In May this year, while bringing a musical production to a close and regrouping with the cast and crew, city’s well-known theatre personality, Denver Anthony Nicholas realised that out of the 45 people who had auditioned for the musical, they could take only six of them on board. “That hit me quite hard because I have gone for a lot of auditions myself and I have never had a call back, so I thought to myself, if somebody like me who has been involved with theatre for almost 23 years now, can still feel some sort of rejection, how would a 20 or a 21 year old feel?” begins Denver, who went on to launch a platform for every theatre enthusiast looking for a space, a stage, and a chance to perform, called Enter Stage.
The beginning
The reason, Denver says he couldn’t take in everyone who auditioned, is, “Because we generally do a lot of musicals which demand one to be able to sing, among other requirements. During the auditions, we met a lot of people who could act, dance, but couldn’t sing. So, we had to let them go. There are other limitations to a play. Like, there are only a certain number of characters that are needed. So you can’t obviously use everybody. But the thought that 39 people who were willing to be a part of theatre had to go away disheartened, stayed with me. I began trying to figure out how to do something that will give an opportunity to all the others. That’s how Enter Stage started.
Space for amateurs
While there are open mics for poetry, standup, music, there is no open mic platform for theatre. “If someone wants to get into theatre, they have to be part of a group first, and go for rehearsals — that’s how it works. I wanted to break that, because there are many people who do not have the time to join a group or go for rehearsals, but are as much theatre lovers as us. Enter Stage makes no demand. It gives you the space and time to perform a monologue of your choice, practiced at your own pace and performed on stage,” Denver tells us.
Launched in September, the initiative by Poochu’s Productions is in its fourth edition. The interesting thing about the format is that there is no bar on age or language. “We have had a 14-year-old perform, but I am still hoping to see somebody who is 65-70 to come and perform someday. Furthermore, with language no bar, I am hoping we have participants perform in Telugu, Arabic, Urdu, French or Malayalam. As of now, we have had entries only in English and Tamil. I hope word reaches out and we have a monologue in many different lanuages. That’s where I am hoping Enter Stage will eventually reach, in time,” says Denver, adding that the format is something that can be carried on by anybody — from colleges, universities to companies. “Every month, we have seven to eight participants. But the first person who performed in the first edition may not have done anything from then till now. How do we fill that gap? So, after the sixth edition, we want to get all the participants for a 10-15 minute play. Through this, I am only trying to build a new community of theatre practitioners.”
`150. December 17. 7 pm onwards. Vidya Sagar, Kotturpuram.