Interview
 
Vikash Khurana
Vikash Khurana has been involved with theatre for thirty years now. Based in Nagpur, he heads 'The Stagecraft Theatre' company. The company showed its production ROPE at the NCPA Centrestage Festival in 2013. It is back in Mumbai with a stage adaptation of the children's classic novel 'The Wind in the Willows'. Vikash Khurana who has been the recipient of the Smita (Patil) Smruti Puraskar and the Rotary award for Vocational Excellence devotes a quantum of his time to theatre workshops for school and college students.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS will be staged at Prithvi theatre on 28 and 29 July 2014.


 By NJ

NJ: You have directed and acted in 80 plays with over 200 stage performances under your belt. How was the experience directing THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS?

Vikash Khurana (VK): Every performance is a new challenge, irrespective of how many plays one has done or is about to do. In this production, we have tried to blend mime, music and dance along with dialogue. We have balanced the verbose text with stage action, something which till now, we hadn't experimented with. Also, the cast of this play is very young and raw, some of whom haven't done too much theatre, the youngest one being 15 years old. So everyone had to go through a lot of work-shopping, learning and vigorous training. The fact that this would also be our first ever show at Prithvi, meant an unfamiliar space and audience which added to the excitement and the challenge, of course.

Vikash Khurana

NJ: 'The Wind in the Willows' is a children's classic written by Kenneth Grahame. What was the thought behind choosing this novel?

VK: When I first read the book I fell in love with the language and the heart-warming characters. It is a classic tale of friendship, camaraderie, adventure that all children, young and old, will identify with. There are boats and fast cars, wild woods and secret tunnels and battles. On another level, there's a great deal of subtle humour and new ways of looking at everyday life. For instance, the thrill that Toad experiences when driving a fast car or when Badger describes the advantages of living underground or Rat's joy in 'messing about in boats'. The situations are very simple and heart-warming, yet deal with the very basic emotions that both children and adults will be able to identify with.

NJ: The novel was published in 1908. The underlying emotion behind the work is nostalgic because it reminds of a simpler place; namely England before the First World War. How is it relevant to a young audience today?

VK: This adaptation has done away with any specific references to England or a time in history, but we haven't simplified the language too much so as not to steal the beauty, the poetry and the music of the words. For a young audience of today, it mirrors the joy that they find in friendship, adventure, mischief, picnics and the joy of new discoveries and new skills. For the adults, it harks back to a time and place where the pace was slower and the world was simpler and it doesn't have to be England before the war.

NJ: You have been part of theatre projects like MOWGLI, THE MAGICAL ADVENTURES OF RANJI, THE MYSTERY OF THE PANTOMIME CAT and now THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. What fascinates you about children's theatre?

VK: The fact that it is as simple as it is complex! As an adult, I find that children's theatre really deals with very raw, complex emotions that children are really quite comfortable with. For a director the task can be both simple and daunting; on the one hand children are extremely malleable and adapt to situations and direction easily, yet they can pack in a few surprises as well! It is not only gratifying that one can take theatre to young children and bring smiles to their faces, but it is equally heart-warming and challenging to be a part of the entire rehearsal process.

NJ: What are your views about children's theatre in India?

VK: I see there is some children's theatre in the metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore perhaps. In tier-2 cities like Nagpur, children's theatre does not almost exist. It is a pity that children spend their childhoods without ever watching a play. In cities like Nagpur, the primary challenge is advocacy with adults - teachers and parents, in building an appreciation for theatre and a willingness to make it available to children.

NJ: Your brother Akash Khurana is a veteran actor and your nephew Akarsh is running Akvarious, a prolific theatre company in Mumbai. How does your theatre compare with theirs?

VK: Widely different! Akash and Akarsh provide a huge support system and my window to Mumbai theatre. My theatre group, Stagecraft Theatre, exists with the primary purpose of creating a platform to build an audience for theatre in Nagpur and to be able to take its magic to every child and young adult in the city. The group has no trained actors and we have people from different professions, students and technicians bound together by a love for theatre and almost no aspiration of becoming full-time theatre persons. The plays we choose to do and the way we evolve is governed by these people and this vision. That being said, we aspire to develop our craft and create theatre performances to match any other contemporary theatre company.

NJ: What future plans do you have for your theatre group?

VK: To continue to work with young people in Nagpur and build an ecosystem for theatre to survive and thrive in Nagpur. To be able to work with schools and school children and bring in more and more people to watch our shows.To perform in other cities and other venues outside Nagpur. To crack the key to getting sponsorships! If Nagpur has a Prithvi-like space built for theatre someday, that will be a dream come true!

NJ: How's the theatre in Nagpur where you are based?

VK: There is a considerable amount of Marathi theatre. We are perhaps the only prolific English theatre group in the city. Unlike Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore or Chennai, there is no culture of theatre-watching and very little willingness to pay for theatre. The costs of mounting a production are very high and there are no spaces built specifically for theatre performances. In the last 10 years though, we have come a long way. From an audience of 50 in 2003, we now do shows that get between 800-1000 people in the audience. It's an uphill battle and we've only just taken a few steps forward, and perhaps some leaps of faith.

*NJ likes to act and write about theatre. NJ is passionate about dance and food and has completed a post-graduate diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute for Communication (XIC).






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