Starburst at theatre festival

Guwahati, Sept. 13: Actors Kalki Koechlin, Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor will be the stars adorning the stage at the first edition of the Guwahati Theatre Festival.

The five-day festival, which will begin tomorrow, will feature plays like Hamlet - The Clown Prince, The Living Room, 2 to Tango 3 to Jive, The Vagina Monologues, The Truth of Womanhood and One on One - all from leading theatre production houses of Mumbai .

Other actors coming to the city are Neil Bhoopalam, Rajit Kapur, Vrajesh Hirjee, Achint Kaur, Sadiya Siddiqui, Nigar Khan, Dolly Thakore and Shernaz Patel, among others.

"The purpose of the festival is to provide a platform for a diverse range of world-class performing groups to showcase their plays in the region, among new audiences, infusing freshness and vivacity," said Sunit Jain, the chairman of the festival.

Apart from letting theatre enthusiasts witness the performance of the groups, which are nationally the best in the business, the curators of the festival promised workshops on two aspects of performing arts - voice modulation and body movement.

"The idea is to promote theatre among youths for their benefit. Around 40 participants have registered for each workshop. The festival hopes to recognise and encourage talent as well as create a new generation of theatre goers," said Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri, the festival director.

The workshops and interactions will be conducted by visiting artistes Neil Bhoopalam and Saurabh Shukla on September 15 and 16 at the venue from 1pm.

According to the festival chairman, they are yet to get a formal confirmation from Kalki Koechlin.

"Most likely she will be a part of both the workshops," he said.

"Originally, we had decided to invite nine groups instead of five. Unfortunately, because of budget constraints, we had to cut it down to five groups," said Jain.

The festival organisers have also promised to return next year, turning it into an annual event and extending it to 10 days.

"If everything goes smoothly, we will return in a bigger and better way. Needless to say, there will be more theatre groups than this year, hopefully a few international ones. Instead of restricting it to a single auditorium, we will stage plays at various educational institutions," he said.