BENGALURU: Running the rat race in life, often people forget to pause and sit back to appreciate the smaller things in life. Trust a group of working professionals to tell you that life is not all always about running this race.
The Kannada play, Simahachalam Sampige is about such emotions and feelings. It is being staged by Yuvashree Bangalore, a troupe started by two finance professionals and a marketing executive, who were college mates with a passion for theatre. The play is an adaption of a book of short stories, Mithuna, translated from the work of Telegu author, Sriramana, by Kannada author, Vasudhendra.
Sujay CT works as in the marketing division of an MNC and is one of the founding members of the theatre troupe. He is an actor and a production specialist. For the play, he is donning the latter role. “The play is of around two hours and is basically four stories weaved together,” he says. The other founders of the troupe are Vijay Kulkarni who works in Hindustan Unilever Ltd in the finance department and Hemath Bhardwaj of VM Ware, a software firm.
The four stories in the play range from tales of togetherness of an old couple (Mithuna), family life from the standpoint of a grandmother (Simahachalam Sampige) to a narrative about the aspiration of a man who comes from a village and becomes an officer (Goli Soda) and lastly a story of women empowerment (Dhanalakshmi). “Leading a normal life in the present day has become an achievement in itself. People have so many aspirations and are always running after one goal or another. These four stories remind one of the simple life and are connected by universal emotions,” says Sujay.
Talking about the production side of things and the difficulties of staging four plays within one play, Sujay highlights, “The biggest challenge is the preparation of props, shifting them from one story to another, music and lighting and even the costumes. We always need to get the actors ready.”
With full-time jobs, it is often difficult to juggle work with one’s passion as pointed out by Sujay. However, they make things work for the love of theatre. “We usually practice during the weekends or after our office hours. Whatever be the case we make sure that we set a good amount of time for practice. Sometimes we even start practice in the morning before going to work. This routine is now part of our daily lives.”
Simahachalam Sampige will be staged in at Rangashankara, on June 26, 7.30pm. Entry fee is Rs 150