BENGALURU: A stage is nothing short of a sacred space for actors, who are now feeling relieved and excited to get back to live performances. And now, helping create more on-stage magic is Pravara Theatre Production, along with Ashvagosha Theatre Trust, with the Bengaluru Short Play Festival (BSPF). The theme is Love of Life and though the festival will take place on March 27, the call for submission of plays will end on March 10.
Hanu Ramasanjeeva, founder of Pravara Theatre Production, says the festival was curated to encourage short plays. “We wanted to do something new for World Theatre Day and moreover, there is hardly any festival surrounding short plays. We hope to create a buzz around this genre of theatre,” says the theatre practitioner.
Each team will be given 15 minutes, which includes stage setup and they will have to perform plays with a minimum duration of 10 minutes. The jury selects winners in seven different categories – best actor (male and female), play (jury and audience choice), director, original script and publicity design. Of these, two (best play – audience and jury choice) include cash prizes of Rs 8,000.
“We are mostly taking fresh scripts but are also considering any script that the group has performed earlier. This, however, will not be considered for the best original script category,” says Ramasanjeeva. Since this is the first edition, only Kannada scripts will be considered but from next year onwards, it will allow Hindi and English scripts too.
Registrations have started and Ramasanjeeva has received multiple queries about the festival. “We thought we will do the screening earlier but with less time in hand, many theatre practitioners told us that they will need extra time to practise, since most of the plays are brand new scripts,” he says. The first round of screening will be done by a three-member jury from March 13-15 at KEA Prabhath Kalapoornima, NR Colony Bengaluru and eight teams will be selected for the finals on March 27, which is World Theatre Day.
For more details, email bengalurushortplayfestival@gmail.com