New initiative brings Kannada plays to Internet

You are a theatre enthusiast but you might not always find time to watch plays on the day of the show. You might like some plays so much that you want to catch a repeat performance. Whether you want to study the play for academic purposes or want to revisit it for the sheer joy of it, wouldn't it be great if you could do so at the click of a mouse?

Setting the trend for a new beginning for Kannada theatre, three plays in Kannada are now available online for free. These have been video documented with subtitles to cater to the global audience. The plays are available on YouTube and on the official website of the city-based Sanchi Foundation (sanchifoundation.com), which has taken up this initiative.

The three plays that have been performed by the Ninasam troupe and hosted online are P Lankesh's Gunamukha, Oresteia Purana based on Oresteia trilogy of Aeschylus and Tartuffe by Molière.  The entire project was pulled off with crowd funding alone.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Om Shivaprakash H L, a member of the Sanchi Foundation, said the plays went live last week.

 “The plays are now available on YouTube as well as on the website of the Sanchi Foundation. We are also making some DVDs. Since we wanted to offer it as free content, we are not putting it up for sale. We are giving out some copies to people who have contributed to the project. There will be four DVDs: One with the history of Ninasam and the other three will be the documented plays.”