Why are women directors keeping men out of a theatre festival being held in Delhi?
The stage is being set with great earnestness. Come January 3 and the curtain will go up on Poorva, an eight-day theatre festival of Asian women directors, followed by a four-day conference.
The festival will showcase 21 productions, of which 15 are from India and one each from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan. The promising fare on offer notwithstanding, the question remains: why only women directors?
The gender-specific nature of the festival and conference is especially surprising given the predominance of women in contemporary Indian theatre. Think of the really notable theatre directors of the past decade or so and many more women spring to the mind than men.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that women directors have been finding new directions while most of their male counterparts have been struggling to measure up to the standards set by their predecessors.
Consider just three illustrious names
