This Dasara, youth power will light the stage

Dasara 2013 will see youth power on stage with young artistes performing plays, and exhibiting their talent for folk and performing arts, besides classical music.

dna caught up with a theatre group that is rehearsing plays in 10 different venues, with senior directors directing young actors not more than 25 years of age.

“In less than six years, India will have the largest youth population in the world, and theatre will reflect that,” says Yeshwanth Sardesai, well known director of Rangayana group. 

The first play Rangayana will stage is ‘Hingadre dot comedy’.

“We would like to have as many young artistes on stage as possible, but there are some roles that only seniors may have to play,” says senior artiste director Saroja Hegde.

“On every day of the Navarathri celebrations (nine days and nights), we will enact one play, some of them humorous like Beechi Bullets, a collection of Beechi’s writings that have been converted into a play, which is a must-see for lovers of humour,” says Saroja.

The plays will be later staged in Shimoga, Hubli-Dharwad and Bangalore. The sprawling estate of the Kannada Ranga Mandira on Hunsur Road is now filled with young artistes rehearsing their lines, seated on the pavements and on the sidewalks and on the lawns.

“This time, the theatre fever is more intense among the youth. Some of the actors are acting for the first time, but when I watched the rehearsal, they did not appear as firstitimers,” says SI Bavikatti, in-charge director of Rangayana.