The Ninasam Diary:

A celebration of theatre

By Dr. Ajay Joshi

Apart from these evening productions, the theme of the conference at Ninasam, ‘Living with traditions’, saw the glitterati and intellectuals descend to this small but culturally vibrant space, to explore and debate of various layers of tradition. The stories from the Ramayana took centre stage and raised as many animated discussion as its interpretations. This was interspersed with short platform performances, highlighting the rich performance inventory in the Kannada repertoire.

The pristine ambience at/of Ninasam, is creatively very charging. Being there and experiencing the hospitality extended, is a humbling experience. It is hard to come away not wanting to return again and again. And then one can go on exploring the many facets of its amazing journey, and each time come away a bit more dissatisfied than the last, but yearning for more.

A scene from Yakshagana

This week zipped by and was physically exhausting, as days rolled into nights and nights into days, where more interaction and networking took place beyond the schedules of the conference and definitely deep into the night over hot cups of tea. And the common bonding was theatre and the arts. I sat back under the star-studded night, a cool gentle nuzzling my hair and the rustling leaves of the arecnut trees, as if singing a lullaby to soothe me to sleep. But sleep was the last to come and I wanted to make the most of my last day at Ninasam.

Culture course

Twenty-two long years of successfully running this culture course, must have brought together such a rich repertoire under one roof. Every time I experience this euphoria linked to such well organised, far reaching and impacting structures, I can’t skirt thoughts of the economics of this whole enterprise, racing through my mind.

It is one thing to be passionate about theatre and another ball game altogether to see it materialise.

Ninasam has proved its point by making these two ends meet. But as I look back I realise that in India there are many such experiments which have seen the light of day, staying afloat against all odds.

Not only economics but endeavours to stay put in the burgeoning competition against cinema and television, spirally costs of technical equipment, paucity of competent actors. But all this from the organiser’s point of view, as no theatre is complete without the audience which is considered the ‘Saviour and bread giver of the Arts’. ‘Haus theatre’,Goa’; ‘Naya Theatre‘ of Habib Tanvir; ‘Janam’, Delhi; ‘Chorus Repertory’, Manipur and many such are testimony of the struggles which have seen them emerge victorious.

And each is a case study in itself. I have analysed in detail the ‘Jungle Theatre’, which is up on the net. And before I conclude this series, I wish to share another experience which has been rewarding and an eye-opener. And it definitely falls in the league of Ninasam.

Audience

No theatre performance is complete sans an audience, a statement which goes unchallenged, though at times may sound a bit clichéd. Many instances are cited when brilliant performances are rendered or theatre movements successfully launched, all catering to the masses and often to standing ovations.

The astute relationship between the theatre and the audience has grown over the years, often deciding the fate of the play. But rarely does one come across occasions when this same audience, which have been entertained and nurtured to be a part of the larger theatre fraternity, stands strong behind a theatre group in its difficult times. This was precisely what transpired recently in a small town Kankawli, in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.

The principal theatre group in this picturesque town, the Vasantrao Achrekar Sanskritic Pratisthan, has been functional for years, having got its first impetus from the Ford Foundation grant and later the Ratan Tata Trust fund, initiated to promote theatre activity in the rural parts. Many tears and years later it has bloomed beautifully and is a prominent landmark in the theatre scenario of Maharashtra, being a prestigious place for any artiste to perform.

Apart from holding regular workshops, talks, writers workshops, children’s theatre, regular productions, they have their own library of books, have created a script bank, and gave financial assistance for a research on the folk arts like Dashavatar, Lalit and Chitrakathi etc. Regular visits by the who’s who of theatre, musical concerts, art displays and other such activities are also on their agenda.

Competition

Till two years back their one act play competition, the Nath Pai Aikankika Spardha, was much sought after activity, both for children and amateur artistes. It created a strong platform for the artistes from the surrounding towns to showcase their work. Recently the organisation decided to discontinue this activity against the background of the mindless upsurge of such competitions.

Instead they sprung up an even more interesting activity of staging the entire works aka one act plays, of Ratnakar Matkari and Satish Alekar, performed by different theatre groups.

Another of their much sought after program is the annual theatre Festival in the first half of the year, which they have been conducting without fail for the past 18 years, bringing to the audiences the best of Marathi and at times Hindi theatre, with an opportunity to interact with doyens of theatre. All this along with having a die-hard audience for their programs and an extremely dedicated group of youngsters to keep the show going.

The last 28 years of its existence has seen this business town been transformed into a cultural center of repute. Of late they have saved up to have their very own open-air theatre, where all these shows take place.

This year this theatre festival ran into rough weather. Mounting costs of transportation, honorarium to the groups, accommodation and other sundry expenses, chewed heavily into the carefully and meticulously built corpus over the years.

The festival failed to raise an amount of one and a half lakh rupees to present the festivity. Reluctantly the management had to take the thorny decision to discontinue it. Having served the audiences to the best of their capacity, bringing the crème of theatre to their doorstep, this came as a rude jolt to the strong network of the audiences, so painstakingly built by the group.

Viewing plays of varied forms and topics had brought a different kind of sensibility amongst the viewers, helping them identify with contemporary issues and fast changing socio-politico-cultural scenario. After the initial shock wore off and realising the helplessness of the Pratisthan, some prominent among the audience were not ready to let this go and they got their resources together to wade through this calamity.

Family membership

A meeting of all the members was arranged by the Pratisthan highlighting their plight. After much discussions, a proposal to start a family membership of Rs 1000 was floated and also to raise the individual membership from Rs 250 to Rs 400.

This was accepted with much enthusiasm. Families numbering 122, as against the expected 75, registered with the family membership. When the problem appeared in the local press, many more local groups came forward to help, knowing fully well the dedication, sincerity and transparency with which the Pratisthan had worked all these years, with the singular intention of giving the best to the people.

Their reputation, reliability and consistency played a vital role in harnessing this support. Within 15 days the money was gathered and the festival got under way.

The contributors and members have vowed to continue their support even for the coming years to keep this program afloat.

Such and many other theatre activities can be seen in the interiors, doing successful runs against all odds. Lack of equipment, technical expertise, absence of exposure to the theatre been done in the urban cities, difficulty (mainly monetary) to commute to the cities to do their shows, shortage of good artistes and media coverage are some of the grievances that are voiced.

In most of these places the audiences who come to see the shows are locals who have their own shops or businesses that run throughout the day. It is only late at night that they get time to flock to see the plays or cultural activities.

This is a classic and rare example of the audiences paying back to the theatre that has given them so much. This is indeed the power and celebration of theatre!