‘artistic’ sub culture alive
Three lovely young ladies turned up at my door step the other day to talk about the “sub culture of theatre” for a college project. The term caught me quite unaware. Yes what we do is “cultural”, but thinking of oneself as part of a culture required quite a mind shift.
As we began chatting, some on camera and some off, I slowly realised how much of a sub culture the theatre is. More of a fraternity rather than an industry.
Any two people who are “from the theatre” automatically share a powerful bond, even though they might never have met before. I can vouch for this through spontaneous conversations that have occurred in coffee shops in different parts of the country. Even in corporate offices, if there is someone who has acted in a play, immediately a rapport is developed, and the syntax changes from MBA jargon of KVs and SWOT to “upstage and downstage”.
And like any ‘culture’ it has evolved in response to the world around it. Now a livelihood in the theatre is almost possible. Not as lucrative as other fields, but using skills from the theatre it is possible to pay rent and put food on the table (at least for one meal a day).
The college project interview, was repeatedly interrupted by the pounding drums that accompany each Ganpati Visarjan. What an overtly “festive” city we have transformed into. Be it religious or cultural, it seems that everyone is trying to show their “festive-ness”.
Perhaps that is why so many art-based festivals have also sprung up recently; and what is most exciting is that performing arts make up a large part of the programming.
Even though Prithvi is not hosting their annual festival due to venue renovations, there are still 11 arts festivals in Bombay between September and February.
There are the usual suspects — the Nehru Centre Festival in September that features work of established directors, Thespo 13 in December for the newbies, the community specific Celebrate Bandra Festival and the ever popular Kala Ghoda Festival. Then there are the newer initiatives like NCPA Centrestage for premiering productions, Literature Live that promises powerful “literature” themed productions, the 10-day International Clown Fest, Writer’s Bloc 3 that premiere’s new texts, and the IIT Theatre Festival Weekend. Then the brand new festivals Short & Sweet for 10 minute plays, and the ambitious Mumbai International Arts Festival in January.
Your throw in other festivals in India that Bombay groups are part of like the 5-city Hindu Metroplus Fest, RangaShankara Festival in Bengaluru, National School of Drama’s Bharat Mahotsav and Delhi’s META Awards, and suddenly it is almost 6 month carnival of performances. Exciting for the performers and an all-you-can-eat buffet for the audience.
So, just as the visarjan drums herald the departure of Ganpati in one culture; they herald the arrival of the festive season in another.
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