As Goa celebrates 125 years of tiatr, with various events celebrating the history and honouring
tiatr personalities taking place across the state, it’s only fair to ponder
upon the future of this unique performing art and how it can be carried forward
and kept thriving for posterity.
In the vibrant and active tiatr space, commercial tiatrs reign
supreme, providing more than just entertainment to the audiences that pack the
halls during their shows; offering a mirror to society while also adding much
needed comic relief to one’s daily routine. On the other side of the curtain,
they provide a platform for tiatr artistes to hone their skills as they strive
to be better than their last performance.
Getting to the commercial stage is a journey every budding
talent needs to undertake and helping them along the way are the tiatr
competitions. Over the last few months, the Tiatr A and B Group competitions
have been drawing in quite an audience, eager to explore and encourage new
talent. What’s interesting about these two competitions is that it has
automatically generated a massive pool of talent and provided them a stage to
shine. Also, if one participates in a play in B Group competition, they cannot
participate in another play in that competition or in any play in the A Group
competition. That by itself multiplies the number of people required, given the
sheer number of plays that are being performed at the two competitions.
“Tiatr is an art form that is so unique as it is something for
Goans, by Goans and a style and format Goans enjoy, whether in Goa or abroad.
Like any industry, there needs to be an organic way of ensuring that fresh
talent comes up and then that is a process by itself, if they make it through,
cement their place in the industry etc. But just the fact that there is a pool
of talent being created is definitely a bonus for tiatr,” says Anthony
Rodrigues, a tiatr lover.
“With commercial tiatr you tend to see familiar faces and
sometimes the draw is based on who all are performing as there are said
expectations based on the director, actors, singers, comedians, etc. In this
case, you are pleasantly surprised when you see someone new. In tiatr, it is
all about how they perform on stage so you have to see it to judge and each one
may have their own opinion, but there has been some great fresh talent that has
come out of these two competitions,” adds Risoleta Fernandes, another tiatr
lover.
Cipriano D’Souza was part of the Festival of Classical Tiatr,
which was held by Tiatr Academy of Goa. He acted in the tiatr ‘Ekuch Rosto’,
directed by Tomazinho Cardozo, which was originally written by the late M Boyer
in the 1970s. He recently participated in the A Group tiatr ‘Yes Sir’ held at
Kala Academy on October 1, 2018, written and directed by Tomazinho Cardozo and
presented by Kala Mogi Candolim. “I sang three songs in this tiatr – the
opening song, a trio, a soloand a kant. I’ve always loved the stage and I became
more confident when I won the second place at ‘Goencho Avaz’, the all Goa
Konkani singing competition, in the Duet Category this year. This is my second
year in an A Group competition tiatr,” says this young actor.
He adds how each group having different set of actors and
singers can be an advantage for young talent: “Nowadays, it is very difficult
to find youngsters who keep Konkani and tiatr culture alive because many feel
English is the best. The idea of changing the actors and singers for both the groups
is also a good idea because we get to see new faces and new talent. Many times,
people watch the tiatr and if they see the same faces, they get a bit bored.”
One of the tiatrs in the B Group competition was ‘Khori
Girestkai’, written and directed by Leticia Mascarenhas and presented by Matias
Creative group, Calangute. Stacey Mesquita sang five songs in the show. “I sang
five songs, a duet, solo, opening, trio and a choral with 12 singers. I also
won prizes in the solo and duet singing category. The tiatrs were staged in
Margao and we received a great response from the audience, which is a bigger
crowd compared to Panjim. The A Group tiatr competition was held in Panjim,”
says Stacey, who is also a part of the band, Smooth. She has been participating
in the tiatr competitions since the age of ten years and has sang and acted for
noted directors.
“The
tiatr competitions, both A and B Group, are a great platform for children and
youngsters. After watching our performance on stage, many tiatr directors approach
us for roles, thus paving the way to commercial tiatrs,” informs Stacey.
