A bunch of people from the corporate sector, a few from NGOs, and a theatre group — these three entirely different sets of people will get together this weekend for a huge celebration. City-based Yours Truly Theatre, which specialises in 15 different formats of interactive theatre, is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
The celebration is a day-long carnival of theatre with performances, talks and discussions. “We attempt to apply the art form to help people in dif ferent sectors,” says Nandini Rao, cofounder and artistic director.
Therefore, the group not only performs, but works extensively with private companies and organisations in the development sector, and also with NGOs that work with children.
Play up
For the day-long event, the group will put up 14 performances with a focus on the theme of cause and change in the social sector, theatre for children, theatre for education and therapy, and public performances.
“These short plays will be in different formats like forum theatre and image theatre,” says Nandini. In both forum theatre and image theatre, performers invite the audience to the stage to help conclude the play.
“In image theatre, a situation will be created through formations by the actors. The audience will have to change the formations as per their interpretation. There are no dialogues,” explains Nandini.
While in the forum theatre format, actors will stop enacting the play at a point after which they let their spectators take the stage to conclude the performance.
Word game
Featured plays include — April Showers, Little Prince, Vox Populi, Equal But Not Same, Hope Stories, Black Rainbow, Mushaira Theatre, Kannada Kavya Nataka Chilume, Masala Improv Comedy, Twist In The Tale, Playback Theatre and Why Not... Theatre? Throwing more light on Mushaira Theatre, which is also a form of theatre, Nandini says, “We invite the audience to share a poem that’s written by them, and actors will then create a play with the poem as the starting point. The dialogues are verses from Urdu poetry.
Similarly, in Kannada Kavya Nataka Chilume, the actors will perform a play with a Kannada poem as the premise.” Panel discussions and case study presentations on applied theatre are part of the festivities this Sunday. Other on-ground activities include theatre games.
Rs 100 upwards. At Indira Nagar Sangeetha Sabha
ayeshatabassum@newindianexpress.com
@aishatax