“All are called, but few are chosen,” expressed Bonaventure Peter Fernandes, popularly known as Bonaventure D’Pietro in the field of Konkani and Goan culture. He was sharing his long journey and rich experience in the field of tiatr at the ‘Meet the Artiste’ programme organised by Tiatr Academy of Goa (TAG).
Born on July 14, 1943 in the village of Anjuna, Bardez, Bonaventure pursued his primary education in Portuguese and learnt to play violin and solfeggio from a parochial music school. At the age of 14, young Bonaventure, saw a tiatr, ‘Nosai vo Pisai’, for the first time in his village. “This made me restless and I made up my mind to pen my own tiatr, thus aspiring to become a tiatrist,” he narrated his story.
This tiatrist made several efforts to write a tiatr to his satisfaction and finally penned a tiatr, ‘Birthday’, which was staged in Margao. In the same year (1961), he wrote his second tiatr, ‘Boro Gonvlli’, which was later renamed as ‘Devachea Rajeant Tukai Apounnem Asa’. After the liberation of Goa, in 1962, he left for Mumbai to take up a job in a printing press, where he met various writers and publishers.
This artiste’s contribution in the field of tiatr is noteworthy. On his return to Goa after 15 long years in Mumbai, Bonaventure restarted writing tiatrs. His tiatrs like ‘Dhunvor’, ‘Chitrakar’, ‘Patang’, ‘Rogtacho Thembo’, ‘Girannacho Put’, ‘Sorgar Thavn Apounnem’, ‘Vatt Chuklelim Suknnim’, ‘Faxi’ (not released), ‘Boroinnar-Director’, ‘Mhozo Podon To!’, ‘Amche Zomnintli Girestkai’, ‘Adeus Mhoje Maim’ are well appreciated. Besides this, he composed hundreds of songs and mandos. He has also written many folk plays for All India Radio (AIR). He has also contributed towards popular programmes ‘Bolkanvar Gozali’ and ‘Sahitya Jhelo’ for many years.
“On most occasions, we have success stories of several tiatrists at the “Meet the Artiste’ programmes, but today we had the chance to listen to unsuccessful tales of Bonaventure,” stated the President of TAG, Prince Jacob.
Expressing his satisfaction with the participation of the audience for this month’s TAG programme, TAG Vice President Joe Rose urged the spectators to spare some time and attend such events in large numbers to listen to untold, amazing stories of Goan artistes.
