05 Jul 2020  |   05:01am IST

From skits, to tiatrs, to now online dramas, Taleigao’s Pedru is a veteran all rounder

Peter Vaz belongs to the genre of non-commercial tiatrists. He started participating in the annual Kala Academy’s tiatr competition in 2003 and continues till date with enthusiasm.

PIO ESTEVES

Taleigao-based Pedru Vaz, popularly known as Peter Vaz on the tiatr stage, was born on June 7, 1965. His grandfather, late Jose Pereira and father, late Joaquim Vaz were very fond of tiatrs and the former would take his grandson for tiatrs held annually during the Harvest Festival in the village, while the latter would enjoy watching tiatrs staged by stalwarts of the Konkani stage, M Boyer and Jacint Vaz.

“There’s nobody in the family who is a tiatrist,” Peter Vaz shares, but he has lived in an atmosphere wherein his neighbours were tiatrists. “Probably that environment might have had an impact on my life and resulted in inclination towards penning and staging tiatrs,” he said.

While serving as a catechist in St Michael’s Church since 1989, Peter would always pen skits during the Christmas celebrations and seek help from his fellow catechists in order to stage them. “For 15 long years this practice of penning and staging skits, one-act plays continued during the Christmas season and the Catechetical Day celebrations,” he informed.

Inspired by tiatrs presented by late Rosario Rodrigues, Peter was encouraged by his fellow catechists to pen a tiatr and in 2003 the first tiatr ‘Ami Kelea Ti Chuk’ came to light for the Christmas celebrations, with participation by the catechists, youth and villagers. 

Rafael Fernandes, a tiatrist from his village, who had just returned from the Gulf, assisted Peter regarding songs and the script. Bernard Pinheiro, another villager, also stepped in for assistance.

In the following year, tiatr ‘Oso Amcho Somaz’, another production from the pen of Peter Vaz continued, with its presentation at the annual Harvest Festival in the village. “During that period, though enthusiasm prevailed,” he said, “there was no registered club or institution in our village,” he revealed.

Peter Vaz’s first tiatr for the KA’s tiatr competition ‘Devachem Dennem’ was directed by noted director, Premanand Polle. “The last scene or ‘podd’ddo’ was scripted on the previous day of the competition. And two amateur artistes, who had stepped first time on stage, forgot their dialogues,” he concealed, “but when the same tiatr was staged for another competition by Vandana Productions, Borim, it picked up a consolation prize.”

In the same year, St Michael Socio-Cultural Association’ came into existence with the combined effort of Peter and Rafael Fernandes and formation of a new committee. “The tiatrs penned for the annual harvest festival in the village, would later be presented at the KA’s tiatr competition, with modification in script and title,” he disclosed.

From 2005-2010 everything sailed smoothly with the presentation of following tiatrs ‘Sonkoxttant Uzvadd’ (2006), ‘Mali’ (2007), ‘Divo’ (2008), ‘Rinn’ (2009) and ‘Kalliz Dukhoilem’ (2010) by Peter and Rafael, as a joint venture. A little misunderstanding between the committee members prompted Peter to form another association titled ‘Taleigao Dramatic Troupe’, with new

Meanwhile, during the period from 2012-2016, Peter decided to script children’s tiatrs as well “After training village children for five consecutive years, the same artistes were later useful for tiatrs staged at KA’s tiatr competition,” Peter stated.

Directors who have assisted Peter with his tiatrs include Premanand Polle, Saish Deshpande, Kunal Marlalkar, Jayendranath Hardankar, Wilson Mazarello and Elvis Sequeira for the children’s tiatrs. “Expertise from all these directors helped all the artistes to gain mastery over theatrical skills and scale greater heights,” he said.

Apart from participating in KA’s annual tiatr competition, Peter has also staged his tiatrs ‘Mali’ (23 shows) and ‘Portuguez Passport’ (24 shows) in the villages, depending on the demand. “It has been a different experience presenting our productions in the villages across Goa,” he says.

Peter watches Marathi dramas in order to pick up various features which include plots, direction and scenic ideas. He also prefers watching tiatrs by Roseferns and Mario Menezes as the former’s carry good scripts and the latter’s has comedy and uniqueness in play.

At the KA’s tiatr competition, Peter’s tiatr ‘Mali’ bagged the first prize, while tiatr ‘Sonkoxttant Uzvadd’ won the second prize and tiatrs ‘Rinn’ and ‘Good Bye Goa’ picked up the fourth prize. He prefers to focus on family and social issues when penning his tiatrs and can handle any character, but has been seen more often in semi-comedy roles on stage.

Due to Covid-19 and the lockdown that followed, tiatrs have come to an abrupt halt in Goa. But to overcome this tight situation, in June 2020, an initiative by Candida D’Souza and Prashant Paddekar from Taleigao only helped in the formation of ‘Taleigao  Dramatic Troupe YouTube Channel’ where village talent will find a lot of exposure. “First song ‘Goenchi Lamani’ has already received an overwhelming response and more songs like ‘Viva Sao Joao’ and others will follow soon,” Peter concludes