How did this unique idea of combining short plays and staging them together come to mind?
We wanted to encourage writers writing in English. ?One on One? emerged a as a result of Writer's Bloc, conducted over a year, and is in its third year. Writer's Bloc has successfully collaborated with Royal Court Theatre and Jindal Arts, London. We received applications from which we selected a group of writers. After this, we held workshops to inspire them to write plays. ?One on One? is a collection of short plays, each 12 minutes long. You could define it as a collage of contemporary India.
What challenges did you face while stringing all the plays into a comprehensible whole?
It was a challenge to bring them all together. We worked very well as a team. We watched each other's plays, gave suggestions, learned from one another. Before we knew it, we were a bunch of 15 people working at a feverish pace!
What are some of the audience responses ?One on One? has received?
The responses were overwhelming; particularly from three cities we performed recently in ? Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai. ?One on One? will tour six cities, starting with Bangalore. We are looking forward to it.
Theatre has to compete with TV and films. What do you think theatre has that the other forms don't?
First, theatre is appealing because it's a live performance. I think it's doing well in India's metros, especially in Mumbai and the South; the youth are actively involved in theatre there. So theatre has a bright future.
What aspect of the play, do you think, will linger in the minds of the audience?
?One on One? has something for everyone. Different people will like different parts of the play, depending on where they come from. Each play presents varied scenarios of what has come to represent modern India.
How has the Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Fest experience been so far?
It's been good. It's been smooth and well organised.
We hope to perform more plays for this Festival.
