NAPA calling out to young playwrights

Dearth of original ideas for plays inspire NAPA to initiate new venture.

KARACHI:

The National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) has created a controversial reputation for itself over the past seven years. Whether it was eviction notices sent by the sindh government or the revolving faculty members, Napa held its ground (pun intended).

In 2005, former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf agreed to give the Hindu Gymkhana, a national heritage site, on lease to Zia Mohyeddin for a span of 30 years to train emerging talent and revive the culture of performing arts. Despite all the fury and court notices that followed in 2006 — when the construction of a theatre building began on the rented premises — Napa managed to produce, encourage, and train artists who positively impacted their fields of art, music, and theatre. A few talented actors who have moved on to television from here are Paras Masroor, Rauf Afridi, Aiman Tariq and Akbar Islam.

From veteran actors to experienced play writers and seasoned directors, Napa’s faculty members have produced groundbreaking performances like “Beech Bahar Ki Raat Ka Sapna” and a 10-day theater festival. Besides ongoing plays and musical performances, the academy is now organising a play writing competition which will take its Karachi-based performing arts festival to a national level. Zain Ahmed, the manager of special projects at Napa, shares the idea behind this new venture with The Express Tribune.

Playwriting competition

“Being a state-funded academy, it is our mandate to promote theatre and activities related to theatre in Pakistan,” Ahmed tells The Express Tribune. The competition was initiated due to a lack of original plays in the country.

“Unlike writers for television, there is no market for playwrights because there is no organised way of going about it,” says Ahmed. “And above all, there’s no incentive for writers to risk their time and talent.”

Napa’s play writing competition is being advertised on Facebook; but soon a heavier campaign is about to start. The cash prizes for the three winners will be Rs100,000, Rs75,000, and Rs50,000. Aside from being in the top three, another encouraging incentive for writers is that if the Napa Repertory Theatre (NRT) chooses one of the plays submitted to be performed in NRT, the writer will get Rs50,000. As the trend picks up, some playwrights could even be commissioned to write plays for the academy’s theatre company.

“This is just the first step,” Ahmed says excitedly. “Either we will receive a number of good plays or even just a handful; the purpose is to make Napa a state funded hub for theatre related activities. This will give talented newcomers a place to go whenever an idea pops up in their head!”

An interesting factor about this competition is that there are no language barriers. The academy is not only accepting plays in English and Urdu, but is also open to plays in any other Pakistani language. If the submitted plays are well written then they might even be performed in that very language and then translated in Urdu later.

“If we receive a good play in the Balochi language then we will perform that play in Balochi. Napa has actors from various backgrounds studying here,” explains Ahmed. “Later on it will be translated in Urdu. The purpose is to promote Pakistani theatre culture as much as possible.”

The deadline of the play writing competition is December 15, 2012.

NAPA festivals

Early this year, Napa initiated its first ever performing arts festival in which the faculty encouraged graduates from music and theatre departments to show off their talent. Their efforts enchanted Karachi’s audience with plays like “Eqqus” and “Kafka”. The bar was raised high by the alumni’s performances for theatre in Pakistan.

“The format of the plays will remain the same but the music performances will be more formally constructed so that the musicians don’t stray from the theme,” says Ahmed. “It will be more challenging.”

On a national level, the festival will take place in 2013 and if all goes according to plan, the competition will open internationally in 2014 with the same format.

Planning for 2014, Ahmed is very confident that Napa will be able to engage theatre troupes from neighbouring countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and maybe even far East Asia.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2012.            

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