Awaken and play

At a time theatre spaces are having a tough time surviving, Jagriti hopes to keep alive the love of theatre in the city.

The stark white building with a glowing red logo is the city’s newest theatre space. Called Jagriti, which means awakening in Sanskrit, the theatre which opened in January this year is the culmination of a 30-year-old dream for Arundhati and Jagdish Raja, the leading lights of the English theatre circuit in the city who founded the Artistes’ Repository Theatre (ART) in 1982.

Jagriti is a 200-seat, fully-equipped auditorium with a restaurant and an open-air garden café. It offers a full-thrust stage, and is equipped with all the conveniences that a modern performance could require.

Quite like Prithvi, which Sanjana Kapoor has grown into a vibrant cultural destination in Mumbai. Like Prithvi Cafe, Jagriti too has an on-premise eatery called the Fat Chef’s Restaurant where you could come in after a long day at the office and grab a bite before a performance began. You could even stay for a light meal after the show, and discuss the performance over wine.

Again like Prithvi, there is a book shop, called the Book Nook, where one can read the scripts of the plays one watches or buy the catalogues of Samuel French, the London-based company that publishes plays and licences performing rights. One can even order scripts, browse the original scripts of the performances in the auditorium, and learn about every aspect of theatre.

ART is the exclusive representative in India of Samuel French in India. “We charge royalties that are in keeping with ticket prices in India. This ensures that performing companies pay royalties and acknowledge the playwright,” adds Jagdish Raja. The royalties are specially scaled down for India, and are quite affordable, he says.

While Jagriti is for the performing arts, it will also serve as a conference venue, says Raja. Besides theatre, there will also be music and dance performances by artists of local, national or global repute. With Jagriti Studio, an in-house space for training, workshops and induction programmes in theatre for children, youth and adults, there will also be exclusive previews and viewings for companies, and publicity and community awareness through sponsorship and support. With the Fat Chef’s Restaurant, there will also be supper-theatre package on offer. “Jagriti is run with experience and heart,” say the Rajas.

Art, of course, will be the resident performing company of Jagriti.

According to Arundhati Raja, “The theatre is in keeping with the spirit of the Natya shastra. Jagriti is intended as a home for all the performing arts.”

Arundhati Raja, who is the artistic director of Jagriti, is also a teacher with over 30 years’ experience in teaching subjects as varied as science, language, arts and drama. She also conducts training workshops in drama and communication for companies and schools. As an actor, she made her debut on the Bangalore stage in 1977 with Table Manners and has since played a variety of roles.

In its over 29 years of existence, ART has put up over 75 productions, making it the city’s most prolific theatre company.

The project of building of Jagriti, however, started only some seven years ago. The Rajas, who had lived in London until 1973, bought a farmhouse occupying around three acres of land, with a borewell in an area called Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore. They could never have imagined, of course, that it would become what it is today — one of the more upmarket suburbs of the city. It is, indeed, a long drive for people in the northern and western parts of the city, but there is a thriving community of people who live and work in the neighbourhood. “Distance is only relative,” asserts Jagdish Raja.

Of course, it was only because he didn’t have to pay for the land that he could afford to build Jagriti. Even so the total cost of the building and equipment came to around Rs 3 crore, says Raja.