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<p>Theatre</p><p>Of all the performing arts, it is perhaps theatre that needs a live audience the most. With Covid-19 showing no signs of abating, theatre, the world over, is having to embrace the camera to reach out to its audiences. In the six months since lockdowns began, digital has pervaded all aspects of our lives, and theatre is no exception. In Indian theatre, though, groups and organisers are negotiating between performing live online or opting for recording.</p><p>Aadyam has opted for the latter for the sixth edition of its festival. &ldquo;It will be very difficult to get audiences to watch theatre till there is some semblance of assurance that they will not catch Covid,&rdquo; says actress Shernaz Patel, also artistic director of Aadyam. &ldquo;One person coughs and everyone will be paranoid.&rdquo; What is performed is also likely to see a change. &ldquo;Everyone will want things that are life-affirming,&rdquo; says Patel. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see many people wanting to go for anything dark or depressing at this point of time.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s why Aadyam plans to record three of its earlier plays, Purva Naresh&rsquo;s musical Bandish 20-20,000 Hz (2017), the Rajat Kapoor-directed adaptation of Shakespeare&rsquo;s As You Like It, titled I Don&rsquo;t Like It, As You Like It (2016) and Akash Khurana-directed adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle&rsquo;s The Hound of the Baskervilles (2015), so as to spend less time in rehearsals. The plays will be recorded in October in Mumbai with a multi-camera set-up. Actors, though, will perform scenes in segments and not as continuous sequences, as has been the case with London&rsquo;s National Theatre Live.</p><p>Mumbai&rsquo;s QTP successfully attempted the live stream format by doing eight performances of Every Brilliant Thing, a one-man show about mental health wherein actor Vivek Madan uses the audience to tell the story, in July and August. Quasar Thakore Padamsee, director of QTP, says &ldquo;if there was ever a time for this subject, it is now&rdquo;. Seventy people joined via Zoom to watch Bengaluru-based Madan and stayed back for a post-performance chat with a mental health professional. But Padamsee wouldn&rsquo;t call the performance &ldquo;theatre&rdquo;, for that, to him, is &ldquo;an interaction between the actor and the audience in the same physical space&rdquo;. The communal viewing experience may be lacking, but it will do for now since it still affords artists an audience.</p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p>Finding an audience has been made easier with platforms such as BookMyShow and Insider.in. In the past five months, BookMyShow has hosted 800 virtual theatre offerings, from full-fledged plays, dramatised readings and monologues, to poetry recitations and workshops with experts, including some new productions, like Pretty Boman and Chehal Pehal, which had audiences logging in from cities beyond the four metros. Initially free, the portal later began charging a fee. The strategy has paid off since theatre-related programming is among the top three paid categories on BookMyShow &ldquo;with ticket sales growing more than 300 per cent in less than three months as of August&rdquo;, says Albert Almeida, COO, live entertainment, BookMyShow. It&rsquo;s why he believes that plays streamed digitally will endure even after auditoriums reopen. &ldquo;It will help grow the reach of quality theatre and arts content, bring artists closer to their audiences, allowing them the opportunity to experiment with newer formats and build a possible new and steady revenue stream,&rdquo; adds Almeida.</p><p>It remains a challenge to convince viewers, already spoiled for choice with a gamut of films and series at their disposal, to pick plays for entertainment. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really frustrating to figure out how to reach out to people and make them buy a ticket which, in turn, supports the community at large,&rdquo; says Patel, who was creative producer of One on One, Unlocked, a series of monologues which streamed on Insider in August. &ldquo;We need to figure out how to reach an audience beyond the theatre community. Right now, all the stuff is consumed by us.&rdquo;</p><div class="itgimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202009%2FLeisure-Oct5-6-x675.jpg%3FXaBHCJ5Q69v0VQHNO_1JUF.2jRqKuFvg%3Fsize%3D750:*" alt="" height="675" width="1200" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img>
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<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div></p><p>For some, like acclaimed actress Arundhati Nag, founder of Ranga Shankara theatre in Bengaluru, the physical space is sacrosanct and cannot be replaced by virtual. From September 3, Ranga Shankara began welcoming a limited audience, 35-40 people, to watch a dance rehearsal or a short play, attend a poetry reading or a talk by a psychiatrist at its open-air foyer every weekend. Part of the &lsquo;RS Connect series&rsquo;, the free events are the institution&rsquo;s way of giving people &ldquo;the opportunity to look at the creation of art&rdquo;, which otherwise has been ignored.</p><p>That&rsquo;s not to say Nag is dismissive of digital. &ldquo;We have been resisting digital all our lives because we have always believed the real thing is the real thing. But this was the last bastion that had to fall,&rdquo; she says. Ranga Shankara, she says, didn&rsquo;t have video recordings of a quality which could be uploaded online during the lockdown and that the institution&rsquo;s programming team is now busier than ever recording plays with the aim of streaming at least one a month October onwards. It is also putting together the 16th edition of the annual Ranga Shankara festival, the first one to be held digitally.</p><p>Another fixture taking a similar path is &lsquo;Thespo&rsquo;, the annual youth theatre festival organised by QTP. The absence of a physical event means that in its 22nd year, it is accepting applications from theatre groups across the world which have been recorded on different social media applications. &ldquo;I had no idea that there was an app named Twitch until young members informed me,&rdquo; says Padamsee. The digital wave may be cresting right now, but Padamsee knows that theatre practitioners will be the first to rush to work whenever cultural spaces open. &ldquo;Our turnaround time vis- -vis films is shorter and the commerce is simpler too,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Also, we are notorious huggers. Hello, goodbye, happy or sad, we hug.&rdquo; Covid may not allow theatrewallahs to hug with ease but it won&rsquo;t stop them from making sure that the show goes on.</p><div class="itgimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202009%2FLeisure-Oct5-2-x675.jpg%3FVZUTISYts3lnpBjz5LNLm2a5Cg1YT2.a%3Fsize%3D750:*" alt="" height="675" width="1200" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img></div><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Sep 26, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

leisure

Leisure

<p>Theatre</p><p>Of all the performing arts, it is perhaps theatre that needs a live audience the most. With Covid-19 showing no signs of abating, theatre, the world over, is having to embrace the camera to reach out to its audiences. In the six months since lockdowns began, digital has pervaded all aspects of our lives, and theatre is no exception. In Indian theatre, though, groups and organisers are negotiating between performing live online or opting for recording.</p><p>Aadyam has opted for the latter for the sixth edition of its festival. &ldquo;It will be very difficult to get audiences to watch theatre till there is some semblance of assurance that they will not catch Covid,&rdquo; says actress Shernaz Patel, also artistic director of Aadyam. &ldquo;One person coughs and everyone will be paranoid.&rdquo; What is performed is also likely to see a change. &ldquo;Everyone will want things that are life-affirming,&rdquo; says Patel. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see many people wanting to go for anything dark or depressing at this point of time.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s why Aadyam plans to record three of its earlier plays, Purva Naresh&rsquo;s musical Bandish 20-20,000 Hz (2017), the Rajat Kapoor-directed adaptation of Shakespeare&rsquo;s As You Like It, titled I Don&rsquo;t Like It, As You Like It (2016) and Akash Khurana-directed adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle&rsquo;s The Hound of the Baskervilles (2015), so as to spend less time in rehearsals. The plays will be recorded in October in Mumbai with a multi-camera set-up. Actors, though, will perform scenes in segments and not as continuous sequences, as has been the case with London&rsquo;s National Theatre Live.</p><p>Mumbai&rsquo;s QTP successfully attempted the live stream format by doing eight performances of Every Brilliant Thing, a one-man show about mental health wherein actor Vivek Madan uses the audience to tell the story, in July and August. Quasar Thakore Padamsee, director of QTP, says &ldquo;if there was ever a time for this subject, it is now&rdquo;. Seventy people joined via Zoom to watch Bengaluru-based Madan and stayed back for a post-performance chat with a mental health professional. But Padamsee wouldn&rsquo;t call the performance &ldquo;theatre&rdquo;, for that, to him, is &ldquo;an interaction between the actor and the audience in the same physical space&rdquo;. The communal viewing experience may be lacking, but it will do for now since it still affords artists an audience.</p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p>Finding an audience has been made easier with platforms such as BookMyShow and Insider.in. In the past five months, BookMyShow has hosted 800 virtual theatre offerings, from full-fledged plays, dramatised readings and monologues, to poetry recitations and workshops with experts, including some new productions, like Pretty Boman and Chehal Pehal, which had audiences logging in from cities beyond the four metros. Initially free, the portal later began charging a fee. The strategy has paid off since theatre-related programming is among the top three paid categories on BookMyShow &ldquo;with ticket sales growing more than 300 per cent in less than three months as of August&rdquo;, says Albert Almeida, COO, live entertainment, BookMyShow. It&rsquo;s why he believes that plays streamed digitally will endure even after auditoriums reopen. &ldquo;It will help grow the reach of quality theatre and arts content, bring artists closer to their audiences, allowing them the opportunity to experiment with newer formats and build a possible new and steady revenue stream,&rdquo; adds Almeida.</p><p>It remains a challenge to convince viewers, already spoiled for choice with a gamut of films and series at their disposal, to pick plays for entertainment. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really frustrating to figure out how to reach out to people and make them buy a ticket which, in turn, supports the community at large,&rdquo; says Patel, who was creative producer of One on One, Unlocked, a series of monologues which streamed on Insider in August. &ldquo;We need to figure out how to reach an audience beyond the theatre community. Right now, all the stuff is consumed by us.&rdquo;</p><div class="itgimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  height="675"  title=""  width="1200"  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202009%2FLeisure-Oct5-6-x675.jpg%3FXaBHCJ5Q69v0VQHNO_1JUF.2jRqKuFvg%3Fsize%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>
<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div><div class="itgimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  height="675"  title=""  width="1200"  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202009%2FLeisure-Oct5-5-x675.jpg%3FvK.wXDb.iAdq0MBw9Rve8atfwU4K13nP%3Fsize%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>
<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div></p><p>For some, like acclaimed actress Arundhati Nag, founder of Ranga Shankara theatre in Bengaluru, the physical space is sacrosanct and cannot be replaced by virtual. From September 3, Ranga Shankara began welcoming a limited audience, 35-40 people, to watch a dance rehearsal or a short play, attend a poetry reading or a talk by a psychiatrist at its open-air foyer every weekend. Part of the &lsquo;RS Connect series&rsquo;, the free events are the institution&rsquo;s way of giving people &ldquo;the opportunity to look at the creation of art&rdquo;, which otherwise has been ignored.</p><p>That&rsquo;s not to say Nag is dismissive of digital. &ldquo;We have been resisting digital all our lives because we have always believed the real thing is the real thing. But this was the last bastion that had to fall,&rdquo; she says. Ranga Shankara, she says, didn&rsquo;t have video recordings of a quality which could be uploaded online during the lockdown and that the institution&rsquo;s programming team is now busier than ever recording plays with the aim of streaming at least one a month October onwards. It is also putting together the 16th edition of the annual Ranga Shankara festival, the first one to be held digitally.</p><p>Another fixture taking a similar path is &lsquo;Thespo&rsquo;, the annual youth theatre festival organised by QTP. The absence of a physical event means that in its 22nd year, it is accepting applications from theatre groups across the world which have been recorded on different social media applications. &ldquo;I had no idea that there was an app named Twitch until young members informed me,&rdquo; says Padamsee. The digital wave may be cresting right now, but Padamsee knows that theatre practitioners will be the first to rush to work whenever cultural spaces open. &ldquo;Our turnaround time vis- -vis films is shorter and the commerce is simpler too,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Also, we are notorious huggers. Hello, goodbye, happy or sad, we hug.&rdquo; Covid may not allow theatrewallahs to hug with ease but it won&rsquo;t stop them from making sure that the show goes on.</p><div class="itgimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  height="675"  title=""  width="1200"  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202009%2FLeisure-Oct5-2-x675.jpg%3FVZUTISYts3lnpBjz5LNLm2a5Cg1YT2.a%3Fsize%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div></div><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Sep 26, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

Theatre companies, which once fiercely clung to their physical spaces, are learning to embrace digital platforms.

India Today

Now playing online

The only remaining nuclear treaty between the US and Russia expires today. It effectively spells a death knell for nearly three decades of nuclear control cooperation. What was the treaty? Will it lead to a new nuclear arms race? We delve into these questions in this article.

Russia's Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump

US-Russia nuclear treaty expires today. Will it lead to a new arms race?

Actor Eesha Rebba filed a complaint at the Banjara Hills Police Station to report harassment after receiving obscene and abusive comments on Instagram amid promotional activities for her recent Telugu film.

eesha rebba files complaint

Telugu actor Eesha Rebba files complaint over obscene Instagram comments

The era of vibe coding may be over. AI guru Andrej Karpathy believes that the world will now move to a new way of using AI to write code, what he calls agentic engineering. Here is what it means.

AI guru Andrej Karpathy believes that vibe coding may be over. (Representational image made with AI)

Vibe coding era over? AI guru who coined the term prefers agentic engineering now

Abhijeet Sawant, winner of Indian Idol season 1, has addressed persistent problems in the film music industry relating to singer pay and royalties. His comments follow Arijit Singh's recent announcement to step away from playback singing.

Abhijeet Sawant

No royalties, low pay, fear culture: Abhijeet Sawant on playback singing struggles

Korean pop culture has surged in India since 2022, spanning dramas, music, food, fashion, and language learning. From family-centric storytelling to soft masculinity and female-focused narratives, Korean content has struck a deep emotional chord across age groups, becoming one of the most influential global cultural forces shaping Indian audiences today.

Why Korean culture won India’s heart with K-dramas, K-pop, kimchi

K-dramas, K-pop, kimchi: Why Korean culture won India’s heart

Play Time!

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IND vs AFG LIVE Score

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Border 2

Here's the drone visuals of the massive traffic jam on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which has hit vehicular movement for over 24 hours after a gas tanker overturned in the hilly Khandala Ghat section.

drone

Watch: Drone visuals of massive 22-km traffic jam on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

Addressing the Lok Sabha, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the government has successfully safeguarded sensitive sectors in US trade deal.  

Piyush Goyal: No Compromise On Farmers Interests In US Deal

India protected agriculture, dairy interests in US trade deal: Piyush Goyal

In this Special Report, India Today’s Mir Fareed provides exclusive details on a major counter-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur. Security forces, including the Army, Jammu Kashmir Police, and CRPF, successfully eliminated two Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists who were hiding in a natural cave within a dense forested terrain. Mir Fareed noted, ‘Finally, their luck ran out as security forces used IEDs to blow up the entrance. And with that, they were eliminated.’ One of the deceased has been identified as a top commander, Abu Mavia. The operation involved sophisticated drone surveillance and sharpshooters to pin down the terrorists who had previously evaded capture. The report highlights the evolving tactics of security agencies in tackling infiltrators using the treacherous forest reaches of Jammu. The area is currently being sanitised as per standard operating procedures following the recovery of weapons.

Mir Fareed: Two Jaish Terrorists Killed In Udhampur Cave

2 Jaish terrorists killed as security forces blow up cave in Jammu and Kashmir

This news report covers the intense political confrontation in Parliament where Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi reportedly called BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu a 'traitor'. The incident occurred near the Makar Dwar as suspended MPs were protesting. The transcript highlights that Bittu, once a close associate of Gandhi, was heckled by Congress members following the remark. Additionally, the bulletin features a statement regarding the suspension of eight Congress MPs for the remainder of the session due to 'unruly behaviour'. Dilip Saikia, who was in the chair during the ruckus, stated that the members violated parliamentary decorum and rules. The report notes that the Congress party views those who defect to the other side through a specific 'prism', leading to the sharp exchange. The drama unfolded as Priyanka Gandhi also met with the suspended legislators to discuss the adjournment of the House.

Rahul Gandhi Calls Bittu a Traitor in Parliament

Rahul Gandhi Calls Ravneet Singh Bittu a 'Traitor' outside Parliament

On this Special Report, the focus is on a tragic incident in Ghaziabad where three minor sisters, aged 12, 14, and 16, allegedly died by suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of a high-rise building. ACP Atul Kumar stated, 'Three girls jumped from the balcony of the ninth floor of flat number 907 in Bharat City and were declared dead upon arrival at the hospital.' A suicide note recovered from the scene read, 'Mummy Papa, we are sorry.' Police have seized mobile phones and gadgets for forensic examination to determine if specific gaming tasks triggered the extreme step. The incident occurred around 2:30 AM, and authorities are recording statements from family and neighbors to uncover the exact cause behind this triple suicide horror.

Atul Kumar: 3 Sisters Jump To Death In Ghaziabad

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Theatre companies, which once fiercely clung to their physical spaces, are learning to embrace digital platforms.

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