A united theatre fraternity

Why don’t the theatre groups come together to solve their common issues ” I was asked by a theatre director who was returning to “active” status after a long hiatus. Much as it hurt, he did have a point. The theatre fraternity of Bombay has often been seen as mistrusting of each other, haggling over actors, dates, and rarely watching each other’s plays. However, some of the greatest innovations in our city’s fledgling theatre history have come about by groups coming together. Particularly in the area of popularising a new space. Lack of performing spaces has been the bane of theatre in Bombay for many, many years. Maximum City is bursting at the seams and cultural performance spaces are rare to come by, and affordable spaces, even more so. Most spaces that are titled “Auditoriums”, are booked round the year for weddings, conferences and religious functions. Non-commercial theatre, particularly, struggles to find venues where it can be showcased. In spite of the apparent backbiting, numerous combined “industry” initiatives have been very successful. In the 1980s, Marathi Experimental theatre groups united to popularise a school hall and the “Chabbildas Movement” was born. In the 1990s and early 2000s, four Hindi theatre troupes decided to move out of the comfort of the Prithvi Theatre and began staging plays at Mysore Association in Matunga East. More recently in 2009, an assortment joined together to form Rangasthal, whose aim was to programme and develop an audience for the brand new Sathaye College Auditorium in Vile Parle East. What a United Front does is it gives groups lobbying power with venues to negotiate amenities, timings, improvements in the building/programming and even sometimes in rent rates. Historically, most initiatives have been about a number of groups approaching a single venue. In the UK, the Royal Court Theatre (RCT) had a very successful experiment with “Theatre Local”. They took over temporary venues in the far flung suburbs of London in an effort to reach people who would not ordinarily be able to reach their Sloane Square base. Back in Maximum City, a new idea has been stumbled on. A collection of groups have bound together with the aim of finding and promoting alternative spaces for performance. The project is limited to “plug and play” productions that perhaps don’t need the formality and infrastructure of a conventional theatre. But, it does mean that the plays can now be accessed by people in ‘local’ neighbourhoods, rather than braving the city’s Public Enemy No. 1 — traffic. Although still in its “soft launch” stage, the unnamed project has already been very active. In fact, the next few weeks will see a flurry of theatrical activity in multipurpose venues that are not associated with performances. Tram Theatre and QTP have already performed at Ave 29 in Hughes Road. Temperance in Bandra has scheduled regular shows for the next few weeks. Alternate venues are usually devoid of any fancy lighting or unable to take a lavish set, so often the productions are performance and script led. They seat about 50 to 70 people, making for intimate experiences where the furthest audience member is only 20 feet away from the performers. In today’s digital age, theatre is slowly redefining itself. Its USP is as a “live medium”, providing special experiences that no other medium can replicate. These new smaller venues might just be another step in that direction.