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Curtain call: On my way to stage experience of a lifetime!
When I was growing up, I was always intrigued with going abroad, to more developed nations
When I was growing up, I was always intrigued with going abroad, to more developed nations. My father used to travel abroad to teach at various universities and he used to be away for months. Since there were no video calls or emails during that time (yes, I realise that I am old), I used to rely on my father’s description of his experiences and physical copies of pictures that he had clicked there. I had insisted on travelling with him more than a few times, but he had decided that his sons should travel abroad on their own dime. My elder brother picked the correct path by becoming an engineer and travelled for further studies. I, on the other hand, had chosen the Commerce stream and (to make matters worse!) had started taking a lot of interest in theatre and films.
As luck would have it, my first international trip materialised because of theatre. And serendipitously, I flew to the UK the next day after appearing for my graduate exams! While I will write in detail about that later, I distinctly remember planning to watch as many plays as I can over there. And I was dismayed by just glancing at the ticket prices! It was 2008 and I was not conditioned to pay more than 50 GBP to watch a show! But after a few days, I made up my mind and zeroed in on two plays. I watched them at the coveted Westend area in London and it blew my mind. The shows were visual spectacles of course. But for me, the experience started with entering the theatres.
The architecture, the aesthetics and most importantly how painstakingly it had been maintained. I loved it. What I loved most was their ability to use modern technology in old buildings. I returned to India and reminisced about the experience from time to time. A few of my friends went to the UK for further studies in theatre and I would listen to their experiences and feel envy.
A few years later, in 2016, I directed a version of the classic “Sangeet Saunshaykallol” which was produced by the theatre stalwart Prashant Damle and it starred him and Rahul Deshpande as primary characters. Damle is a veteran and has tirelessly built an audience in various countries too. Most of the shows which are performed abroad are in smaller venues and ill-equipped halls. But with a play like “Sangeet Saunshaykallol” he had an exciting plan!
He envisioned that a play like “Sangeet Saunshaykallol” should be performed at a venue fit for it. Just the thought of performing at a venue in Westend was exhilarating and Damle, the amazing producer that he is, started converting his vision into action. With the help of his contacts there and a few sponsors, he managed to secure a century old venue – The Peacock Theatre. The date was set nearly six months in advance – October 9, 2016. Almost all Maharashtra Mandals in the UK lent their support.
We were supposed to ship our set around three months before. But since we were also performing in India actively, we built an exact replica of the set just for this one show and shipped it. I was surprised at the extravagance of it all. But Damle had secured a show in the US in July 2017 and had already planned to keep the set in storage in the UK and ship it to the US from there itself. He had calculated that it made more sense to keep it there, rather than ship it back to India and then re-ship it to the US, as it had already travelled half the distance. I was very impressed with his future planning.
While other groups cut down on their teams while travelling abroad to cut costs, we took our entire team. Because this wasn’t like any other show. A total of 22 people travelled there.
Five of us travelled before the rest of the team for a technical check. It felt good to travel again to the country where I had first watched large-scale productions. Only this time, I was going to be a small part of it!
Nipun Dharmadhikari is a storyteller and looks forward to telling them on stage, in front of the camera or in person.
