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Held every year since 1999, Thespo is one of India's best known youth theatre festivals for participants under 25 years of age, and which features new plays, live bands, film screenings, platform performances and workshops. Q Theatre Productions (QTP) initiated the festival to nurture 'the theatre of the future.' Thespo has indeed been a platform for many a budding talent in theatre, and quite a few of the young people then, are now professional and well-known actors, light and set designers, producers and directors on the Mumbai stage and elsewhere. As the festival turns 13 this year, core member of QTP, Quasar Thakore Padamsee or Q as he is popularly known, takes a walk down memory lane reliving his best moments at the festival over the last 12 years. 93-year-old Zohra Sehgal's recital of 'Abhi to main jawan hoon...' as she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Thespo 2003, remains his most memorable moment. But theatre making and backing initiatives like these is never easy. When his corporate sponsors backed out last year, the festival, which was the brink of a shutdown, found a new lease of life as 'Friends of Thespo' rallied to keep it going. Q says that it was his most emotional moment.
Q recalls the moments for us and charts Thespo's journey as it began from Bombay and moved to other cities. He also picks up the pivotal plays at each edition of the Thespo festival, and tells us why they were special. Supporting Q's reminiscences are some pictures - all taking us back in time with Thespo.
Thespo 13 will take place from 13th to 18th December 2011. To find out more about the festival, please click here. In the meanwhile, here's a trip back to when it all began.
1999
Thespo's first avataar was in December 1999 as a one-act play competition with an awards presentation, at the Sophia Bhaba Hall in Bombay. Ruia College's SAADIA reigned supreme, in spite of stiff competition from 15 other plays. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Deryck Jeffereis. SAADIA (no pictures unfortunately) was written and directed by Himanshu Joshi. The play featured a 17 year old Kshitee Jog as the title character and a 15 year old Anand Tiwari as head of backstage.
2000
Thespo 2000 featured four full-length plays from across Bombay. 61 colleges and more than 15 entries led to four days of quality youth theatre. Thespo was labelled as India's premiere youth festival. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the late Pearl Padamsee and photographer Madhu Gadkari.
2001
Classics from Brecht and Chekhov, adaptations from both films and novels, and some pieces of new writing composed Thespo III. For the first time Thespo expanded beyond Bombay, thanks to Harlequin Entertainment, to embrace the city of Bangalore in a nine day festival. Subsequently, the winning teams from Bangalore performed at Thespo III in Bombay notably winning a Thespo for Best Actor. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Gerson da Cunha for his contribution as an actor.
ARTURO UI: It was something of a challenge to adapt a play about Hitler to the rise of Hindu fascism in India.
2002
Thespo 4 moved the venue from a proscenium (Sophia Bhabha Hall) to the black box (NCPA Experimental Theatre), while the Bangalore edition continued to gain critical acclaim. Workshops in playwriting by Ramu Ramanathan, Critiquing Theatre by Shanta Gokhale, amongst others, provided aspiring thespians an opportunity to interact and acquire in-depth technical know-how about the theatre. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to theatre director Alyque Padamsee.
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF A TERRORIST: Taking Dario Fo's classic and setting it in the aftermath of the Godhra genocide.
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ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF A TERRORIST |
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GULABO: A platform performance about a man who dresses as a women and dances at weddings for money.
2003
For the first time ever, Thespo made the trip to New Delhi - and invited plays from there, while plays from Mumbai travelled to participate in Thespo Bangalore. Thespo's fifth year was a three-city and four-language 11-day extravaganza, with the Lifetime Achievement Award being presented to actor Zohra Segal. The grand lady of theatre performed 'Abhi to Main Jawan Hoon' at the Awards Ceremony.
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ZOHRA SEHGAL |
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THE TRIAL: A wonderful version by Scherezade Kaikobad of Berkoff's play based on Kafka's story.
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THE TRIAL |
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2004
Thespo Delhi was born as a three-day fest. Bangalore grew to six days and moved to Rangashankara. Thespo became a three-week festival spread over three cities. Plays were in English, Hindi, Marathi, Marwari and Kannada. All in all 26 plays (12 full length & 14 short plays) were performed. Workshops were held in design, Sanskrit theatre and many other disciplines.
FIRST EDITION: Shanaya Rafaat was absolutely brilliant as the ageing, bitter novelist.
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FIRST EDITION |
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2005
In an attempt to cover allied arts, the Thespo Poster Design Competition was created to give young art directors the opportunity to design posters for theatre productions. Training was taken to a new level with 'Work It Out' - a series of mentoring workshops where the performing groups got to interact with a professional director and writer over two days. Screening was expanded to Calcutta and Pune. The festival was held over 12 days in Bombay and Bangalore. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented posthumously to Hosi Vasunia for his dedication to the theatre as an actor and producer.
BUTTER & MUSHED BANANA: Bold writing by Ajay Krishnan. Brilliant staging as well.
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BUTTER & MUSHED BANANA |
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2006
Thespo spread its wings by conducting some of its pre-festival activities in cities such as Mysore, Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Delhi and Ahmedabad, in addition to its regular homes of Bombay and Bangalore. The festival featured five plays from these two cities. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Girish Karnad for Playwriting.
CONFESSIONS: Thespo's longest running play. It's still being performed... 5 years on!
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CONFESSIONS |
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2007
Thespo 9 saw the initiation of Radio Plays and Documentary on Theatre. The national involvement came with a short play from Delhi and a full length play from Bangalore. The workshops included Master Puppeteer Dadi Padumjee from Delhi and Ahmedabad based director Saumya Joshi. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Partap Sharma for his contribution as a playwright and actor.
2008
In 2008, Thespo X introduced a theatre photography exhibition for the first time ever along with international participation in terms of workshops being conducted by theatre professionals from England. 2008 also saw Thespo become a two-venue festival by premiering at Prithvi Theatre and moving to NCPA Experimental. In addition to its all India audition, Thespo for the first time auditioned a play from New York and collaborated with the IIT Kanpur cultural festival. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Sam Kerawalla.
DALAN: A moment of absolute joy! Directed by Nipun Dharamadhikari, the 20 strong ensemble cast transported everyone to the village classroom.
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DALAN |
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In 2008 again: VIDEO: Easily the most ambitious production to ever be staged at Thespo. Calcutta based Tin Can productions worked hard at putting together the expensive show. A rarity in a culture where more and more of our creative choices are sacrificed due to the lack of finances.
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VIDEO |
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2009
In Thespo 11, 90 plays were auditioned from eight cities (Bombay, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Pilani, Shimla, Kanpur and even Kodaikanal) in five languages. Thespo collaborated with Bits- Pilani cultural festival in addition to the IIT Kanpur cultural festival. Other workshops include Seven on Seven Workshop & Making Theatre by Young People by Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, Hearts and Bones & How to run a show by Nell Ranney, Sampling Shakespeare by Jelena Budimir and a Set Designing Workshop by Dhanendra Kawade. Thespo 11 featured plays, workshops, platform performances, a Youth & Theatre seminar, film screenings, a theatre magazine, and music gigs from December 7 to December 13, 2009 at the Prithvi and NCPA theatres. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Vijaya Mehta.
2010
The twelfth edition turned out to be a landmark festival for Thespo. A new performance section called the Thespo Fringe was introduced and was incredibly successful. Converting a rehearsal room into a performing space allowed the audience to access the words and the actors' performances unhindered by amplified sound or contrived lighting. It was raw and live.
The tie up with UK's Paines Plough Theatre was also extremely successful. The various workshops in movement, working with materials, writing and a whole lot more, ensured vibrant training opportunities for all who attended. Ravi Jain of Toronto's Why Not Theatre also came down and did a four session workshop about actors and the mask, which truly opened the minds of participants. Thespo 12 would not have been possible without the support of Friends Of Thespo - a fund raising initiative undertaken to encourage a large number of small contributions that helped us raise the monies required for this year. In the absence of any corporate support, friends, family members, actors, writers, directors, school teachers, students- all chipped in helped us go on for one more year.
GELI EKVEES VARSHA: A deep dark story about the confusion of growing up in today's world, written by 21 year old Dharmakirti Sumant.
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GELI EKVEES VARSHA |
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