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Theatre of the young and wise
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Thespo has shown audiences and practitioners alike that youth theatre need not necessarily mean lower standards
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PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.
QUALITY MATTERS Quasar Padamsee: `We look at how long it will take for a play to be ready, and if it is special'
When Quasar Thakore Padamsee spearheaded the idea of a one-evening festival of one-act plays called Thespo in 1999, he could not have predicted the kind of success it has found in its seven years of existence. The festival, which had a humble beginning from three short plays over an evening in Mumbai, now runs for six days each in Mumbai and Bangalore, and its latest edition is expected to attract plays from centres across the country including Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.
"It still is a slightly humble fest," clarifies Quasar. "The point was never opulence, only quality theatre. It's growing in baby steps. The last thing we want is to expand it and then see the plays suffer." Indeed, since its inception, the festival has been conducted each year with only one aim in mind: to explore and promote quality theatre created by the youth without the baggage of convention and rigid notions of good and bad. "The question we asked ourselves was how we can make Thespo add to the theatre landscape," says Quasar, of the thinking that went into the second, expanded edition of the festival in 2000. "One-act play fests are always happening, and usually they are put together badly. Also, senior groups are usually dismissive of new people and new ideas."
In contrast, Thespo takes youth theatre very seriously, doing as much as it can to promote the cause. Thus, between the initial screening of plays and the final festival, Q Theatre Productions (QTP), which runs the festival, organises a mentoring programme that aims at providing the amateur participants with varied perspectives on theatre. More structured workshops are also organised during the week of the festival, a feature that QTP plans to expand this year with three-, four- and five-day workshops instead of the usual daylong introductory session. In some cases, Thespo winners who've gone on to bigger, better things return to give back through these workshops. Thus, an actor who got her first break through Thespo, and has been trained in physical theatre in France, conducted a workshop in the form last year. What's more, the organisers throw in free sound, lighting and tickets for every performance. "We try to pass on whatever little learning we can. It's a tragedy that there's only one school of theatre for pretty much the whole of India," explains Quasar.
No pedestals
The thrust on quality youth theatre also dictates the kind of plays that get chosen for the festival. Unlike most other youth fests, this one doesn't try to prop its participants up on a pedestal they don't deserve. "The plays are selected on the strength of the script, actors and director — the basic requirements of a good play," says Quasar. "We look at how long it will take for a play to be ready, and if it is special. Is it something a professional theatre company would be proud to produce? Because we are trying to provide a simulation of professional theatre." Thus, while Thespo does feature a good bit of original theatre, no group is awarded extra points for an original script. "If it's a good play, it's a good play. We aren't going to say shabaash just because you wrote an original play."
And the approach has worked well for the festival. "Every year there are plays that jump out and bite you in the a**," says Quasar. "I watch these plays and think, `Why can't I think like them?' It's because I'm not 21. They have no fears, no baggage, no fixed ideas on what is good and what isn't."
Indeed, Quasar recently returned from England, where he watched a good deal of theatre, but didn't find a single play that was a patch on Butter and Mashed Banana, which won the best original script award at the 2005 Thespo, and has since been performed at festivals such as Kala Ghoda festival, Mumbai Theatre Festival and the Prithvi Theatre Festival. The list continues with such names as The Accidental Death Of A Terrorist, NLSIU's Indianised, post-Godhra adaptation of Dario Fo's famous work Accidental Death Of An Anarchist and from Thespo 2002, Pigs on the Wing.
Of course, putting up a festival as ambitious as Thespo year after year comes with its own difficulties, primarily financial. "Each year we go around with a begging bowl," says Quasar, "and so far (touches wood) we have managed to get sponsors, though not always in advance." But mostly, he adds, the festival survives on good will, with friends, relatives, friends of relatives and their friends pitching in when needed. "We once needed a house to put up some of the participants," he recounts. "So a friend of a friend told tenants who were moving into her house to put the move off by a few days and gave us the house instead."
As much effort as the festival takes, though, it gives back as much for Quasar and his colleagues. "Thespo keeps me fresh. After sitting in a chair watching plays for 12 hours every day for eight days straight, it's hard to believe that. But once I come out and start talking to people about the plays I see, I realise how invigorating the experience is."
RAKESH MEHAR
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