Building a theatre network

I have recently returned to India from the Magnetic North Festival in Canada. MagNorth, as it is affectionately called, is the coming together of Independent Canadian work and artists in one of Canada’s many towns to see each other’s work and also talk about collaborations. Canada is a large country and holding this annual festival gives people a reason to meet and update each other on the latest developments in Canadian theatre. In other words, it is a large networking opportunity.

While India is not as large in mass, we are much larger in population, and often that makes it much harder to connect with theatre people from other parts of the country. Therefore we don’t have a culture of networking and sharing with fellow theatre practitioners other than a few chance meetings that occur at the odd festival. India Theatre Forum has valiantly tried to keep the community connected, and their newly launched SMART programme also provides some networking potential in the guise of the workshop. In Bombay, most interactions are over events like Festival opening parties. But by and large there is no real structure of ‘coming together’.

This is perhaps why the Thespo Orientation Meetings are so unique. It attracts young people interested in theatre, to participate and build a community. The run up to the December festival usually starts with the Bombay Orientation Meeting, followed by other meetings across the country. On Monday, 18th of July, Prithvi Theatre plays host to the official launch of the plans of Thespo 18. It gives actors an opportunity to meet directors, and directors a chance to meet writers, for groups to form and plays to emerge. Nimrat Kaur found her first theatre director Siddharth Kumar at one such meeting.

However, more than just providing opportunities to work in theatre, these meetings also allow young people to feel part of a much larger community. It builds an environment of genuine curiosity in other peoples work and an openness to work with new people.

The theatre community has often been accused of being insular and unapproachable for freshers, but thanks to meetings like these, established theatre groups that have emerged from Thespo are far more approachable to the budding theatre-wallah.

This common understanding often leads to partnerships among youth groups forming, such as the recent theatre exchange programme between AmyGo of Bombay and MAD of Calcutta who combined to host each other’s work in their respective cities.

Theatre is about people telling stories to people. The human being is intrinsic to the medium therefore we need more such opportunities to bring people together for sharings and celebrations. A few years ago, Thespo decided to revamp their Orientation Meetings and move away from the simple presentations about how to get involved in the fest. Now they are fully rehearsed shows packed with the necessary information and audience participation; a far more entertaining and theatrical way of launching the festival. In fact this year’s Bombay Orientation Meeting is a combined effort by performers from numerous different festival productions last year. The ethnocentricity of performing in a ‘team’ has been replaced with the generosity of being part of a community.

Surely that’s a great lesson for all of society in these incredibly untrusting times.