Theatre Personality Subodh Patnaik Calls For More Attention To Indian Folk Drama

Koraput: European proscenium theatre is being widely practiced as mainstream in India and is also supported by the government whereas the country’s own folk drama, which is primarily non- proscenium is utterly neglected, lamented renowned theatre director Subodh Patnaik. He was delivering a lecture at the fourth foundation day celebration of the theatre group, Nandanik.

Nandanik organised the first edition of the Foundation Day lecture on Thursday.

Delivering a lecture on ‘The relevance of non-proscenium theatre in the present scenario’, Patnaik said that since Nandanik is exploring non-proscenium spaces in Koraput, it is essential to gather knowledge about its aesthetics.

He mentioned several non-proscenium spaces world over and in India which have existed prior to the advent of proscenium. He traced the history and development of Indian theatre in the context of Natyashastra.

Patnaik also explained the aesthetics of non-proscenium theatre mentioning greats like Badal Sircar and contemporary practitioners like Ratan Thiyam, Probir Guha among others.

He concluded by saying that there is no conflict between the two and that both have to learn from each other. However, non- proscenium theatre is ailing and needs support, he added.

The first Asim Basu Memorial Award 2018, named after Asim Basu, the late thespian of Odisha theatre as a mark of encouragement to young theatre artistes was given to Saumendra Kumar Swain from Nandanik, Koraput.

Actress Bhaswati Basu, daughter of Asim Basu gave a speech on her father and gave away the award.

Nandanik will hold the third edition of the Deomali Jatiya Natya Mahotsav, 2018 on Friday and Saturday. This year, the festival features plays by teams from Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Kolkata and Koraput.

Arjun Samataray from Bhubaneswar will perform his solo Ichcha.

Rajesh Panda with his batch mates from the Drama Department of Sambalpur University will perform ‘Station’ under the banner of Natyashala. Nandanik will premiere its new play Takshaka by Manoj Mitra under the direction of Sourav Gupta.

The main attraction of this festival is the staging of Kushilab, a Bangla play by the 52-year-old Theatre Workshop from Kolkata.