Curtain call: Theatre of the youth, by the youth, for…everyone!
Thespo is now a national phenomenon with nearly two hundred plays registering every year. Most of the young people in this field are Thespo graduates
Since the past decade or so, I have started observing a change in the attitude of older people when they talk about the youth. It has changed from “These young people are lazy and useless! When we were young, we used to…” to “Youngsters do so many things these days. It’s incredulous!” I think I belong to a generation that was on the cusp of both these reactions. But I am sure about one thing – all those associated with Thespo would have definitely heard the second reaction more!
I had mentioned Thespo two Sundays back while writing about Akarsh. I heard about Thespo in 2007, when I was in the last year of college. Thespo was in its ninth year. I had received a call from a phone number in Mumbai and during those times, seeing such a number flashing on the screen was pretty exciting as it meant that there was a possibility of working with new people!
I spoke to Quasar Thakore Padamsee over the phone and he explained the concept of Thespo to me. It was pretty exciting! Their two criteria were that the age of all participants, including the director and technicians, should not be more than twenty-five years and the duration of the play should not be less than sixty minutes. That’s it.
We, as participants, had a free hand for everything else. The festival was divided into two rounds, wherein a group of judges would travel all over the country and watch the plays that had registered with them. Out of those plays, around four to five plays would be selected and the main festival would be organised in Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre or the NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts). To make it more interesting, the main festival also had awards for best play and other individual awards.
I had participated in many inter-collegiate one-act play theatre competitions by then and did not have much experience in putting a play together that was more than sixty minutes in length. This seemed like a good avenue to start. And this, I believe, is the best thing about Thespo - to make young people think in terms of a larger format of storytelling on stage.
Quasar then drove down to Pune to hold a formal orientation about the festival and answered all questions that potential participants had. That year, there was only one play that was registered in Pune – ours. We thought that since this was a national-level festival, we should not perform in Marathi and put up a play in English instead. While the judges were supportive of the fact that we put up a play, they unanimously told us that we should have performed in the language that which we were most comfortable about. I was glad to see that they were encouraging people to perform in local languages rather than English or Hindi. Naturally we didn’t get selected that year.
Next year with a comedy play in Marathi, I think we were better prepared. Also, the number of registrations from Pune increased to three. The judges that year had a better feedback and two months later we received a call that we were in the finals!
I distinctly remember the day we performed our play – “Dalan” – at Thespo finals. It was the opening play of the festival. Thespo is usually sold out with some patrons even sitting between the rows. Before the show, I told our team not to lose confidence if people don’t respond since most of the audience was non-Marathi. I was so wrong! Seldom does a play enjoy such an audience response! The sixty-five minute play went on for nearly eighty minutes. It is one of the most memorable evenings of the entire team. The fact that we were adjudged the best play made the entire experience sweeter.
I stopped being eligible for Thespo a few years back. But by then Thespo and Natak Company had built an unbreakable bond. I miss being a participant, but make up for it by being a Thespo-appointed mentor for a local play or by conducting workshops during the festival. The organising faces change every year as Quasar, Toral Shah, Vivek Rao and the original team believe that the festival should be organised by people below twenty-five too. They are now present only to provide advice when needed. They did not break tradition last year and organised an online theatre festival which was also well received.
Thespo is now a national phenomenon with nearly two hundred plays registering every year. Most of the young people in this field are Thespo graduates and I am glad that I am one too!