Date:30/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/30/stories/2008103050310200.htm

Other States - Orissa

All set for amateur drama festival

Staff reporter

BERHAMPUR: The stage is set for the first State-level amateur drama festival to be held in the city from November 5. According to the working president of the organising committee of this festival, Rabi Narayan Behera, this festival is an effort to bring together some reputed amateur theatre groups of the State to attract the audience of the city towards theatre.

It was felt that the audience for plays enacted on stage had diminished.

The general secretary of the organising committee, Mihir Kumar Tripathy, informed that the drama festival would start with a colourful rally by stage artists and different folk theatre artists of Ganjam district. They would try to show off their histrionics during the rally. The venue of this festival would be Kavisurya Rangamanch of the Ganjam Kala Parishad.

The six-day-long event would have famous stage actors of the State as guests every evening. The invitees include famous names like Bijay Mohanty, Ashrumochan Mohanty, Hara Barik, Haren Sahu, Dhira Mallik. Many of these names have carved a niche for themselves in the cine industry but have not left their passion for theatre.

The amateur theatre troupes who would attend the festival include ‘Rangashala’ of Puri, ‘Pancham Veda’ and ‘Shatabdira Kalakara’ of Bhubaneswar, ‘Dharma Cultural Association’ of Sambalpur, ‘Rangamanch’ of Rourkela. The host city would be represented by ‘Kalatirtha’. All these amateur theatre troupes are famous for their experimentation for evolution of modern Oriya theatre movement. All of them have received accolades in State and national-level competitions.

Mr. Behera said this representative drama festival would provide a chance to the city audience to witness the trend of stage craft being developed in other parts of the State.

Souvenir

The organisers have also decided to publish a souvenir to popularise the stage-based cultural history of south Orissa. All veteran stage artists of Ganjam district have been invited to be part of this first-of-its-kind State-level drama festival being held in the city.