From expression to music, costumes to lights — theatre is not just entertainment, but it is a way of life, believe a bunch of youngsters belonging to the ‘Bangalore Theatre Ensemble’ (BTE).
The group makes a conscious effort to provide as much variety in their acts as possible. The group has showcased Shakespeare's plays, comedies and explored modern subjects. In this modern tech-savvy age, Bangalore Theatre Ensemble aims to provide thought-provoking and accessible theatre to the City’s theatre buffs.
This theatre group, that started four years ago, has an energetic team of forty members which include a good mix of both college students and working professionals.
“We started this group four years ago with the idea to stage some experimental theatre plays like ‘mooki’ (silent) shows and musicals. We wanted a platform to showcase our ideas and we chose theatre art as the way forward. We are a group of like-minded individuals, working towards a common purpose of making BTE a platform for all the theatre lovers. The group comprises a bunch of professional theatre artists, musicians, corporate folks, and students,” says Abhimanyu, the director of the group.
They have thus far staged six successful plays and hope to make a difference to the theatre scene across the country.
“We have put up four shows in Bengaluru and across the State. We were appreciated for our fresh ideas and quality of production. Spectators appreciated the plays overall and also took note of the performances of the actors. We have had spectators who have watched our plays over and over again,” he says.
This self-funded theatre group has also formed a reading club that will help them design plays based on different genres.
“We read the work of other writers, re-work them and come up with scripts for our plays. The recent play that we staged called the ‘Navya Kanyeyaru’, is an adaption from ‘Les Précieuses Ridicules’, a one-act satire by Molière. It’s a social satire which is mixed with comedy. It has been successful in keeping people entertained,” he says.
With tickets for their shows ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 100, they cater to all age groups and mindsets. “As our plays are based on social topics, we don’t restrict it to a particular set of audience. We concentrate on every kind of audience while working on our scripts. It is important to reach out to all kinds of audience in the society and show them something that they will connect to,” he adds.
The enthusiastic theatre group wants to act responsible and do productions that reflect the state of today’s reality.
“It is important to create awareness that theatre is not just what happens on stage but is our day to day behaviour and living. BTE wants world class plays and productions to be made and brought on stage here in India. One of our objectives is to artistically and creatively push ourselves to take up challenging productions which haven’t been staged here,” he signs off.
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