The musical Shakuntala, political-themed Kuttay and high-octane Rang De Basanti Chola were among the plays performed at last year’s International Theatre Festival. PHOTOS: PUBLICITY
What better way for the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) to set the stage for their 10th anniversary than with the International Theatre Festival. The second edition of the 20-day festival will commence from March 12, featuring troupes from India, Germany, America and England. Senior Napa faculty members, Arshad Mahmood and Zain Ahmed, announced the schedule for the festival at a press conference on Friday.
The festival is being organised in collaboration with I Am Karachi, a civil society-led movement, which aims to inculcate hope, pride and humanity into people. While addressing the media, Ahmed noted that, unlike last year, there will be more collaborative projects between Napa students and international artistes this year to ensure that the learning process is greater.
Mahmood added that the ticket prices for this year’s festival have been reduced to Rs400 for the general public and, Rs200, for students. “We had previously thought about increasing the ticket price to Rs1,000 but were able to bring it down due to the support of our sponsors and I Am Karachi,” he said. “We have done this to encourage more and more people to attend the festival,” he added. The organisers have earmarked the stage adaptation of Mahesh Bhatt’s film Daddy for success, as it is going to be presented by the acclaimed Bollywood filmmaker himself.
During the press conference, Napa also announced a script-writing prize. According to Ahmed, the top two scripts would receive a prize amount, and the winner’s script will be performed at the International Theatre Festival next year. The prize for the competition has been donated by Dr Framji Minwalla, chairperson Social Sciences & Liberal Arts at Institute of Business Administration. The deadline for the competition is yet to be announced and can be expected to be three months from now.
Some of the international plays set to be performed at the festival
Constellations
Director: Gregory Thompson
Country: England
Date and time: March 12 to March 13 at 8:00pm
About the play: Focusing on relationships and their infinite possibilities, the play features Marianne and Roland, who meet at a party after which they go for a drink or perhaps they don’t. They fall madly in love and start dating, but eventually break up. After a chance-counter in a supermarket, they get back together and Marianne reveals she’s now engaged to someone else. Or perhaps Roland is engaged. Maybe, they get married or maybe, their time together will be tragically cut short. The play by Nick Payne centralises the themes of free will and friendship.
Kasumal Sapno
Director: Ajeet Singh Palawat
Country: India
Date and time: March 14 to March 15 at 8:00pm
About the play: An adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the play portrays the adventures of four young lovers in an imagination ‘gard’ called ‘Amorgarh’, somewhere in Rajasthan. An enchanted forest, with a handsome fairy puppet king, a weaver, magic and jungle sprites, all of this is used to depict how hard it can be to fall in love.
Among Fog
Director: Brigel Gjoka
Country: Germany
Date and time: March 16 to March 17 at 8:00pm
About the play: The German musical tells a journey, based on Karachi, which discovers the radicalism on both sides and how it restricts individuals to a mental cage. The play tackles the issue of disparity among social classes and how the city turns crowds of people into inhabited souls.
Me, my mom and Sharmila
Director: Brian Golden
Country: United States
Date and time: March 24 to March 25 at 8:00pm
About the play: Fawzia Mirza shares a journey of self-discover and strength, which carries her all the way from childhood, as a Pakistani Muslim in a small-town in Canada, to living as an actor in the heart of Chicago.
Daddy
Director: Dr Danish Iqbal
Country: India
Date and time: March 30 to March 31 at 8:00pm
About the play: A theatrical adaptation of Mahesh Bhatt’s eponymous film, the play is a sensitive story of role reversals. It is a fairytale of a princess and her father and how her courage broke an evil spell to make happily-ever-after possible for them.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2015.
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