CHENNAI: The 365-acre lush premises of Madras Christian College nurtures creativity that spins stories from all over the country. Ten years ago, a group of students took the initiative of presenting storytellers and telling stories. And thus was born the theatre group — Theatre No. 59, which conducts Theatre Night, a two-night event where students performed drama embracing the differences in language, place, and opinion. This became an annual tradition to invite people from all around the city to revel in the joy of theatre. On their tenth anniversary, this year, the members of the current crew speak about what it means to carry forward this legacy.
Prepping for the night
For the past few days, the students have been spending sleepless nights to get everything together despite all the odds, comments Sarath Mathew Jacob, the theatre head. “Theatre is like a haven for everyone. Even though we have a tsunami of things to be done, we are managing everything. Currently, our focus is on the upcoming theatre nights featuring four plays in different languages — English, Tamil, Malayalam, and Hindi. We have a crew of 180 students among which 100 are working backstage,” he says.
Before raising the curtains to talk more about the theatre night, Moncy Samuel Biju, the literary and debating convenor, reminds us that it was important to trace the history. Moncy, a theatre member for the past five years, says, “Most of us had no idea about acting or theatre before joining the group. Auditions are happening every year, usually in August. There are no criteria for auditioning, anyone from the college can do it. Senior theatre members will filter the list and guide the students. It was our seniors who pushed us to go for auditions. They are constantly there for any requirements of the theatre.”
The origins
Even though there were many theatre groups before Theatre No. 59 and theatre has always been the identity of the college, none of them rose to popularity like the current one. The members assert in unison that the theatre is only strong because the theatre members stay in touch and guide the students to pursue their passion. Allan V Jose, the literary and debating convenor during 2012-2013, shares, “The theatre was in my manifesto when I stood for the college union society elections and brought it in focus with all the talented folks in college,” adding that actor Roshan Mathew and RJ Sanjay Menon are the theatre’s core members.
Introducing the Spotify podcast, five nine talks, and the theatre group’s venture during the pandemic, the crew played out a conversation between Roshan and Sanjay about the inception of the theatre. Explaining how the initial crew dealt with the novelty of the theatre, Roshan reveals in the podcast, “It is only when you look back, it feels like a journey. When we started, things were pretty simple. We just wanted to do theatre and get on stage.
When we discovered that other colleges were having theatre productions, the 10-15 of us who got together wanted to find a community to express and create. What we did back then wasn’t of high artistic value, instead, we focussed on having fun while doing it. We weren’t thinking about starting a theatre group, so there was no pressure about how to keep it going. We didn’t even bother to give it a name and only when the Theatre Night was approaching we searched for a name. 59 is the pin code of Tambaram and we just went ahead with it.”
Backstage is the backbone
After 10 years, there stays a community that accepts everyone and strives to excel in presenting to society what they think and feel. Every year, after the auditions, the community grows. “The backstage works happen immediately after the auditions. We come together to brainstorm themes and then come up with a script, and stage set and move on to casting. Even though our official practices happen just 45-60 days before the Theatre Night, we begin preparations from August and continue our work till the performance in February,” explains Kanupriya Iyer, scriptwriter of the Hindi play.
Ensuring that there are no creative restrictions by the college authorities, Dr Paul Wilson, principal, Madras Christian College shares, “MCC has been known for performing arts for many decades and the same has been pursued outside the curriculum. In order to streamline the ecosystem created by the students to their benefit and to offer patronage, the college has been exploring the possibilities to integrate theatre into academics, as part of the skill development programme.
College has also begun to conceptualise the concept of conservatory for performing arts for students to further support dance, theatre and music thus scaling it up to the point of exploring their vocation through the co-curricular activities.” Since the stage is set for the students and by the students, they indulge in making everything from scratch. Navya Susanne Kurian and Jubel George Thomas, backstage heads, share, “From the idea, script to the props, everything is the brain of the students. Everything is handmade for the stage design.” The team was busy painting the backdrops for the plays and designing the T-shirts. They add, “We do not print the backdrops. Each backdrop is 18m long and 15 m wide. We paint almost 16 backdrops like this.”
Catharsis of creation
Be it comedy, tragedy, musicals, or social dramas, every year, the crew promises to deliver diversity. The tenth edition awaits four unique themes to be explored in four languages. While the Tamil and the Malayalam play intends to deliver strong social messages through the theme of human sacrifice and caste discrimination, the English and Hindi ones promise to deliver uniqueness through their styles — self-deprecating humour with Gen-Z problems and absurd comedy via sci-fiction. R Ranjith, director of the Tamil play, shares, “We have recently seen cases of human sacrifice in the media.
We wanted to put a light on this moodanambike (blind belief) certain people endorse.” Ashil Joseph, director of the Malayalam play, says, “We intend to make an impact at least with the people who watch our play and work to create it. Last year, when we did a play shedding light on the lives of the transgender community, a lot of people including my parents told me that our play made them realise the struggles of the community.” While the regional language plays go back to their roots and search for the topics, Dhanya Maria Philip, director of the English play comments that it is difficult to do that in English as the language is widespread all over the world. She adds, “For us, theatre is a catharsis.
This year, we are focussing on self-deprecating humour. We will be telling all the stories we want to tell through a different way of storytelling involving a lot of characters and an exploration into their personal lives.” The Hindi play stretches an extra level to stay different. Giriraj, director of the Hindi play, comments, “We are breaking the fourth wall through the play. It will be a fun ride with songs and parodies,” adding that every play is intended to entertain and engage the audience.
Beyond the curtains
Even though Theatre Night is a much-awaited festival for the team members, the group grows beyond that. Sarath says, “Theatre is a platform where everyone gets together without any separation. Our college has two separate streams — SFS and aided. Usually, the students from different streams don’t get to interact much but through the theatre, we form a family.” Agreeing with that Giriraj shares, “For our Hindi play, most of the members are Hindi-speaking south Indians. We all come from different states yet, we connect and bring out art together.”
Like Theatre No. 59, which was formed from level one, most of the members have built their talent over time. Sri Loganathan, an actor in the Tamil play, elaborates, “We haven’t performed anything of this scale before. Through the theatre’s grooming process, we explore the undiscovered talents inside us and being a community that supports each other, our confidence has built over time.” The group also goes for competitions outside Chennai, giving an opportunity to widen their exposure.
Speaking about their recent win at IIT Saarang, Sarath shares, “We performed along with other colleges who had spent lots of money on their preparations and props. We still managed to bag the third prize.” The crew also intends to extend its reach to more people. Sarath concludes, “A performance in hospitals for charity is on the cards and also we want to release more episodes of our radio drama through Spotify.” The Theatre Night will be today and tomorrow from 6.30 pm at Anderson Hall, Madras Christian College. Entry is free.