Theatre fest to explore themes like secularism, casteism, mental health

Secularism, casteism, mental health, and increasing dependence on technology will be among the various themes that will be explored at an upcoming theatre festival.

The 12th edition of Atelier's Campus Theatre (ACT) festival that will open on Sunday here, will feature plays by 27 teams from different colleges across Delhi, including Miranda House, Motilal Nehru College, Delhi Technological University, Lady Sri Ram College, Dyal Singh College, and Gargi College.

The event will open in New Delhi and will be followed by performances in Jaipur, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune and conclude in Mumbai, organisers said.

This year, the festival will have special emphasis on "vernacular theatre", while also making use of different performance techniques like 'dastangoi' and red nose clowning, they added.

Curated by Delhi-based theatre veteran Kuljeet Singh, the festival was conceived in 2007, with the objective of giving a platform to young theatre performers.

While "Let It Go?" by College of Vocational Studies will lay emphasis on the concept of secularism in Indian context at the grass root level and how it has evolved in the modern scenario, Miranda House's "Anukriti" will tell the story of 35-year old Radhika, a patient of schizophrenia.

While Gargi College will critically look at the history of caste in India in "Ra-varn-vaas", Zakir Husain College's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's classic satire "The Three Penny Opera" into "Do Kaudi Ka Khel" is asocialist critique of the capitalist system.

According to festival manager Gaurav Suri, the teams were shortlisted out of a total 97 applications, following a preliminary round of line reading sessions.

"Each team is given 30-45 minutes to showcase their talent and converse with the panelist(s). Once the line reading sessions are done, teams which panelists feel are ready the most to perform are chosen.

"We do not judge anyone on the basis of our personal content choice and have an open forum to choose any content a college team wants to perform. This year, we have selected 12 stage productions and 15 street plays," Suri told PTI.

With the primary objective of encouraging "young talent in theatre", ACT is a "non-competitive" festival meant only for college theatre groups.

"There would not be any winner. The main motive behind the ACT festival is give a professional platform for students to perform," Suri, a theatre artist himself, said.

He added that during the course of the festival, the participants also get an opportunity to be part of discussions, workshops, and performances on various aspects of theatre.

"ACT Festival has contributed immensely to the growth of a substantial number of teams which are now producing theatre productions regularly. A lot of participants of ACT Festival are already consistently working in theatre, performing arts and films," he said.

Following its show in Delhi, the festival will next move to Jaipur (March 4), Chandigarh (March 8-9), Kolkata (March 14-15), Bangalore (March 21-22), and then to Pune (March 28).

The festival will conclude with a final show in Mumbai on March 29.