World Theatre Day is on March 27
Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, March 26: World Theatre Day has been celebrated since 1961 when the United Nations made a charter to celebrate a powerful medium that continues to be a mirror polished through time. This art form has a come a long way through time when performing theatre has consistently revolved on technical innovations with each passing juncture. Initial theatre embodied three categories or segments in the cradle of necessitated improvement. Be it in Greece or Rome, theatre fell in the brackets of Tragedy, Comedy and Satire and thus have the three forms survived the tests of time with innovations and improvements through generations of performers and the lovers of this boldest method of performing media. The Avenue Mail caught up with Md Nizam who, through more than three decades of innovations, continues to stoke the fire of creative zeal in his own silent but emphatic way.
As a kid Md Nizam used to take keen delight in watching rural theatre in his village. “But I never thought then that theatre would become a part of me. Some truths are stranger than fiction as the adage goes and in my case, I got pulled to the romance of theatre. I discovered that I could speak my mind emphatically through character portrayal. Then, as time rolled by, I could identify reality and its expressions. I could put across my thoughts, the language of my mind in a manner of sharing. Of course, the deeper I delved into this beautiful form of expression, I developed newer techniques by adjusting them into the basics of theatre. And the process continues with changing generations and changing concepts. From childhood till now, I have discovered my truth to speak my mind, share my thoughts with the audience through theatre presentations. Techniques, naturally, have continued to evolve, but what remains constant is my desire to share my views on social, political and situational issues through theatre. My words, my body language and tone too have evolved through time and theatre has become an integral part of my life.”
This young but weather-beaten man of experience has been able to create drama emphatically. He is equally at home with Nukkad Natak (street corner plays), one act and full length theatre. Nizam, while differentiating the three genres of theatre, observed, “To me, the three forms have the common motive of getting across to the audience but the manner and subject and presentation styles are different in matters of time frame and content. But the basics are common to all formats. Traditional differences in performing Nukkad Natak comprising theme and concept are evident. Generally, this form of performance is drawn from socio-economic and politically prevailing conditions. In rural and semi urban segments, this Nukkad mode of performance also makes the masses aware of development schemes of the government. This is a concept drawn from theatrical themes where technical involvement is negligible. To me, instead of differentiating short plays and the full length versions should be based on parameters of time duration and theme selection. Themes that can be defined in a brief time-span is One Act and those requiring detailed views in the forms of number of Acts are Full Length drama.”
On his take on One Act plays, Md Nizam explained that with changing social, economic and political trends, man became deeply engrossed and suffered from a paucity of time. Dramatists and theatre directors realized these situations, especially the time factor, and started a trend of One Act or Short plays. “With changing times, creative dramatists and directors, gave it a long and deep thought and gradually, the One Act play concepts evolved into full length plays. Instead of drawing a line between short and full length drama, I feel that plays should be considered as full length or Short based only on the time factor to express one’s views through performance.”
Nizam, while defining his purpose of drama presentation, averred, “In an era of bitterness, my bond with theatre is that of love, unity, devoid of caste and creed feelings. My desire is to make man realize his social responsibilities, to sow the seeds of fraternal feelings and fan the spirit of humanity in its positive forms.”
Recounting the golden era of Jamshedpur theatre, Md Nizam said, “There was a period in time when our city boasted of Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Chhattisgarhi drama groups. There were about 50 such teams. But as of now, apart from Bengali and Hindi groups, barely five teams remain while the others have gone into oblivion. The reasons for this decline are many. One is that experienced senior theatre persons did not cradle the next generation. Another reason may be that theatre did not provide income avenues. The third telling factor is the exorbitant cost of auditoriums. The desire to put up a play in an auditorium now would involve costs between Rs Fifty thousand to one lakh. To add to the sagging spirit of performance is that most of the auditoriums have been converted to hosting parties and receptions. We need to look for alternatives to keep alive the zest for theatre. This is one point where the government and corporate sectors can help by providing auditoriums only for theatre performance and revive the golden period. Presently, the few surviving theatre groups are experimenting with creative ways and there are quite a few potential theatre persons who can bring back the glory of the past that is not very old. I am sure that with corporate and government support, we can go back to our performing roots of a heritage the city had once boasted of.”
