This year, Tortilla Theatre Festival is back in a new avatar. The annual theatre showcase is no longer an annual fixture. “From this year, we will be presenting four editions. So this first edition is the Summer Showcase that includes a comedy theatre night and a dance evening,” says Anita Mithra, founder, The Tortilla Entertain-ment Company that organises the festival. The comedy theatre night happening today features six plays. Four are original plays, while the other two scripts are adaptations. “One of them is by an Indian playwright. Four plays are in English and two in Hindi,” offers Anita.
Among the plays that will be staged is Perfect Stillness, written by Jane Miller. Bangalore Little Theatre is the group behind this touching story about Tim and Annie who are writing a eulogy. The story concludes with an unexpected ending. The People’s Party is another play to watch out for. Written and directed by Neha Mehta from Act Factory, this play looks at what happens when politics is discussed during a girls night out. It is a humorous take on contemporary politics.
Black Box India presents Blind Date, written and directed by Sal Yusuf. “The play looks visually interesting because all the actors are wearing masks and it’s through their body language and dialogues that the audience will be able to infer the message. The dialogues are made up of well-known lines from actors from different eras,” reveals Anita. The other three plays to be staged are The Quest by Tattva (a monologue about an Indian-American investment banker’s search for the perfect partner), Maut by XpressionZ (a play about what happens when your wishes come true) and Love Dowry by Theatre Co- operative (a social satire on dowry).
Day two of the festival is all about dance. Noted dancer Richard David Tholoor will conduct the Urban Groove Dance workshop where participants can learn five different genres of dancing. “The venue can accommodate up to 100 participants for this workshop,” says Anita. This session will be followed by Richard ’s annual dance showcase where his 50-member student team will present Salsa, Bachata, Jive, Hip-hop and Bollywood dance performances. The other three editions of the Tortilla Theatre Fest will be held in the months of August, September and October. “Multi-ple editions help theatre groups and participants to perform more often and in different genres,” signs off Anita.
Rs 300. Today and tomorrow. At Alliance Francaise
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