‘Rangayana-Mysuru has plans for non-stop theatre activities’

Rangayana Director Addanda C Cariappa said, Rangayana-Mysuru has plans for non-stop theatre activities throughout the year, however, the repertory is not understood by common people properly.

Addressing a media conference, here, on Tuesday, Cariappa said that he is happy with the participation of people from all walks of life, in the recently held Bahuroopi, national-level theatre festival, hosted by Rangayana.

“Rangayana is involved in strengthening Kannada theatre movement in a creative way, since three decades. But still, people, for whom it was instituted by the legendary B V Karanth, do not have much understanding about the repertory. In view of achieving its objective, Rangayana has divided its activities into three spheres — Senior Repertory, Touring (Junior) Repertory and Bharatiya Rangashikshana Kendra,” he said.

Cariappa said, “Even though Ranga Samaja, chaired by Kannada and Culture Minister, is the apex body for all Rangayanas, the repertories have autonomy to a great extent. Among Rangayanas, Rangayana-Mysuru has the highest potential, given its seniority and also its location in Mysuru, the cultural capital of the state. In fact, Rangayana-Mysuru is the best repertory in the whole of India.”

He said that senior repertory experiments plays and scripts that are deemed to be either difficult or impossible by other theatre troupes. “Senior repertory has staged classic plays like ‘Shudra Tapasvi’, ‘Gandhi Vs Gandhi’, ‘Malegalalli Madhumagalu’, and ‘Sri Ramayana Darshanam’. ‘Shudra Tapasvi’ was recently staged at Manipur, during the national theatre festival. There are plans to camp in a place (mokkam) for at least a week, with a bank of up to 10 plays, to reach modern theatre to the unreached,” Cariappa said.

Touring Repertory

“Touring Repertory is staging plays across Karnataka. Recently, it staged a play at Chikkabyadarahalli, Pandavapura taluk, with just around 500 population. Its speciality is staging of plays in places, where there is no infrastructure. It will be staging plays at Kochi in Kerala from March 25 to 27. It has scheduled plays at Hyderabad, Telangana, from April 3 to 5. But, the plays will be staged, depending on the effects of coronavirus scare,” he said.

Cariappa said that Bharatiya Rangashikshana Kendra offers a one-year diploma in theatre art to 20 students on residential basis, with stipend. “The certificate of the diploma is issued by Hampi Kannada University. This year, the students have already produced and staged two plays — ‘Prathima Natakam’ and ‘Twelfth Night’. Its third production ‘Aa Ooru Ee Ooru’, based on ‘Jadabharatha’ of G B Joshi, scheduled to be staged on April 8 and 9, will also be a notable experiment,” he said.

“Of late, productions of the students have been allowed to be weekend plays. We have allowed amateur theatre troupes of Mysuru, like GPIER and Parivarthan, to stage plays during weekends. Besides, troupes from outside are also encouraged to stage plays. Shivamogga Rangayana is expected to stage a play here in April,” Cariappa said.