Other States - Orissa

Amateur drama festival ends

BERHAMPUR: The six-day-long theater State-level amateur theater carnival organised at the Kavisurya Rangamanch of the city came to an end Monday evening with the enactment of ‘Mora Kichhi Kahibara Achhi’ by Kalatirtha troupe of the host city.

According to the president of the organising committee, Anil Kumar Patro it was for the first time for the city to host such a non-competitive drama festival.

It was attended by many premier amateur theater troupes of the State.

Mr. Patro said the crowd that thronged to the festival proved that people still liked to see a good play with thematic value enacted by adept actors.

This festival gave much needed exposure of the mainstream stage activities of the State to the young theater activists of the city, he said.

Every evening prominent theater activists of the State were part of this drama festival.

They included well-known names like Pradyumna Lenka, Jiban Panda, Ashrumochan Mohanty, Dileswar Moharana, Ranjit Patnaik, Dhira Mallik etc.

Noted playwright Ranjit Patnaik’s book ‘Badhira Iswara’ was also released during this festival.

The concluding evening’s play by ‘Kalatirtha’ was based on the message of communal harmony, which seemed to be the need of the hour after the recent incidents in adjoining Kandhamal district. This play was directed by Nalinilochan Panigrahy and written by Hara Barik.

The writer and the director had tried to make play as contemporary as possible through the dialogues, which hinted at recent developments.

It was the story of two neighbours from two different religions and an inter-religion romance. The neighbours cannot swallow this romance.

The issue of fundamentalism among youths who get misguided into terrorism was also a backdrop of the story.

Stage craft was the highlight of the play. Kedar Apta had recreated two similar neighbouring houses looking distinctly apart as per the religion of their owners.

A large tree was the connecting link as well as the barrier between these two houses.

Mr. Apta had created the set in a very low budget using recycled material like cardboard boxes.

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