THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eminent theatre personality Kumara Varma on Saturday underlined the need for theatre to be prepared for changes. He was speaking at a programme ‘Living Legends,’ organised in connection with the eighth Theatre Olympics which is under way in the city. “I too have been changing with the theatre. I have not stuck to any one style. Those changes have been made possible by engrossing myself into the characters,” he said. Kumara Varma, a retired professor of the Department of Indian Theatre at Punjab University, is a recipient of the Bharat Award and Girish Ghosh Award. He was active in the Nataka Kalari Movement in Kerala during 1968-73.
In 1967, when he returned after studies at the National School of Drama, the ‘Nataka Kalari’ was just taking form. “It was the Nataka Kalari that created a notion that learning of theory and practice was necessary for performing plays. The general notion that only passion was needed changed and importance was being given for training,” he said. G Sankara Pillai, C R Sreekantan Nair and Ayyappa Panicker were the people in the forefront of the movement back then.
But training in the theatre could not be continued as in the case of kathakali. When social reformation movements of the 1960s became irrelevant, art forms like kathakali got more prominence, he said.
He spoke of the theatre performances casting kathakali artistes in those days and also shared his theatre experiences spanning half a century.