Knocking at the gate

It's the kind of frenzy for tickets the latest Bollywood flick usually witnesses. But a crowd almost breaking down the Kamani Auditorium's gate in New Delhi, while jostling for tickets to watch a play, was an unusual sight.

And even though the play (Visarjan) was by the well-known Habib Tanvir, theatre enthusiasts were more than happy about what happened. For once, the roles seemed reversed "" the audience chasing theatre rather than theatre pining for an audience.

The National School of Drama's annual theatre festival, the 8th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, staged between January 2 and 14, saw all tickets sold out for more than 60 plays in the first two days itself. "It's a very good sign," says former NSD director Kirti Jain, adding "not good at times when you don't get to watch many plays."

Most directors enthusiastically tell you, "All tickets for my play are sold out." Some plays are even being staged twice; the additional performance squeezed between the already-scheduled five plays a day staged at NSD's three auditoriums along with Kamani and the Shri Ram Centre.

"Till some years ago, we performed for an almost-empty hall but today the halls are full," says a busy Nadira Zaheer Babbar, directing the rehearsals of her play Operation Cloudbursts, which had an additional performance scheduled.

The success of NSD's theatre festival is being attributed to a host of factors. Firstly, the selection of the plays: "The genre of plays staged was diverse and vast," says Abhilash Pillai, lecturer at NSD and director of the play, Aadhi Raat Ke Bachchey. The plays featured at the festival were carefully chosen. "A play chosen by a committee was again scrutinised by another committee before being passed," says Pillai.

Also, this time, a quarter of the productions were from abroad, giving the festival an international flavor, adding to its attraction "" China's Peking Opera, a visual treat, inaugurated the festival along with participation from Japan, South Korea, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

"Unlike earlier times when any international production could perform, this time even the international plays were screened (by pre-viewing their video tapes) before being allowed to participate," says Pillai. NSD even footed the bill of deserving international productions if they were unable to fund their trip.

The Indian presence was also divided into three sections "" established directors, emerging directors and productions from drama institutions that got the much-needed exposure of a national platform. The result was "jolting and interesting productions staged at the festival", says Pillai.

The seemingly chaotic lawns at NSD with present and former students co-ordinating with actors, directors, critics, stage directors and the media for sound bites in-between cups of tea and coffee, for the first time is being helped by a PR agency.

And Pillai is now vouching for a PR agency: "Our chairman Amal Allana made it a point to have a PR agency for maximum information dissemination that started a month before the fest began," and suggests that, "NSD should have a permanent PR department."

While the NSD campus and venues might speak of pandemonium before each show, international productions gave a thumbs up to the organisation for efficient stage set-ups and technical assistance. Says Payam Foroutan, stage director for the play Grimace from Iran, "Our play had a technically heavy decor but people at NSD made it in 2-3 hours."

Adds director Kiomars Moradi, "It's perfect organisation at the festival, better than our experience at Paris." Similarly Satoshi Miyagi, whose Japanese Othello received critical acclaim says, "A difficult set-up of the stage with little time for preparation was handled efficiently." That's feedback organisers of the NSD festival would love to hear.

The renewed interest in theatre audiences was evident. "Theatre suffered because of new mediums like television, but now people are fed up of bad television and the focus has shifted to theatre", according to Pakistani play Nawab Sahib Qibla's director Usman Peerzada.

"There is radicalism in the capsuling of the plays coming from different political-social backgrounds," says M K Raina of the play Bahadur Maa. "What is being offered is exciting theatre, better theatre and people want to see it," says Richard Schechner, dean of performance studies, New York University, who presided over a seminar on 'Theatre in turmoil' for theatre directors at the festival.

Waman Kendre, noted Marathi director of the play Zulwa feels that "getting audiences depends on how you project your play that should have a surprise and newness to it. That's how theatre becomes popular."

Whereas the NSD festival intrigued a lot of youngsters, the best part vouched by Indian and international productions, in Peerzada's words, is the "massive potential of cross-cultural influence". Also an encouraging audience: "I thought that Indian audiences would like active plays and Othello was a quiet play, but the audience here concentrated and liked it," says Miyagi.

"And language is not a deterrent," experienced Moradi, who strongly advocates that the future of theatre lies in Eastern countries, experimenting and fusing traditional and contemporary theatre. For Moradi, such festivals "will bring in a new genre of theatre".

"The cross-cultural exchange of theatre helps to build relationships between the people of different countries, especially for the new generation," feels Peerzada. And Miyagi predicts there will be "conflicts of some kind if countries don't have cultural exchanges like these and just limit themselves to financial interactions".

A play from Lebanon sans actors with just a projector created quite a flutter of interest among the theatre fraternity, leading to a debate on the increasing use of new technology in theatre. "Good, if used intelligently to enhance the play," said Raina to a counter view by Peerzada that "it kills the magic and simplicity of theatre". "If theatre is about life, then technology will come into theatre", is Pillai's opinion.

With the theatre fraternity brimming with optimism about theatre in India, Kendre strikes a realistic note: "We have failed to market Indian theatre beyond its borders, in spite of having a rich tradition, accompanied by experimental theatre." The opinion is seconded by Schechner who says "modern Indian theatre is not as well known as it should be".

A satellite NSD Theatre Utsav 06 in Bangalore is being contemplated for increasing outreach with simultaneous NSD satellite festivals in Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.

NSD's chairman Amal Allana won accolades from everyone for the success of the fest, while networking, expansion and optimism ruled the festival and the theatre fraternity. And as for those who managed tickets as well, they were even luckier.