ALTERNATIVE THEATRE SPACE

The Environmental Theatre

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A Scene from the play: Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides
presented by the students of Theatre Arts, Univ. of Hyderabad

From the very beginning there is a quest to break the rules of theatre and its grammar. Time and again the directors and scenographers have tried   to come out of the conventional focused spaces to an alternative theatre space in order to wipe out the strong line between performers and audience; to bring both of the team in one platform. This concept of oneness in theatre is not at all a new phenomenon in our folk and traditional theatre which we have already discussed in our previous chapter on Ramalila and Dhanu Yatra performances. We have experienced how the audience become an integral part of these ritualistic performances and how the space works. But somehow our Indian urban theatre couldn’t adopt the concept so easily.

Look back to the west, the polish director Jerzy Grotowski is the first who succeeded in finding an alternative space for his theatre expression. The passion grew during the second half of Twentieth century. The American director and author Richard Schechner named this alternate space for his theatre; The Environmental Theatre. He traced   its origin in Indian performances of Ramlila. These kinds of spaces reject the conventional arrangements in the audience gallery and include them as an integral part of the production. The actor-audience relationship becomes so close to each other that sometimes they fall in the paradox of seen and seeing at the same time and space. The idea behind the alternate space for theatrical presentation is to offer a spatial experience to the audience as if they are the partakers of the happenings and not merely witness. Whether it is in the form of forum theatre, third theatre or site specific theatre, it frequently changes the focuses by shifting the scenes from place to place. In an environmental situation the performance can happen anywhere around the audience. At the same time an audience can choose his own way of seeing the performance.

I still remember the production of The Cherry Orchard directed by Richard Schechner in the year 1980-81 for National School of Drama repertory company. Meghdoot open-air complex was selected for the presentation. The main acting area along with the surroundings became the part of this memorable presentation. I can recall the space design of the play. The main location the house of Mrs. Ranevskaya was placed towards the rear left of the stage proper which was extended up to the nearby area with lots of trees towards the off stage. These trees around the performance space represented the orchard. A reception in the play was arranged in the coffee lawn at the entrance of the auditorium. The play opened with Schechner’s address the audiences who were searching for a place to sit (Our Indian audience was not habituated to this kind of performances before and there was no specific sitting arrangement as we found in other theatres.). He briefed the concept of the performance and told the audience to feel free in finding a place to watch the play, move around with the action, stand and even can participate in the action, the way they want.

Our contemporary Indian theatre was not exposed to this kind of experimental work in 80s. This was a life experience for audiences those who witnessed and participated in this production.  Indian theatre design entered into the new realm of experiment with the production of Richard Schechner. The space became the most important element of a theatre presentation. Though the integration of creative space and performance was already been explored by Alkazi in some of his productions in mid 70s, it couldn’t widely taken over by the next generation scenographers because of its limitation. But Schechner’s concept of using the environment as an organic element of the production inspired many designers to undertake space as a challenge. Thanks to Prof. Richard Schechner for providing us the opportunity to interact to this new idiom of theatre, the root which he found in Indian and Oriental theatrical forms.

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Dr. Satyabrata Rout/ Associate Professor, Theatre Arts/University of Hyderabad