Child's play

The newly formed Junoon sets out to make the theatre experience an integral part of growing up.

March 10, 2012 05:46 pm | Updated 05:46 pm IST

Renewed vibrance: The Junoon team.

Renewed vibrance: The Junoon team.

Prithvi Theatre's loss is Junoon's gain. Last year Sanjna Kapoor announced her decision to leave a theatre she had nurtured for 21 years. On February 29 she announced the launch of a new venture to take theatre to the people and replicate her work at Prithvi in a broad-based way. “I am trying to create a platform that is accessible, engaging and welcoming,” she says enthusiastically. Along with Sameera Iyengar, Satyam Vishwanathan, Swati Apte and Ayaz Ansari, the compact team has its task cut out.

One dream

Junoon has a dream that every child in India will grow up with the arts as an integral part of their life and the journey begins with an “Arts at Play” programme, a season of creative workshops, plays for youngsters apart from programming theatre experiences including exclusive shows for children.

International and national theatre companies will be showcased from this year onwards starting with Footsbarn's Tempest in November, Motley's Shaw Festival and Arpana's Stories in a Song, the only play which will travel to cities and towns.

Swati, a dancer once based in New York, felt the paucity of an arts education for her child on her return to India, and is motivated by that need. Satyam, a market research professional is concerned about the commercial growth in cities which leaves no space for the arts. “There is no environment with a cultural breathing space,” he says.

The most compelling argument comes from Sameera, an ex MIT student who was surprised at the substantial arts courses during her student days at the institute. She says MIT took a conscious decision after the Second World War when its illustrious students, Richard Feynman among them had assisted in developing the atom bomb. While the premier institute produced brilliant students, it also decided to have a more rounded education with a 25 per cent Arts component, she points out.

Sanjna says that Junoon is built on four pillars, the youth connect programme which involves a series of engagement with schools and children, small touring plays, developing local involvement and an engaged community which supports theatre and lastly giving expertise to people by creating a peer sharing process. “It's not cold consultancy but seeding cultural hubs with people's involvement,” she explains.

Generating revenue

Sameera laments the lack of arts managers in India who make theatres live. Junoon for now will rely on corporate sponsorships, fellowships and also aim to generate revenue from people themselves. “Junoon came out of meetings with mad dreamers but they have clear dreams,” Sanjna remarks.

Everything needs an environment and that's what the new group aims to create with its huge experience of theatre workshops, managing arts and festivals and skilled trainers. Already Junoon has support from actors like Swaroop Sampat and Naseeruddin Shah who shares a special relationship with Prithvi and who admits that the one thing that kept him going in school was the annual visit by the Shakespearian troupe synonymous with Sanjna's grandparents Geoffrey Kendal and Laura. In fact in the later productions of Dear Liar at Prithvi, Shah and Ratna Pathak wore the old costumes of the Kendals as a tribute.

Junoon is already tying up with schools across the spectrum and municipal schools will also be part of its target. It's not purely about the theatre experience, says Sameera. “We want to fire imagination and creativity,” she adds. The one thing that has been bothering Sanjna is that while Prithvi set an example in theatre management and community engagement, it was not replicated anywhere else. Travelling theatres were not really feasible always and Junoon is a result of that lacuna. “We are doing this because we feel no one else will do it,” she grins. “It's a culmination of 21 years of working in theatre and following one's passion and propagating something that is essential for our own lives,” she says.

As the team members of Junoon say, they aim to put their collective skills on show and create a renewed vibrancy in theatre.

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