The Work of Theatre

Bhartendu Kashyap

 ‘When will you start working?’ Young members of our theatre group often get this complaint from their families and friends. By this is meant, ‘When will you start a job?’Or,‘when will you start earning?’ Work in an amateur theatre group obviously does not pay any money like a job. This however does not mean that it is not work.  In fact, the amount of time and degree of commitment theatre requires is more than many regular jobs.

No serious theatre is possible without putting in hard work. When we are in the production process, i.e. preparing for a play, then on average we meet and work together for about six hours a day, every day of the week. During ‘breaks’ between preparing and performing plays we are busy with workshops on acting, body rhythm, music sensibility, or on technical matters like sound and lighting. Then there are sessions on poetry, painting, or stage-craft, and discussions on philosophy and social issues. We invite well-known artists, authors and intellectuals to these. We feel that a good theatre is not possible without a feel for other arts, an awarenessof diverse social issues, and an understanding of the social context in which we are living.

Our theatre group is called The Mocking Birds. It was established four years ago. We are based in Lucknow, the capital of the largest state of the country. Members are either students, or work at other jobs. We have fifteen regular members. It can be considered a medium-sized group. Some of us are good in composing music, some are good in writing dialogues, some are artists and are able to sketch and draw, but everyone also acts. All members are expected to be multi-talented, and ready to do different kinds of work.

Our members are from diverse communities and castes. In terms of class we are mostly from the lower middle class. Only two to three of us are from a working class background. We are equally backward in gender ratio. Only four or five in the group are women. They too find it difficult to be regular. Young women in our society face way more pressure while doing theatre than men.Some of our members are not prepared to work as rigorously as theatre demands. Everybody faces the pressure of making a living. Ideological differences also emerge. We lose two to three people every year. The same number of new people also join in.

Decision-making in a small and diverse group like ours is never simple. However, we consciously try to follow a democratic process where all decisions are taken only after discussions during which all members get an opportunity to put forth their point of view.

A Passage to Theatre

I got exposed to theatre in myhome town inAzamgarhdistrict. My father was active in the local Ramlila. I would do small things, like make Hanuman’s tail, or just be around to do errands. In school I was active in many cultural activities, including plays. I remember we did AndherNagari. We would practice and sing songs in the folk idiom of Heera-Dom. We also developed a rational approach to understanding through participation in cultural activities.

I did well in my intermediate examinationsand got into Allahabad University. Like most other students with good marks I joined the sciences, and did a B.Sc. Atthe university I got aproper exposure to theatre. I joined thegroup led byAniranjanBhaumik. Rehearsals for this group used to happen in the Union Hall of the university. Prof.Lal Bahadur Verma, Pranay Krishan, Mrittunjay and Subhash Kashyap used to come and interact with us. It was a serious theatre group. The first play I did was on poems of Dr. Shri. Ram Verma,NanheNanhe Pair. We also performed the Caucasian Chalk Circle of Brecht,Nikoloi Gogol’s InspectorGeneral, Swadesh Deepak’sCourt Martialand Mohan Rakesh’s AhsadhKaaEk Din.After completing my M.Sc. I came to Delhi to do a workshop on film-making. In Delhi, I applied to BNA (BhartenduNatya Academy), which is in Lucknow. At that time, it was one of the only two such academies in the country, the other one being the National School of Drama in Delhi.

The environment in BNA was markedly different from what I had experienced before. It was a place where there are twenty people around you who think only about theatre24 hours a day. And then there was institutional emphasis on training; you have to work so many hours on your vocals, so many on body control, etc. We also got exposure to the history and variety of theatre– GreekTheatre, Roman Theatre, Western Theatre, Russian Theatre, Oriental theatre. One positive of the institute training is that you learn to work rigorously and hence you can improve yourself. You learn how to achieve excellence, and what you have to do channelise excellence in others.  One drawback is the lackof socio-political awareness and democratic citizenship. This is not only in BNA; you will find it in NSD too. Our batch was fortunate that we had Prof. Surya Mohan Kulshreshth as the institute Director. He was a leftist and had been withthe Indian People’s Theatre Association. Many acclaimed directors used to visit the Academy. We were taught Brecht by Robin Das, who came as a guest faculty. Now BNA seems to have become more localised.

Somebody who has done serious theatre for 10-15 years is unable to leave. It is unlike other jobs, from which people retire and then live on pension, oron some other source of income. It is not only full-time work, but full lifetime engagement. Theatre people are able to establish a balance between their other requirements of life and theatre. Skills learnt in theatre like time management, stress management and work ethics help them create this balance.

Thriving Against the Wind

There are about ten to fifteen regular theatre groups in Lucknow. However, there is minimal institutional support. For rehearsals and meetings, we use aprivate space provided bya friend, for which we pay a nominal amount. Sangeet NatakAkademi rents out its space, but they charge Rs. 5,000 and it is very difficult to get. Since I am a BNA graduate, I can rent their auditorium for shows, and get up to 30 percent discount.

Lucknow gets two good theatre festivals every year. Repertoire Theatre Festival is corporate-funded, but the shows are of good quality. The second is Kabir Theatre Festival whose fourth edition was held recently. These festivals get groups from outside and provide us a good opportunity for interaction. There are two academies, BNA and SNA, and two festivals, so all technical support needed for a national, or international-level play can be arranged on demand in the city.

If your play and content is strong, then audience does come for the play and they are generally able to appreciate good theatre. However, the intellectual class does have an attitude that they do not come unless invited, i.e. unless a card is delivered to their home. We are unable to treat our play as a commodity. Hence we do not put a ticket. The ideal situation would be that a play covers expenses from ticket sales. However, that does not happen even in Delhi. A 200-300 seat auditorium is rarely filled. We will not be able to generate much cash if we put a ticket of 200 rupees, since many people who otherwise would come to watch the play would think before buying a ticket. Another reason is that if I see a play of the same category as ours being sold for Rs. 1,000, and keep my ticket at Rs. 200, I am devaluing our play. We rely on our own savings and contributions from well-wishers. Another important source is distribution of brochures about the play to the audience. Along with the brochure we keep an envelope, and request audience to contribute as much as they wish. That covers 15-20 percent of the expenses; this isas much as we would get from ticket sales.

The well-off sections of Lucknow do show concern for theatre, partly because they know that theatre can be a good means to personality development and communication skills. Student of elite schools have a good exposure to theatre. But they will not join a theatre group. They will do it out of hobby, and it will be part of their bio-data.

The changing social context of theatre is bringing new challenges. Seventy percent of my batch-mates from BNA are now doing cinema or TV serials. Many people who join us leave because they think they have not gained anything if their face is not on a poster in one year. This is a problem not only in youngsters, but also in mature people. They ask us to open our own YouTube channel to become visible on social media. We do not want to go after populist channels which may bring some recognition but would not do justice to our intent and content.

If new digital technologies are not used judiciously, theatre ends up being a multi-media product. Digital sound systems, and lighting have come; projection, etc., are also being used. Digital technology also provides an opportunity to see what is happening in other areas of the world. That is fine for learning,but theatre’s core is live performance. That magic does not get easily transmitted through such technologies. You can watch exercises on YouTube and learn, but you cannot design a play by watching what is on YouTube. If somebody does, it ends up being a bad imitation. Shankaran, Jyotishchand, Sunil Shanbag and other directors from the south and from Mumbai are using digital multi-media technology innovatively, but that is not happening in Lucknow. 

For people who do theatre it is much more than work. It has a life of its own which makes you humble. I consider theatre to be a play, which is based on the foundation of unreality. Its intent,however,is not to spread falsehood, but to realise the truth. Any art can rise to its highest level only with the full commitment of its artists. This requires that society too gives space to artists, and recognises their commitment. It is a work in society. Social concern for art should be more than what is seen today.

(As told to Sanjay Kumar and Sudha Vasan)

Bhartendu is the Theatre Director of The Mocking Birds, an amateur theatre group based in Lucknow. Other members of the group are Mahender, Devasheesh, Shakti, Deepa, Sachin, Vinay, Shubham, Shivanshi, Amit, Shivam, Sugreev, Suraj, Anuj, Harsh and Jaggi.

(This writeup first appeared in Critique, Vol 6, Issue 1, 2019)