With Leila Alvares’ production, ‘Ghost’, a
musical, being recently staged to a houseful audience, and ‘Club Desire’, an
English play from Mumbai directed by Sunil Shanbag and organised by the National
Association for the Blind to be staged on September 23, 2015 at Kala Academy,
it would seem that English theatre in Goa is thriving. While that may be the
case with English theatre that is coming from different parts of the country to
Goa, local English theatre appears to be in need of a boost.
Isabel de Santa Rita Vaz is a popular
English playwright and director from Goa who founded the Mustard Seed Art
Company almost 28 years ago. Isabel is of the opinion that English theatre in
Goa is at its initial stage. “There are other languages in Goa, like Konkani
and Marathi, that are more popular when it comes to theatre. There is a small
audience for English plays but a bigger audience for English musicals. Kala
Academy has a school of drama but as there is a greater demand for plays in
Konkani, Marathi and Hindi, they rarely do English plays,” explains Isabel.
Doing their bit to promote English theatre,
the next production by Mustard Seed Art Company will be performed by November
2015. “It is a team effort and we discuss everything together before taking a
decision. The script has been finalised,” she adds.
Alfwold Silveira, popularly known as RJ
Alfie, is a playwright and director who is on a mission to make English theatre
interesting for children. “English theatre in Goa is completely dead but not
buried. It is a system problem as there is no love for theatre and the same is
inculcated in children. In Goa, there is no school of drama that teaches
English theatre where artistes can grow professionally and earn money. Tiatrs
in Goa are doing so well with each tiatr having a minimum of 20-25 shows; this
is because it is a traditional folk art that is loved by all,” says Alfwold,
who fell in love with theatre as a student at Don Bosco, Matunga-Mumbai where
they had to perform a Shakespearean play every year.
Currently, Alfwold teaches Youth Theatre at
Goa University, Taleigao and Dempo College, Panjim with a 30 hours module. “I
was conducting two-month theatre workshops at four venues. Initially, the
classes received great response but the numbers started to decrease as the
parents felt that theatre could not be taught by activities. At the end of the
workshop, we had a performance of the students, that’s when the parents said
that they would have let the students continue if they knew about the
performance,” says Alfwold, who directed the English musical, ‘The Resurrection
Song’ by the Amateur Dramatics & Music Society (ADAMS) this year. He
recommends schools and educators to start theatre classes for students as it
helps in personality development.
With years of experience in the field of
theatre in India and Australia, Les Menezes is hoping that English theatre will
get a huge boost with the establishment of a theatre group of like-minded
individuals with great talent. “English theatre has proven successful in Goa
especially with the most recent performance by the Bangalore group with the
musical, ‘Ghost’ directed by Leila Alvares. The tickets were high but they
still managed to pack the hall. Ages ago, Goa had the tradition of doing
musicals which now only Don Bosco Oratory Production does with their latest one
being ‘Grease’. English musicals woo the audience but strict English theatre is
still catching up. Big time musicals are expensive to produce and the audience
for English plays usually comprise middle aged audience who love classical
plays,” Les explains.
“There should be at least one comedy every
year by Goans as there are outstanding theatre groups in Goa. This year, there
are 15 students who are part of the Kala Academy School of Drama and I have
written short plays for the students,” concludes Les.
