We at Gurukul have to move from our current location in four months. To settle in a new place and be able to get back to our former stage structure will be most challenging as we’ll technically have to start from zero. [break]
However, 2010 will be an excitingly eventful year. With the International Fest in November, we must be prepared with a full-fledged hall of our own, as renting one for the whole fest would be foolish and it’s not affordable. We already have theatre groups from abroad confirming their arrival at the fest.
The Stamsund International Festival 2010 in Norway is a prestigious event to be at. So, Nepali theater will get one more international arena to present its works. We’ll also visit Thailand in January. Similarly, there’s the Rang Mahotsav Festival organized by the National School of Drama in India to look forward to. We’re planning to stage A Doll’s House and Maya Deviko Sapana at the Indian fest in Delhi and Bhopal.
There were many remarks that theater has been bound by Gurukul. But we can anticipate some freshness in the new year. Bijaya Bisfot and Khagendra Lamichhane will be stepping in for their directorial roles for some plays in 2010. New ideas, thoughts and techniques of new people are always welcome but one needs to be skilled and must live up to the standards, or raise the bar that Nepali theater has already set for itself.
There were many times when our audience mentioned that they came to find out about the plays being staged only after they were over. So marketing is an area that needs strengthening for Nepali theater to expand in 2010.
Another frequent concern was that when traveling outside Kathmandu or abroad, the production here must be stopped. Sometimes we had to shut down which often created an undesirable vacuum. Avoiding all this calls for efficient division of work and management on the part of the theater group.
To fulfill the dearth of crew in this field, we anticipate the opening of a Theater College. But I guess in 2010, it’ll still be in its planning phase and it may materialize only by 2012.
To avoid the flaws that could’ve been prevented in some plays we saw last year, I believe we need to focus on giving plenty of time for research and analysis in 2010 and ahead. Without pointing to any group, I feel people need to realize that when you work, work seriously. Firstly, work on understanding the script and the visualization of the whole spectacles in depth. Lack of research is one weak point we need to work on. Once that’s dealt with, then I don’t think we’re less than any international-level theatrical performances.
The year 2010 will also see more of experiments with plenty of improvisations – like “Ghanchakkar” this year that was transformed into a play from a novel. Along with that, going back to the works of Indra Bahadur Rai, Bal Krishna Sama, and Gopal Prasad Rimal is also a tempting opportunity. We’ll definitely see some much needed revival of their classics in 2010.
Nisha Pokharel, theater artist, is a founding member of Aarohan Gurukul.
(As told to Ujjwala Maharjan)
Related story
Stop glorification of being busy
