Ranji David and Nandini Rao.
1) What the fuck is going on?
Interactive Theatre by Yours Truly Theatre. Tired after a series of shows in a month.
2) What’s the best thing about the theatre scene in Bangalore, India?
Formation of newer groups, newer formats, newer performance spaces, and newer audiences.
3) What kind of work does Yours Truly Theatre make?
Theater forms and formats that are experimental in nature, keeping Interactive Theatre as a boundary.
4) How much of the theatre that’s produced in India is in English?
It differs from city to city. Some of the metro cities have a larger section of English theatre compared to the towns and villages in India.
5) Is Shakespeare an important part of contemporary Indian theatre?
In India the focus is on issue-based stories. Yes we see quite a bit of Moliere’s plays, which are adapted to Indian styles, not to mention productions of western writers as well.
6) Who are some of the most influential theatre makers in India, both historically and currently?
Ratan Thiyam (he is compared to the likes of Peter Brooks), Ebrahim Alkazi, Habib Tanvir, Amol Palekar, Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, Badal Sarkar, and Arundhati Nag.
7) Are there any themes or subjects that seem common to theatre that’s being produced in India?
Family-based subjects seem to be something in common.
8) How popular is theatre among the younger generations?
Not as much with the advent of TV and cinemas.
9) If you could change just one thing about theatre in Bangalore, what would it be?
Make it viable and profitable for theatre companies to survive and make world class theatre.
10) Why is theatre important?
As TV and Cinema gets into the living of humans across the global, theatre must give what other media cannot: an intimate, engaging and highly satisfying experience.