There is great news for theatre lovers of Mussoorie and the Doon valley as theatre performances are in the offing in both places by well-known youth theatre company Theatrecian.
The Doon valley was once known for its many energetic theatre groups and college students used to put up performances regularly, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, after that, these groups began to fade away. It is only over the last few years that a keen interest in literature, music, theatre and other arts is being witnessed once again in the region.
Now, an interesting dimension is going to be added to all the literary and artistic activity that is flourishing in the Doon valley. Theatrecian, the most proficient and prolific theatre company in the country, is going to have a performance at Mussoorie Public School on October 4 and another at Welham Boys School on December 4. Tathagata Chowdhury, the founder of the Kolkata –based company, has been holding training workshops for the students of these schools to fine-tune the performances. Music will be an important part of these plays.
Talking to The Pioneer, Chowdhury said that through the medium of music and dialogues, students can be taught a lot and their personalities can be enhanced greatly.
Chowdhury is a thespian certified by the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2006, he represented India in a theatre science project in the UK and later in 2014 in the South Asian Theatre Festival in Ohio, USA.
Chowdhury and his friends, Aaron and Anushka, were at Mussoorie to prepare the students of Mussoorie Public School for the play The Sound of Music which will be staged on October 4. A reading of the play will be done on October 1. “Our style of theatre is youth–centric and geared towards helping the students find their talents and nurture it. We have done plays in more than a hundred educational institutions across the country,” says Chowdhury who is delighted to be now working with schools in Uttarakhand. He believes that theatre can contribute vastly to the process of learning. “It helps a lot to make a statement and express one’s views,” he says.
At Welham Boys’, the play chosen is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Chowdhury says that the principal of Welham Boys’ School, Mrs Gunmeet Bindra, had a wonderful vision that saw theatre as a great opportunity for the boys to deepen their understanding of life and the world.
Till now, it was just the Doon School and a couple of other schools that took up theatre seriously and made their students engage in it. However, with the coming in of groups like Theatrecian, things are going to change and more and more schools and colleges on the region will, I believe, get involved in theatre performances.
Chowdhury said that the students at Welham had been enjoying the workshops for the play and their response had made it a joyful activity.
“Our company performs plays only in English and we take our plays to places where there is a good connection with the language as well as an interest in plays. Doon and Mussoorie are such places.” He adds that Mumbai was the place where the youth theatre movement was the strongest at the moment. “Bengaluru and other places in the south too figure high as far as the popularity of English theatre is concerned.”
Theatrecian was founded in September 2000 by Tathagata. In 2007, his friends Kanak Gupta and Dhruv Mookerji joined him . This English theatre group has been recognised by BBC Four as the most prolific English theatre group in India. One of the more popular productions of Theatrecian is The Comedy Kitchen. This play has enjoyed sell out shows at places like The Comedy Store, The Laughter Factory, NCPA, Liberty Theatre in Mumbai and The Alliance Franchise in Delhi and many shows in Kolkata. The main aim of “Theatrecian” is to develop and encourage all types of cultural and literary activities such as music, literature, painting, theatre, plays, cinema, dance, debate, script writing, photography, videography, cinematography and mass communication.
Says Chowdhury, “We encourage young talents to recognise the Theatrecian within and explore new horizons. Once upon a time, all we wanted to do was act on stage and learn more and more from all the experts around. We are passionate about the performing arts, but also recognise the business virtues and challenges that they present. We run ‘Theatrecian’ as professionally as possible, and today have created a niche for ourselves. We can proudly say that there are many young adults who have learnt the nuances of theatre, management, and life from ‘Theatrecian’ and have gone on with their lives successfully- be it in the corporate world, the movies or a career in theatre itself.”
So, Mussoorie and Doon look forward to this energetic activity that has come in with the arrival of Theatrecian!