Hiring conventional auditoria for a performance has turned into a hassle due to their exorbitant costs and pre-bookings. Rupinder Kaur speaks to the city’s theatre directors and finds out whether creation of alternative spaces can provide an answer to these issues
The proverbial “Yeh sab kya nautanki hai” (What is this drama all about), substantially echoes the mainstream attitude of the Indian society towards performing arts, more specifically theatre and drama. Delhi, which is considered as the cultural capital of the country, needs to be probed on this front. The fixation for a “cultured” bride in the matrimonial ads on one hand; the idea of “culture” in school textbooks on the other along with the non-committal policies have led to a confused situation where there are multifarious questions with no concrete answers.Most theatre-wallahs in Delhi face issues pertaining to rehearsal space, exorbitant auditorium costs, consistent theatre workers and also audiences.
Opines Deepak Dhamija, founder of Shoelace production, “Delhi is going through space crisis. Most of the performance spaces like Kamani, Sri Ram Centre, et al. are being run by those with no artistic backgrounds. With the main objective, that is, money, these premier auditoriums are being rented out to hold CA tutorial classes in the morning. Kamani would rent out its hall for about Rs80,000 per day plus taxes while lTG would charge you about Rs35,000. If money is not the case, then getting dates for your performance is an issue. These places are pre-booked almost six-seven months in advance.”
The theatre scene in cities like Bengaluru picked up after a lull with the coming up of new mainstream spaces like Jagriti (by practicing actor Arundhati Raja) and Ranga Shankara (by renowned theatre personality Arundhati Nag). On the other hand, dearth of these culturally sensitive spaces in Delhi has created lacunae. Responding to this, a few alternative spaces have cropped up like the Studio Safdar at Shadi Khampur, Downstairs@S47 at Panchsheel Park, et al.
These spaces make performances more intimate and interactive and also allow the performers to experiment, but are coupled with their own set of limitations. “These arenas are not commercially viable, as one is not allowed to sell tickets. Plus you can stage your play but with a minimalistic set up. This is also altering the art form as one needs to keep in mind the performing space,” Dhamija shares.
Vivek Mansukhani, director, arts, British Council states that he, too, would encourage building of such arenas but these are more suited for pop-up performances. “These areas allow new work of arts and eventually these spaces would gain momentum as the demand to watch new works has risen multifold. People from Noida or from the outskirts of Delhi may not be able to come to Kamani especially to watch a performance and so the need for alternatives arises. These spaces are more suited for small productions but again with infrastructural and technological drawbacks,” he says.
The proscenium theatres in the city, he further states, are not upgrading their facilities or have trained manpower and even if they do have the technology, they are unable to maintain it.
Kuljeet Singh of Atelier Theatre believes that alternative spaces do have a role to play but “at the same time, more low-cost community-run auditoriums are required to shape the theatre scene here.” “I had been making appeals to the National School of Drama and Ministry of Culture to invest a part percentage of their budget to create new auditoriums. Crores of rupees are spent on international festivals annually, which of-course is a meaningful activity, but at the same time, I strongly feel, these spaces will add fillip to the existing model,” he explains.
The Studio Theatre Scheme, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, provides financial support to cultural groups to create “innovative, cost-effective model of rehearsal cum performing space” but the flip side of the scheme is that it seeks “matching share” of not less than 40 per cent by the applicant for the entire project.
Furthermore, the grant is being given for “new construction or purchase of built up spaces”. “This offer gives no pragmatic solution. First, it’s difficult to buy land in a city like Delhi and that too by a theatre society which meagerly manages to run itself on a shoestring budget. Secondly, if one decides to go for a built up space where will the poor society bring the matching share from which might be in the tune of Rs30-40 lakh”, Singh further adds.
For creation of a permanent space, one would require at least 4-5 years with some serious commitment and can be only done by someone with a vision. “Delhi is losing some of its best storytellers because of these problems. Either someone who owns some property or may be an entrepreneur with a passion for theatre can come up with an idea of building a place solely for theatre purpose. Even if there are built-up spaces like the Azad Bhawan near ITO, which during the 80s and 90s was actively used , would need a lot of energy for revival,” states Dhamija.
To achieve it all, does it require a collective effort by the theatre fraternity or will they wait for GodotIJ