BENGALURU: After office hours, software engineer Sowmya J rushes to her theatre group’s rehearsal sessions.
“I don’t feel tired, rather our rehearsal time is something that I look forward to every day. And when I perform on stage, that’s an amazing feeling,” says the 35-year-old who is part of RangaTantra, a group of working professionals who is passionate about theatre. The group, which has done several public performances, will be staging their show, Ask Mr YNK, on February 7.
“We used to enact dramas as part of the Ugadi celebrations at our office premises around 2008. Later we realised that this is something we love to do and should continue beyond office hours. So we extended our horizon and formed the group RangaTantra,” shares Mahadev Prasad, group manager and an IT professional in Koramangala.
Over the last decade, RangaTantra has been performing two-three plays every year at multiple venues like Ranga Shankara in JP Nagar, K H Kalasoudha in Hanumantha Nagar, and Prabhat Auditorium in NR Colony and in Basaveshwara Nagar.
Over the years, they have performed plays written by the likes of Kailasam, Jogi and M S Narasimhamurthy.
“The first drama that we performed outside the office was Ammavra Ganda. We do social dramas, mythology and comedy plays. We have only working professionals which, sometimes, is challenging. We compose our own music and our colleagues who are percussionists play their instruments on the day of performance. This is one of the areas that we need to improve,” says Prasad (43).
According to team members, they get a lot of support from colleagues and family.
“We can’t compromise on our work, so it is me-time or family time that gets compromised. If we didn’t have that kind of support, it would have been really hard. In fact, our family members are the ones who help us manage crowds and stage settings on the performance day. The most satisfying moment is when you receive positive feedback from audience after putting in all the hardwork,” says 32-year-old Sriharsha H S, a project manager and actor.
Today, the 15-member group includes working professionals from different parts of the city. They come together during the weekends to rehearse.
“We start practice at least three months in advance of a scheduled performance,” says Sowmya, adding that RangaTantra has changed her life in many ways.
“Until I joined this group, I had never dreamt of becoming a theatre actor. In fact, I feel IT has given me so much room to pursue my passion,” she says.