Banashankari /JP Nagar :

Centre for Film and Drama (CFD), which turned 10 last August, will stage six plays, Tuesday onwards, as part of a milieu of events spread across this landmark year.

“We wanted an institute for training in integrated media and production,” says co-founder Prakash Belawadi. Now, he says, this has become so commonplace that even the term ‘convergence’ has gone out of use.

When CFD took off, its facility on Millers Road had, in addition to a performance space, an art gallery. But in 2010, it was mandated as a trust under Suchitra Cinema and Cultural Academy, and the school building coming up in its premises in Banashankari Stage II will be ready by the end of this year, the actor-director estimates.

Since its opening production, Brian Friel’s Translations directed by Mallika Prasad, in 2004, the group has averaged about four productions a year. And the selection of plays, on the whole, Belawadi says, are concerned with identity and identity crises.

“All our actors and directors are people who are interested in theatre as well as literature and other arts, and work with other groups in Bengaluru as well. So most of our plays are not only Indian, they are also very Kannadiga,” he says.

Like many of his peers, he rubbishes the notion that the technology that has led to this media integration has robbed theatre of this audience and artistes.

“I’ve been in theatre for about 30 years and every year, someone asks me about this. If anything, mainstream Kannada cinema is at risk because you can’t experiment in film and serials the way you can in theatre and get away with it,” he says.

But the journey so far for CFD, as it is for anyone in the field of theatre, hasn’t been free of hardship, nor is it likely to be. “One of the main challenges is that you’re constantly borrowing, trying to make things work in the box office because there is hardly any sponsorship in theatre,” he says, adding that this ensures that those who stick to theatre, usually, are the ones who love it most.

But while this passion for theatre remains in the artistes, Belawadi has observed that it has rather fizzled out in those who write about it.

“Earlier, staging a play was a risk, and reviewing it was equally risky,” he recalls, adding that critics were also people who were part of the theatre community, like himself.

“They deeply cared about it, and would get hated for the kind of reviews they wrote. This kind of engagement with the writer is something I miss,” he says. And this, he notes, is a problem common to cinema and music as well.

Even at the institute, he says, though he and the other faculty would like to train students in the art of theatre criticism, few are interested. “Most come to learn editing or acting,” he says.

So what does he feel is the solution to this? Conferences that facilitate interaction between members of the theatre community and those who write about them, and discussions of fresh scripts, he replies.

Plays next week

Tuesday – Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

Wednesday –  Aatankavaadiya Aakasmika Saavu (Kannada)

Thursday – The Other Side Of History, a translation of Baaki Itihas by Badal Sircar

Friday – Badal Sircar’s Bogola Charit Manas (Bengali)

Saturday – In Such A State, based on U R Ananthamurthy’s Avasthe

Sunday – U R Ananthamurthy’s Avasthe (Kannada)

About the centre

Centre for Film and Drama offers year-long courses and works from Suchitra Film Society, Banashankari. Phone: 99868 63615

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Chetana Divya Vasudev / April 11th, 2015