Art As Drama
Sushama Deshpande usually works on fresh and very interesting material. Her last play Bayaa Daar Ughad, on the female poetsaints of Maharashtra, was a well-researched and rousing piece of musical theatre. In the supportive atmosphere of Awishkar, one of Mumbai’s most oldest theatregroups, under the leadership of Arun ‘Kaka’ Kakade, she is free to experiment with form and content.
Her new Marathi play Chitragoshhti, also withAwishkar, has its origins in the art of Sudhir Patwardhan—whose work portrayed the lives of ordinary Mumbaikars with striking effect. The theatricality of his art was what Deshpande sought to capture and the production was devised after putting 21 actors--most of them young-- through an art appreciation workshop and then letting them improvise their responses to Patwardhan’s paintings-- particuarly his mill worker series and the family series, rich with unspoken stories hidden in the canvas. In between, Abhinetri and Running Woman gave a chance to three bright young actresses to do their thing-- why don't Patwardhan's paintings portray women, they ask. Patwardhan says, they didn't choose the ones with women in them.
What undoubtedly made the exercise more exciting was the artist’s active participation--in the selection of paintings, sitting in on discussions and interacting with the actors during rehearsals. It’s not very often that this kind of collective process is used in theatre, and Chitragoshhti shows the way for more such creative collaborations.
Sushama Deshpande usually works on fresh and very interesting material. Her last play Bayaa Daar Ughad, on the female poetsaints of Maharashtra, was a well-researched and rousing piece of musical theatre. In the supportive atmosphere of Awishkar, one of Mumbai’s most oldest theatregroups, under the leadership of Arun ‘Kaka’ Kakade, she is free to experiment with form and content.
Her new Marathi play Chitragoshhti, also withAwishkar, has its origins in the art of Sudhir Patwardhan—whose work portrayed the lives of ordinary Mumbaikars with striking effect. The theatricality of his art was what Deshpande sought to capture and the production was devised after putting 21 actors--most of them young-- through an art appreciation workshop and then letting them improvise their responses to Patwardhan’s paintings-- particuarly his mill worker series and the family series, rich with unspoken stories hidden in the canvas. In between, Abhinetri and Running Woman gave a chance to three bright young actresses to do their thing-- why don't Patwardhan's paintings portray women, they ask. Patwardhan says, they didn't choose the ones with women in them.
What undoubtedly made the exercise more exciting was the artist’s active participation--in the selection of paintings, sitting in on discussions and interacting with the actors during rehearsals. It’s not very often that this kind of collective process is used in theatre, and Chitragoshhti shows the way for more such creative collaborations.
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