Theatre has always been about a live experience of watching plays. When the pandemic COVID-19 created a worldwide lockdown, theatre groups globally were forced to stop plays. Theatre Artists who relied on theatre faced lots of difficulties as well. Akhil Bhaneswar, a theatre artist hailing from Hyderabad narrates the journey of theatre artists during the lockdown period. He is a graduate of the National School of Drama, Bengaluru Centre and is currently pursuing Masters in Performing Arts from Pondicherry University.
Credits: Dhanush
Akhil said, “My course was going on when lockdown happened. Since our course is practical-oriented classes, every day we had rehearsals and plays going on. We were rehearsing for one of our plays and were asked to stop the play since colleges were shutting in India due to the pandemic.”
“All my theatre activities came to a halt but I wasn’t tensed about the lockdown much. Later as things kept going on, nothing fell into place for theatre especially, and on a professional level everything was stuck up,” added Akhil.
Akhil Bhaneswar Credits: Rohan Anandheri
Akhil mentioned that he was expecting the university to open up soon and added, “I am a person who likes to complete what has already been started. So, I wanted to focus on finishing my education first and not think about anything else. But my other friends started YouTube channels in the initial months themselves to engage themselves in an activity. I kept waiting and it is still the same with no idea when will the course end.”
However, theatre found a substitute online and one-way theatre artists coped with the lockdown was acting for plays online. He said, “We were shooting plays and telecasting it live on Facebook and other platforms. But the special aspect of theatre unlike films is the live audience and the fact that theatre goes through months of rehearsals with a group of people where there is a construction of energy between actors using theatre games that increase our focus and helps us work on spontaneity.”
Such a process has now vanished online along with the component of having the live audience to watch plays at a theatre. It has become difficult for a theatre artist and Akhil added, “For me viewing a play online, or acting through online platforms didn’t work. There are films and web series to do that part. Theatre is a live show so the online theatre was turning frustrating.”
He said, “The future of theatre now was temporarily through online platforms. Online theatre has its pros and cons, we were getting to see old plays directed by great directors of the National School of Drama online. There were many webinars and I think it was one good thing that happened to theatre artists. The difficulties in travel, registrations, and everything about attending a theatre workshop were now no more there. We are now able to afford to watch certain webinars and it did help us, artists.”
Credits: Srinivas Kodavatiganti
Akhil shared, “I got opportunities to take up theatre workshops and classes online for a various group of people where we were doing a lot of tasks concentrating on facial expressions and other theatre practises that you can impart online. But offline workshops have a different impact on the people who come to learn as well. Online theatre workshops are now the choice but eventually, offline workshops must come back.”
“National School of Drama conducted theatre workshops as well and there were webinars where theatre enthusiasts could enrol and attend from the comfort of their homes,” he added.
“Various kinds of activities came up online for theatre artists like mask-making tasks or make-up classes. Only thing was theatre was not physically practised and there were no interactions as such,” said Akhil.
He mentioned, “With lockdown, the body is at rest and the mind is off, your creative process is blocked. Lethargy and laziness were taking over us. I have always felt that creative ideas come when you are at work but sitting at one place trying to learn theatre which in its whole and soul is a practical course.”
Theatre is all about getting the audience to watch the plays live and now with COVID-19 still around us theatre will also have a new set of rules. Akhil added, “Plays are happening now where the actors are wearing masks and performing along with proper sanitisation measures taken. Theatre will not end in the future; it will survive but there will be a heightened awareness about things. Theatre might move to something called an Intimate theatre where we do plays with less audience but more showtimes.”
The perks of theatre coming back to perform live is like Akhil mentioned that there isn’t much crew involved in theatre productions. He added, “Theatre plays have 10-15 cast members and one of the advantages is that these actors work on their costume, makeup and other works. We theatre artists are trained to do most of the tasks for a theatre set up making it possible to involve a smaller number of people.”
On the financial aspect, Akhil mentioned that many of the theatre groups narrowing down to Hyderabad do theatre as a side hobby, so there is a major income from another source of work. He said, “They use this income to invest in theatre because of their love for theatre. So not everybody faced difficulty financially like the folk artists who are completely dependent on folk performances which they perform day-to-day. They were the major group of people who were affected.”
There were difficult situations for everybody all-round the world from different walks of life similarly in theatre as well, the offline workshops halted but they picked up online. However, owners of cultural spaces who rent out their space for theatre plays have been affected along with artists and closely await the world to go back to normal and be free a virus-free place.
Listen to Akhil's experience here:
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