BANGALORE: College education these days, seems to be less about books and more about cultural activities that prepare students for real life. City Express found a bunch of students who have figured out a way to override the usual co-curriculum by starting theatre clubs in their institutions. Packed with every element of drama, these groups have come a long way to prove themselves.
Mad Crew is one such group which was started three years back by a bunch of Jain College students who were looking for the best way to bunk classes and still get attendance.“None of us knew that we could act before we started the crew. Once we got together and started winning in college fests, we became serious,” says Mayank Uchill, one of the first members in the crew. Winners of the Mad Ads competition in the Nokia India Fest (South zone) and runners up in the finals, the crew has a mixture of other talents - dancers, beatboxers and stand-up comedians.
Another group which set the ball rolling for student initiatives is Header and Footer Club (HAFC) which began in 2009 as an attempt to satirise the uptight college culture in the Indian Institute of Science. Originally a four-member group, the club has welcomed more than 75 volunteers and helmed over five productions. “We try to capture what we observe in our society - from the imaginary friend who accompanies a girl on a date to the old aunt who undertakes the job of scrutinising a potential bride,” says Vyasa Shastry, actor and playwright in HAFC. After winning Purushottham Karandek - a drama competition in Pune, the group has also performed alongside internationally reputed comedy artists like Papa CJ and Isak Jansson.
One thing these two groups have is the art of spontaneous improvisation. “There was this instance when one of the actors went way ahead of schedule and delivered a line in the first fifteen minutes that was supposed to come on the fiftieth minute but we improvised on the spot and pulled it off without missing a beat,” says Adwait Godbole, an active member of HAFC.
What if a performance was stopped midway and there was no way to hold the fort for even a minute longer? Mad Crew, at an Alumni function last year, did the impossible when they took the audience outside the auditorium after their performance was interrupted. “There wasn’t a single person remaining in the hall, except for the handful that had stopped our performance,” says Kushveer Singh, scriptwriter and actor in Mad Crew.
The crew also recently conducted auditions to recruit two more members - an audition that required a person to simply have unbridled ‘craziness’.
HAFC is no less. “Two of us staged a fight in the cafeteria for a whole 90 minutes and at the end of it, we made announcements of the club’s next performance,” says Raksha Ramaswamy, an HAFC member.
Both groups are working on more projects. “One of the plays we’re currently working on is a political satire inspired by the AAP,” says Vyasa Shastry who feels that writing the script is perhaps the most challenging part of a production. On the other hand, Mad Crew plans to commercially branch out and one of their main projects includes creating a bigger forum for acting events. “In college fests, only a few teams get to perform. We want to create a platform where anybody can get on stage,” says Nagesh Magaji of Mad Crew.