MARGAO: Notwithstanding the revolutionary technology available today, street theatre still has its relevance and should be revived in its true form while using the available technology to make it more efficient and effective, was the consensus at the panel discussion held on Sunday at Ravindra Bhavan after releasing the book “Street Play: The First Theatre”.
Sandesh Prabhudessai, the author of the book, said street theatre is a medium that can do what no other medium can do and directly connect the artiste to the audience. Admitting that street theatre is used only at competitions and for propaganda or to campaign over an issue, he said there was need to recognise the form and power of the medium.
Appreciating the street plays performed at various competitions, Prabhudessai castigated attempts to take street theatre to the stage and suggested that after the competition the street plays should be performed in villages and other relevant places.
Consumer activist Roland Martins suggested that street theatre groups be formed so that they could prepare plays for various organizations to carry forward the message while Avinash Raikar and Raghoba Narvenkar who were associated with street theatre earlier pointed out that Sangarsh Natya Manch was successful then because it was part of the Progressive Students Union that had an ideology.
Saiesh Palondikar who was moderating the panel discussion pointed out that while earlier everybody had time, today nobody has time and hence suggested that modern technology be used like cinematography to send the street play to more people than the audience gathered on the roadside.
Responding to his question of street theatre being a career option Bhaskar Naik said it could be one as the election commission had used street theatre to educate people on right to vote while Sandesh disclosed that a mobile company used street theatre to prepare marketing strategies for their mobile.
Admitting that the career aspect needs to be studied, Prashanti Talpankar however, asserted that participants in street theatre develop their personality and confidence in a significant manner as compared to those who do not participate in such activity.
She disagreed with some of the panelists who said the present day students are not sensitive and said that the adult society is responsible for killing the children’s sensitivity. “The children are sensitive but they do not know what they can or should do,” she said.
Social Activist Sabina Martins argued that for street theatre to be successful participants should feel passionate about the topic and recalled that the earlier street theatre was successful because the participants had an emotional connect with the topic.
Kavendra Phaldessai explained how they used street theatre to educate people in Canacona on a very sensitive topic like adolescent pregnancy.
