Sanjna Kapoor doesn't
mince words when it comes to voicing her thoughts on ensuring a shift
for the theatre from 'survival' to 'thriving' mode. It's this clarity
of thought and expression that Sanjna wants every theatrewallah to
embrace. “If you know what your non-negotiables are, you will be
able to make more advantageous use of the work that you have done and
plan to do, resulting in a deeper impact,” she says.
Prioritise and then
strategise
The conversation that we
had on the sidelines of Maharashtra Cultural Centre's annual
theatre festival,
Rangmahotsav began with us asking her thoughts on behemoths like
popular regional TV channel backing and producing Marathi plays and a
dish TV having a separate channel for telecasting of experimental and
commercial dramas. Is it a good sign?
“Marathi television has
been showing recorded commercial plays for many years now. But I have
no knowledge of Tata Sky's dedicated channel to theatre so I cannot
comment on it. It's my belief that this would only help popularise
theatre and not take away from the live experience. In the West, they
have this trend of live streaming of plays. I have friends in UK, who
have had huge success with their theatre performances and with their
live streaming also. All this has helped build their audience, rather
than diminish it. There is no threat because theatre is live and
nothing can beat that live engagement. It should give you a sense ,
'O gosh! This sounds interesting and I must go watch it next time it
comes',” says Sanjna.
As far as a TV channel
stepping into produce new plays is concerned, Sanjna thinks that this
is a wonderful opportunity. The co-founder of Junoon, a stage for
theatre, Sanjna says, “I am not familiar with what the TV channel
is attempting to do, I haven't seen their plays yet. But I think it's
a wonderful opportunity.”
She then goes on to give
example of Adyam theatre festival, a brain-child of Birla
conglomerate. “The Birlas are putting huge money into producing
huge productions and really working towards building an audience, who
are not regular theatre-goers. I think that's commendable. But I have
a sense that theatre community has not been able to take advantage of
the Adyam opportunity as much as they should have. I think people got
so overwhelmed by the luxury of so much – since we are so
poverty-stricken most of the time – that they lost their bearing
and produced plays that couldn't run outside of that projection. You
have to be strategic. If you are being given this wonderful
opportunity, you need to make the best use of it without losing your
self,” explains Sanjna.
Be clear, draw the line
Allaying doubts of being
dictated by big production houses and corporates, Sanjna says, “I
have been in situations in which the sponsors have asked me to do
things, I have not done. There never was any confusion on that front.
But it is tough when you have to walk away from big money. It's not
easy, and it only means that you have to know yourself very, very
strongly. You have to be very clear about what your non-negotiables
are. Nobody can dictate you. If you want to take dictation, it's your
choice. I think, sometimes you can meet the corporates and the
business world half-way, but at the same time, be true to yourself.
That is the core of SMART.”
Sanjna and Sameera
Iyengar, who came up with 'The Strategic Management of Art of
Theatre' or SMART, believe that if theatre groups don't know what
their non-negotiables are then it will cause a lot of problems and
confusion and they will be unhappy.
“If you produce a play,
you would like to look at the life of the play. You should be
sensible enough to acknowledge that if I had a big production for a
corporate theatre festival, maybe I can do a more smaller, mobile
production to keep the life of the production running,” she
reasons.
SMART evaluation
Moving on to the SMART
programme, it has had two iterations of its four month course, with a
10-day residency. After a third course, it was supposed to evaluate
the work that has so far been accomplished by theatre groups who were
a part of the programme. But, the third course couldn't be held
because they ran into funding issues.
Says Sanjna, “It was
after the third course that we were actually going to design a
continuous evaluation process with the theatre groups. We haven't
been able to do that
because of funding issues.
So we now have lighter version of SMART which is a three-day workshop
looking at the same areas of work – mission statement, why you do
what you do, how you can develop and build your audience, sustain
your group together, and budgeting.”
“SMART has come from my
own questioning. If I had SMART when I started out at Prithvi, I know
that what I did in 10 years, I may have been able to do in three
years. Maybe I would have stayed in touch with the artists, the
audience, and have a deeper impact than I did. I didn't have the
wherewithal to know how to do that,” she adds.
The team recently had a
smaller SMART workshop in Pune last month which was attended by 29
theatre persons and 17 groups across Maharashtra, and some from
Kolkata and Bengaluru. “I think because of Maharashtrian connection
with theatre, there was much deeper engagement at this workshop and
the participants got to the core of conceptual ideas much more
quickly than we expected. The challenge will be to work in a place
where theatre is less practised, like the Hindi belt. We have got
workshops in Bikaner, in Bengaluru and one in Bengal. We have got
five such three-day programmes this year. And, if we get money, then
we go back to SMART's original programme.,” says Sanjna
Value yourself
Art and commerce go
hand-in-hand. Why on earth artists should not be paid, wonders
Sanjna, adding, “Fundamentally, what SMART wishes to achieve is to
know our own value. The theatre people need to know their value. We
undermine ourselves – 'I am having so much fun, na! I am passionate
about it, so I am doing it for myself' is what many theatre people
believe. They are incredibly lucky that they are able to work on
their passion. But theatre cannot exist without an audience. There
are people out there who want to see your work. There is a reason for
this which we need to understand.”
The biggest lacunae with
urban experimental theatre is infrastructure. “Mumbai should have
20 theatres like Prithvi, but it has one NCPA, one Prithvi and after
Chhabildas closed down...we had nothing for a while. But there are
now smaller, alternate spaces coming up across India. I just came
from Ahmedabad, there are two small spaces there, you have got
Expressions Lab opening up their space here. All this is critically
important. These places are not only for performances, they are for
rehearsals, meetings, workshops and reading, nurturing our
environment. That's what I mean by infrastructure. It's not only
building brick and mortar. It's building the environment and allows
for the blossoming of theatre clan,” she says on a concluding note.
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