With three one-act plays, Thespo set the stage in its first year, in 1999. In its fifteenth edition, last year, the youth theatre festival grew to feature five full-length plays. As the curtain rises on the sixteenth edition this year, the organising team has started screening 183 plays registered from 28 cities in India and Sri Lanka.
Amidst the chaos, as they prepare for the week-long celebration from December 16 to 21 at Prithvi Theatre and Sitara Studio in Mumbai, Manan Mehta, Thespo co-ordinator, is quick to say, “The difference would be that the three one-act plays in 1999 were curated after watching these plays being performed at colleges in the city, while Thespo15 had 125 plays being registered from 12 cities.”
Started by a group of five fresh college graduates who found that the traditional theatre institutions and organisations were not willing to give the youth an opportunity to explore and exhibit their talent, today, except for the age limit (participants have to be 25 years or younger), Thespo firmly believes in including youth from all parts of the world, all fields, all language groups and all art forms who share a love for theatre.
But it not just the numbers that have grown exponentially.
Festival organisers have seen a transition in content as well. According to them, for a few years now, the strongest plays coming out of the festival are newly written texts, reflecting a ‘young India’ that wants to tell its own story, rather than another’s.
“The reality in India today is unlike any other, and therefore the frustrations, preoccupations and dreams of young people are not present in existing texts. That’s probably why so many new plays premiere at Thespo,” says Quasar Thakore Padamsee, artistic director, QTP, which guides and mentors the team organising Thespo.
Thakore Padamsee also sees work that is bolder, artistically.
“Young theatre practitioners are not bound by the old rules or customs of theatre. They are finding exciting ways to tell their own stories. Therefore, a lot of the work is incredibly exciting in form, style and content,” he says.
Each year the themes vary, where one year the obsession was with water, last year the plays were all about young people looking at people like Einstein and Ghalib and trying to make sense of them in today’s world.
Started with the intention to recognize, encourage and groom young work produced in the country, provide them with opportunities to develop their theatre skills, achieve professionalism, and improve the quality of youth theatre in India, Thespo even conducts workshops at the festival free of cost, in order to widen its reach and make theatre accessible to everyone.
Over the last fifteen years, the festival has grown from a one-evening event to a year-round movement comprising an annual festival, monthly shows at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, theatre training programmes, workshops, site-specific performances, full length plays in all languages and audience outreach.
Even the scope has moved beyond the realms of theatre, to include activities such as film-making, radio, graphic design, live music, among others, as applicable in the world of theatre.
According to festival co-ordinator Mehta a participant can be a part of Thespo at an organisational level and/or at a performative level.
The festival has given wings to several powerful artists such as actors Nimrat Kaur, Richa Chhadha, Huma Qureshi, Neil Bhoopalam, Ali Fazal, actor-director Akarsh Khurana and award-winning playwright Ram Ganesh Kamatham, among others.
The desi tamasha has its international tadka too.
In 2012, Canadian theatre practitioner Daniel Daley, who is now the artistic producer for a similar festival called Paprika Festival, was part of Thespo. The following year, they hosted two young theatre practitioners from the UK, Rachael Clerke and Josephine Joy, who conducted a couple of workshops. Barbara Anderlic, a young Slovenian theatre practitioner, currently practicing in China, was also part of the festival.
“Thespo has also been hosting young interns from the US, Canada, the UK, and this year, a young theatre group from Sri Lanka has registered their play. We hope that this is the beginning of Thespo connecting with young theatre groups and hopes to initiate a cross border exchange of theatre,” states Mehta.
While crossing borders has been scripted, the organising committee is also looking forward to representation from the land of tiatr.
“Thespo has been actively looking out to connect with youth theatre groups in Goa. We have been lucky to have associated with the Drama Club at BITS Pilani, Goa, but are now looking forward to link with other groups as well. As we always say, there’s something for everyone at Thespo, be it designing, marketing, researching, communicating, music, directing, writing or editing, we believe that if the Goan youth are interested in theatre, then Thespo is the right place for them to learn, share and connect with the larger theatre community and who knows, with enough interest and financial support, we could possibly have the festival itself being conducted in Goa and Bombay,” says the festival co-ordinator.
Finance is the bane of most theatre groups. So how has Thespo managed this?
Some of their sponsors include Lipton, Writer Corporation, Yuva, The Mobile Store and ONGC.
However, inconsistent funding led Thespo to initiate its Friends of Thespo movement in 2010. The purpose of Friends of Thespo was two-fold. Firstly, to raise ‘basic’ funds to ensure that the festival at least happens. Secondly, to build a network with Thespo Alumni, who moved on past the 25-year-old barrier.
“Today, this community of theatre lovers or performing arts lovers are helping Thespo to continue and sustain its efforts to building a community of young theatre professionals. Additionally, there are young people who wish to associate themselves with Thespo, learn theatre and connect with other people through Thespo, who get a chance to become our ambassadors on-ground and help the Thespo machinery run effectively in their own cities. They are an integral part of Team Thespo as they help us in connecting with other young people doing theatre, who may or may not have heard of Thespo,” says Mehta.
With the literary world facing severe creative curtailment from the current government, has this found footing in theatre too?
“It’s made everyone a little more careful about what they say. To stage strong political plays and make social statements, is now a little risky,” says Thakore Padamsee.
While he admits, that nothing has officially happened, several recent incidents are pushing the focus towards suppressing people’s freedom of speech, he says.
“At the senior level, some people have begun self-censorship. At the Thespo level, the performers/writers normally respond instinctively to the world around them, so we hope there will be some interesting rebellious work,” says the artistic director.
According to him one of the finest plays to come out of Thespo has been Butter & Mashed Banana from 2005, which was about the freedom of speech and the nexus between politicians.
“Who knew it would be so prophetic,” he says.
Speaking about one of the strongest new plays in Bombay this year, the dystopian Under The Chestnut Tree, Thakore Padamsee says, “although not a Thespo play, all the members of the company have been part of Thespo at some point, so it was very encouraging to see people make a stand for the freedom of speech.”
He believes language also plays a huge part and that right now there is far more suppression of Dalit Lok Shahirs than there is of ‘formalised’ urban performances.
On a parting note, he quips, “dissent is no longer permitted. The media is no longer really free. That’s where the arts and theatre can truly be as Genet said, ‘A mirror to hold up to society.’”
Review Bureau
