The Script           
The Script, January 2007. Issue 1.

Dear Drama lover,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2007 brings with it a flurry of theatre activity. Delhi sees the NSD festival, Bombay sees Writer's Bloc 2, the Mumbai Theatre Utsav and the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. So clear those calendar, and make watching at least one play a week your New Year's resolution. 

On the QTP front we are back with a vengeance. Khatijabai returns after a long hiatus, and we premiere two new productions, The President is Coming and Crab at the Writer's Bloc 2 festival. So all in all it is a busy time for us.

In the New Year Edition of The Script, you can find out the latest on all three plays, a complete breakdown of the Writer's Bloc festival as well as a wrap up of Thespo 8. Also the regular listings of all that is going on in the Bombay theatre scene.

Happy reading.

Yours Sincerely,
On Behalf of Q Theatre Productions,

Quasar.
Editor, The Script.

Quick Links:
Corno-Q-pia:   Thespo, Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace, The President is Coming, Crab, Great Texts
Point of View:  A lowdown on Rage's Writer Bloc 2.
4 Corners: A quick look at all that went into the making of Thespo 8.
Up & Coming:  All the exciting plays happening in the city!
Great Stuff:  Auditions and much much more!
Curtain Call:  One by Peter O'Toole in the spirit of the party season!

Corno-Q-pia
The horn of plenty of QTP events and happenings.

QL

Point of View:  
This month we take a look at all that is happening at the Writer's Bloc festival, which premieres 11 brand new plays and promises to be an exciting month long event.

RAGE’s
WRITERS’ BLOC 2
11 Original Plays, 1 Theatre Festival
Jan 9^th – Feb 4^th 2007  At Prithvi Theatre, Juhu and NCPA Experimental, Nariman Point

 Supported By JINDAL SOUTH WEST FOUNDATION and ROYAL COURT THEATRE, UK

Writers’ Bloc is a unique festival of contemporary and original drama, which brings together eleven playwrights from Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Pune and Mumbai writing in English and Marathi, eleven theatre directors and over 50 theatre performers.

All eleven plays directly result from a series of playwriting workshops and seminars mounted by Rage Productions and the Royal Court theatre, UK. The Royal Court has, for fifty years, been Europe’s leading producer of new playwriting.

OTHER EVENTS:

•  Playwriting Workshops : Registration at Prithvi from Jan 4^th For Enquiries Contact Sachi Maniar - 9869690650
  Jan 13^th, 10am – 4pm, Age Group 10-14 yrs. Conducted by Joy Fernandes
  Jan 14^th, 10am – 6pm, Age Group 15-18 yrs. Conducted by Shiv Subrahmanyam

• Get Critical! : Write your review of the play, get it judged, win a prize and see it published!

• Meet The Playwrights : Get to interact with the Writers Bloc playwrights; Plus closed door sessions for playwrights with Carl Miller from the Royal Court; and Ben Musgrave from Birmingham Repertory Theatre, winner of the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition

• Competitions : Daily theatre crosswords and theatre trivia questions in our bulletins.

QL

4 Corners:
Many times we have been questioned as to what actually goes in to the Thespo process. So after pondering for four days Toral Shah has finally managed to summarize all that went into making Thespo 8 happen in Bombay and Bangalore.

Thespo 2006 Report

ORIENTATION MEETINGS

The thrust this year was to spread the word of Thespo to more cities, more centres and more young theatre enthusiasts. In an effort to achieve this goal, Thespo team members travelled far and wide in August and September, briefing theatre-wallahs, young and old alike on what Thespo is and how they can be associated with it. It generated tremendous interest, which one hopes will sustain and bear fruit in the years to come.

The Thespo Orientation meetings started with Bombay on the 22^nd July 2006 at the Prithvi House where the plans for the festival were unveiled and the schedules announced. At the gathering of over 70 people  actors found directors, directors found writers, and Thespo found volunteers.

The next in line was Bangalore where over 30 people met and discussed ideas for the festival and their participation at the Allaince Francaise de Bangalore on the 5^th August 2006.

Close on the heels was a small intimate meeting of like-minded people in Chennai on the 11 Aug 2006 at the Music Academy. 20 people heard about the festival for the first time and welcomed the idea of workshops and performances enthusiastically in a city starved of any organized support for youth theatre.

In Calcutta, Delhi and Ahmedabad, the roots for Thespo were struck in the second week of September 2006. Once again, the response was very favourable, but the need for a continued interaction with young theatre groups across the country was acutely felt.

SCREENING

Arghya Lahiri, Yuki Ellias and Shaizia Jifri traveled to Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Mysore, Bangalore & Bombay in search of quality youth theatre across the country. After watching 48 plays in English, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi & Kannada in 6 cities over 17 days, they selected the 6 productions that finally made it to the festivals in Bangalore & Bombay. Travelling all but one sector by rail, they patiently sat through it all, giving valuable feedback to each and every group that had come to the auditions. Along the way they had to deal with many teams dropping out at the last minute as well as those who had traveled almost 10 hours to showcase their short performances. All in all, it was heartening to see that theatre is still alive and kicking among the young in India.

THESPO LAUNCH

Thespo Bombay kicked of on the 6^th November with the launch event generously hosted by the Marine Plaza. Four prominent and highly respected theatre stalwarts shared stories about the days when they were young and starting out in the Theatre industry. The evening came alive with hilarious anecdotes by Anupam Kher and Amin Sayani, live performances from the musical Evita by Dalip Tahil and Alyque Padamsee’s rendition of Shakespeare’s verse from Othello set to jazz music played by Prabhakar Mundkur. The finalists performing at Thespo 8 were then announced, thus officially launching the festival for 2006. Antiquity came on board as the liquor sponsor for the evening and it was just the right catalyst for those present to start the festivities for Thespo. Dolly Thakore, Farid Currim, Rael Padamsee, Pooh Sayani, Dipika Roy Kewalramani and Ashwin Mushran were all spotted letting their hair down and swapping theatre stories with the young and new theatre-wallahs!

THESPO BANGALORE

Ever since Ranga Shankara was inaugurated in 2004, Thepso has found a permanent home there. This year too it was the site for our annual festivities from the 28^th November to the 3^rd of December 2006. Unfortunately, Thespo Bangalore 2006 was trimmed down to include only the participating plays. However, in a break from tradition, the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Shri Girish Karnad in Bangalore, it being his hometown. The award was presented by Dolly Thakore and on receiving this honour, Shri Karnad remarked that the youth with their fresh and dynamic ideas were his real rivals. Thespo could not have asked for a better start or greater support.

This year, the plays were viewed by an unprecedented number of young audience members and the Thespo magazine was also a huge success. Though the festival here was being manned by a handful of volunteers, it was in able hands. The troupes travelling from Bombay settled in comfortably at the nearby Aurobindo Ashram thanks to Sushil. Anil adopted the teams as far as sourcing set, furniture and props were concerned, taking them into the bylanes of wholesale markets in the heart of the city. While Ankita co-ordinated with the judges and oversaw the décor of the venue, Ranjini single-handedly managed front of house chaos and Robin chipped in wherever there were gaps that needed to be filled. Jehan volunteered his services to mentor the plays as technical director and filled the void between the director & his lighting designer as well as between the designer and the technicians.

The Awards ceremony took place in the foyer accompanied by cheering, whistling and hooting by the Shraddha team who showed up in full strength to take home the writing, design and direction awards. The acting awards were split between the English plays from Bombay. And for the first time in the history of Thespo, the Outstanding play award was shared by 2 teams – Shraddha and Confessions.

WORK IT OUT WORKSHOPS & MENTORING

Last year a programme was put in place to train the participating teams and help them maximize their potential. Interactions / workshops with professional playwrights and directors are organized for the groups that are short-listed for the festival in an effort to give them exposure to theatre practices and ideologies that may not be available to them otherwise. The objective is to widen their horizons without directly affecting their productions.

This year Mahesh Dattani, Ramu Ramanathan, Arghya Lahiri, Divya Jagdale and Jehan Manekshaw willingly gave their time and expertise to the plays performing in English. While Manaswini L R and Chinmay Mandlekar came on board to share their experiences and lessons with the group performing the Marathi play.

As is the case with such sessions, the overall feeling was that these interactions need to be organized more often and consistently through out the year in order for them to make a considerable effect on the youth theatre movement. The senior theatre community has also voiced their support and offered their services. If planned and executed successfully for the next year, this module will surely reap significant benefits.

CURTAIN RAISERS

Before the audiences could come to the festival, the festival reached out to them. From the 8^th – 10^th December theatre lovers were treated to a special preview of what was to come in the following week at the festival. Extracts from the participating plays and platform performances were staged at Haute Chilli (Bandra & Churchgate), Dhoop (Bandra) and Reader’s Shop (Santa Cruz). The curtain raisers and the festival got a facelift this year with volunteers and participants sporting t-shirts that were sponsored and printed by Haute Chilli, courtesy Ritu Didwania and Sudip Kumar. The T-shirts were also appreciated by all the judges, workshop resource professionals, the mentors, the staff at NCPA & Prithvi who promptly changed into these t-shirts to join the Thespo brigade.

While the response at the Churchgate outlet of Haute Chilli was luke warm, the turnout at the Bandra outlet was overwhelming. The mezzanine storey in the spacious store was the perfect setting for performers and viewers alike. The audience, which mainly comprised of college students, tremendously enjoyed the performances of the short piece Steak Knife, the opening scene from the play Confessions and an extract from Ends & Beginnings. The scenes enacted generated a strong interest among those watching and was a very promising start to this year’s edition of the festival.

Aradhana Nagpal of Dhoop kindly offered to support the festival by providing gifts for the judges and the winners of Thespo 8. In addition, Dhoop also hosted an evening of theatre featuring scenes from the plays Retellings and Baby. The Terrace at the store was packed with theatre enthusiasts who intently watched the drama unfold despite the sounds of traffic from the road below. The performances were truly appreciated and many of those present there were to be seen again at the festival.

Rehana Munir of Reader’s Shop has always been a strong supporter of the theatre and Thespo in particular. She opened the doors of her bookstore to actors, volunteers and guests who gathered in the store basement and listened to the stories come alive in the midst of rows and piles of books. All those present were then treated to samosas and chai in the true spirit of Bombay theatre.

THESPO BOMBAY

Thespo Bombay exceeded many expectations this year, in terms of the number of people who came on board as volunteers, the word-of-mouth publicity generated, the advance ticket sales, the audience turnout, the participation at the workshops, the response to the poster design competition, the contributions to the Thespo magazine, the growing interest in the platform performances in alternative spaces… the list goes on. And it all culminated in the 5 day celebration from the 13^th – 17^th December 2006 at the NCPA.

For the second year in a row, Radio One FM 94.3 (formerly known as Go 92.5fm) aligned with the festival as Radio Partners. They opened the doors to their studios to record the Thespo 8 radio spot and gave precious airtime to all the teams to talk about their plays on air. In addition, they also sponsored numerous gift hampers that were presented to workshop professionals, award winners and key Thespo team members.

Time Out Mumbai also came on board to support the festival. The December issue carried a half page colour ad and they also sponsored the printing of the festival posters. The free copies of the magazine distributed at the festival were also greatly appreciated.

The movement that is Thespo was carried forward this year by scores of volunteers who worked tirelessly in the lead up to the festival – distributing flyers in colleges, selling tickets, meticulously working on the painstaking design drawn up for the décor and taking registrations for workshops among a million other things. Mala started early in the season to try and source theatre professionals for the daily workshops and for judging the festival and yet she was working till the very last minute juggling the busy schedules kept by theatre—wallahs these days. Aditi who was the liaison person with all the participating teams, booked and re-booked innumerable train tickets for all the traveling troupes in addition to coordinating with all the teams for their numerous requirements. Sonal burnt the candle at both ends on countless nights working tirelessly on the creatives for the logo, posters, banners, advertisements and the 84-page magazine. Sid Kumar set the ball rolling for the Poster Design Competition which to be taken up later by Akanksha. Being the second year, this chapter in the festival, saw a substantial jump in interest with 14 entries registering from Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi.

The Thespo magazine this year was probably the most ambitious project with the team trying to include articles on and/or about the theatre in addition to the information about the festival, the process, the people and the plays. Writers and theatre practitioners from Bombay and Bangalore responded with great enthusiasm and by the end, the magazine could boast of 14 editorial pieces ranging from musicals to multi-media, economics to Edinburgh and cricket to censorship. Toward the end, sensing that the lack of sponsorship would hamper the festival, a plea was sent out to theatre groups across the city to place advertisements in the magazine for their productions at a nominal cost. In a most heart warming gesture, several theatre groups promptly offered their support and savings and gave us the necessary boost to keep going for one more year. Reema worked for over 2 months helping put together all the content, including conducting interviews with Theatre Group members to get a fresh perspective on what makes TG one of the oldest and most respected theatre organizations in this city.

The first day of the festival started early in the morning, with the army of volunteers descending on the NCPA. Everyone was given their departments and they set to work. Dhanendra and Akanksha supervised the décor going up in the NCPA Experimental Foyer. Harsha and Vikesh were in charge of helping out the participating teams backstage while Dhruv assisted on technicals. Lavrentjy and Rebecca went about setting up for the workshop. Avanti taking care of the platform performances and Bhagirathi and Ryna tried to get their heads around the complicated accounts involved in ticket and brochure selling. This set the routine for the 5 days to follow. The workshops, which were held every afternoon from 2 – 6 pm in the TATA Rehearsal Room, were a phenomenal hit with waiting lists equivalent to and exceeding the stipulated number of seats. From pointers on acting to discovering directing, the masters spoke and were eagerly heard. At half past six, the platform performances would take place in the NCPA Experimental foyer, followed by the play at 7. For the first time ever, Thespo witnessed 3 house full shows and over 75% attendance at the other 2 shows. The FOH volunteers had their hands full trying to manage the crowds, checking student ID cards, selling brochures and trying to accommodate all the ticket-less spectators.

THESPO 8 AWARDS NIGHT

Bank of Baroda Thespo 8 Awards Night was a landmark in itself for a number of reasons. It was the first time that Thespo was associated with Bank of Baroda who came on board to host the Awards Ceremony held on the 17^th December 2006 at the NCPA Experimental after the performance of Ends & Beginnings. While the judges deliberated on their decisions, the audience was entertained by the young band Something Relevant which set the tone for the celebrations to follow.

The Bank of Baroda Thespo 8 Awards night started with an AV presentation put together by Ananya on the theme of Karnad in Bombay. It included interviews with leading directors in the city who have brought his words alive on stage and paid tribute to the immeasurable contribution of Shri Girish Karnad. The short documentary ended with a showing of the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Bangalore.

This was followed by the announcement of the winners which was keenly anticipated by not only the participants but also the volunteers and the loyal patrons. Ends and Beginnings did a clean sweep of the awards, winning all but ‘Outstanding Actress’ which went to this year’s Marathi play, Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Baby’. The awards in the various categories were presented by the judges Dolly Thakore, Atul Kumar and Jaimini Pathak along with Farid Currim of Theatre Group and Thespo-ans Tina Antia and Ram Ganesh Kamatham from the years gone by. The winners & judges also received gifts from Dhoop and Time Out Mumbai. The workshop professionals and mentors went home with gift hampers from Radio One FM 94.3 and Time Out Mumbai subscriptions.

QL

Up&Coming:
The following is a list of shows you should watch out for this month. The code to it's deciphering is as follows:
red is the Theatre Club show 
and in blue are QTP events. 
Those with an (R) next to them means that we have reviewed it, and if you require a review simply email us at qtp@vsnl.com asking for it. 
Those with an (PP) next to them means that it is a platform performance, entry free!