Vrittayanam

Now we can say we have Vrittayanam with us.

Dr. Satyabrata Rout

Life without air, Fish without water and Theatre without a performance space! As oxygen is essential to live, a space is important for a Theatrewala (Ranga karmi). Unfortunately we didn’t have one. When I joined the Theatre Department at the University of Hyderabad, I was astonished to find no proper space for the performance. Usually the student performances were held at the DST (Dept. of Science and Technology) auditorium which was primarily constructed for conferences and meetings. It is a luxurious air conditioned auditorium without a proper stage. It has a narrow and long dais hardly any wing space and lighting grids. Presenting a play at DST means having spoiling the show. We had another space, the famous G.B Hall. It is also not appropriate for all kind of performances. It is a close hall used for our acting classes. When I joined in this department, I felt it necessary to improvise a space for performances and scene works. I kept on looking in the surrounding until I found an area adjacent to our old S.N School building. With the help of Prof. Bhikshu we developed two shades there for design practice and created a small space yard for performances. It was environmental friendly and surrounded by lots of trees and greeneries. It was a nice performance place but totally informal and improvised. My students developed a small garden around and we called it “Udyaana Rangam”. It came up in December 2007. Many class room exercises, scene works and major departmental productions were presented in this space. King Oedipus, Hayavadan, Antigone, A Caucasian Chalk Circle and so many student productions were produced here. Then came Robin Das, the famous visualizer of Indian theatre. He also found a space nearby our old dept. for his scene works. But regretfully as soon as we moved to our new campus we couldn’t able to take care of these spaces. Slowly the forest engulfed them.

Our new SN School campus definitely is a gorgeous and beautiful complex that no Indian University has acquired. Here we have everything but a performance space. We have ac staff rooms, practice halls, studios,nice and decorative class rooms but no auditorium. I felt frustrated after having shifted to this new building. What shall I do with these ac rooms and corporate infrastructures while we don’t have a proper space to practice with my students?

By this time I have been assigned by my department to direct a Greek play with our 2^nd year students. Our first year students were also engaged in a Parsi play “Rustam O’ Sohrab” under the guidance of Kanheya lal Kethwas from NSD. I choose Euripides’s “Iphigenia”. But where to present these plays? In the beginning we planned to present these plays at G.B Hall. But that was also occupied by our third year students. They were practicing a realistic play with Prof. Bhikshu. So we did not have any virtual space to present our plays. Having no space to perform we planned to improvise another space somewhere around. We found one. I designed my play accordingly. Initially I planned to use our platforms to erect a stage there. But came to know that they were already been utilized by our Third year students for their play in G.B Hall. Now I have no choice. I got upset and thought to convert the show into demonstration. Kanheya also planned to culminate his work as a class room exercise. By that time one of my students, Govind Raju did a design scene work in a place behind our new campus adjacent to a wall corner. By seeing his work an idea clicked in my mind. “Why can’t I construct a permanent structure here in this particular place as our performance space? This could be a nice place for a stage”. Surrounded by lots of greeneries on one side and the latterite wall corner on the back, the space impressed me for a suitable mini open air auditorium technically as well as artistically. I decided to construct an environmental friendly permanent performance space there.

Financial constrain was the major hindrance for this artistic creation. There was absolutely no money to build an infrastructure in the University system. Our head Prof. Anant Krishnan showed his inability for any financial help but assured to help us later. But there is a saying goes, “Where there is a will, there is a way”. One of my students Amit Roshan contributed some money for the cement and sands. I purchased stones and the construction work started. Prof. Ananth Krishnan perhaps observed the good will of our students for this creative work and agreed to spend some money from our production budget. Initially there was no proper lay out plan except a vague idea of a circular space. Gradually during the process of construction ideas were kept on adding and finally it was ready somehow for the shows, our “VRITTAYANAM”; The circular performance space.

Sitting on a chair in the audience gallery yesterday I was watching our inaugural show “Rustam O’Sohrab” in my dream space “Vrittayanam”. Tears rolled down in my eyes with the first entry of the actors. I was recalling the days when we were desperately longing for a performance space month ago. Now my students will learn the fundamentals of acting and design. They can prepare their scene works here. It will be their personal working space. No University has such an actor’s friendly performance space that we have here in our department at Hyderabad University. We can do miracles. But we are on the mid way. We require funds to retain the stage and the gallery. I don’t know from where we get it! But my inner voice always responds from my within, “The dreams are always fulfilled”.

This is a purely my personal experience which I need to share with everybody.

I am thankful to all my faculty, my Head Prof. Ananth Krishnan and above all the Theatre art students and specially Kanheya Lal Kethwas whose physical contribution and labour made it possible.

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Dr. Satyabrata Rout/29^th October, 2010/Hyderabad University.