There is no stopping Delna Mody

For Delna Mody, leaving Canada might have seemed like a hard decision. After all, she was leaving the country where musical theatre is considered a mainstream genre of performance arts entertainment.

Indian theatre then, on the other hand, did not have the money or the vision to embrace musical theatre in a big way. After all, Broadway-styled musicals was not a familiar sequence on the stage.

However, impediments pushed aside, there is no stopping Delna Mody who has managed to find her niche in the Mumbai theatre circle. The trained actor, singer and dancer from Sheridan College, having worked in three productions in Canada with Forward Theatre at the Living Arts Centre, has now hooked up with the inimitable Alfred D’souza and his choral ensemble The Stopgaps, who have performed in Paris, Rome (for the Pope) and many other places across the globe, to play at NCPA over the weekend.

The performer says, “I will be performing eight solos in the show. I was recommended to Alfred by Marianne D’cruz, a talent vocalist and voice teacher, when he was looking for soloists to perform at his concert in Oct, 2009.”

Delna feels that despite many impediments, theatre enthusiasts in Mumbai are gradually warming up to the idea of seeing big-budget musical performances. However, she also points out that at the producer’s level, few are willing to take the risk.

She points out, “Mumbai has been exposed to only certain very well-known musicals which are thought to guarantee returns at the box office. Music theatre has a vast, exciting repertoire that has yet been unexplored and I think people in Mumbai are incredibly
open-minded and ready for a different kind of music theatre.”

Delna is also disturbed with the general idea harboured by theatre producers that musicals always have to be big-budget. She explains, “However, there seems to be a misconception But some musicals that have been in NYC like Company are minimalistic and all they need is talent and very few sets, but producers who do have the money are unwilling to be the change. Money can create opportunities, but it sometimes and most often is the death of new art, when people are not willing to experiment.”