Senior theatre artiste Rameshwari Verma inaugurates first College English Theatre Festival

Mysore/Mysuru: Theatre is the ideal medium to develop confidence and several life skills and it is a source of immense joy, fulfilment, companionship. Every time you play a character, you need to get deeper into understanding the historical and geographical background too and this surely increases your knowledge, opined senior theatre artiste Rameshwari Verma.

She was speaking as the chief guest at the first 3-day College English Theatre Festival organised by Mysore English Theatre Forum (METF) a RamaGovinda Rangamandira in city last evening.

Lauding the efforts of the METF in promoting English Theatre in the city, she said today English is an integral part of us as we have become a part of the globalised world. Though Kannada Theatre is very active in Mysuru, English theatre is still to grow and such festivals will bridge the need and hopefully it will become popular like in the other metros, she said and added that learning English through theatre is a lot more easier.

Keeping with the vision of METF to ‘Nurture and Grow’, the festival was inaugurated by watering a sapling.

Dr. V.R. Anil Kumar, Founder-Member of METF, who spoke, said that now English has become an Indian language and art form has no language barriers and for many of us who are leading secluded lives any art form is a unifying factor.

Retd. IAS Officer A.K. Monnappa, who is also one of the Co-ordinators of METF, stressed the need for Drama Clubs in Colleges. Stating that theatre not only involves acting but a host of other skills, he said by organising activities in colleges, we can catch them young and promote talents.

Earlier, Dr. M.C. Manohara, Co-ordinator of METF, rendered the invocation. Seemanthini B. Sharma, Founder-Member of METF and Convenor of the Festival, welcomed. Six city Colleges are presenting plays during the festival and two plays were enacted on the inaugural evening.

‘Dr. Faustus’ by Night Glory

The first play was by Night Glory, a team of students from various colleges, who enacted ‘Dr. Faustus.’

In this part of the original 16th century play, the very knowledgeable Dr. Faustus is lured to the Seven Deadly Sins by the devil Lucifer. Each of the Sins (Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery) was appropriately enacted by the actors, trying to lure Dr. Faustus.

The devils, Lucifer and Mephistopheles, as well as Dr. Faustus, were quite convincing in their acting. Overall, a wonderfully directed 30-minute play, with attractive lighting and costumes.

‘The Refund’ by SDM-MMK

‘The Refund’ was the second play of the inaugural day, by the students of SDM-MMK College. The girls did a wonderful job of acting out this all-male character play. This humorous play tells the story of a man who goes back to his school to claim a refund of his fees, since he didn’t learn anything at school! His teachers and the Principal decide to give him a re-examination and only if he fails this will he get his fee refund. Both student and teachers try to outwit each other.

The student tries hard to give the wrong answers each time, but the teachers always find a reason to prove that his answer is correct. He finally passes the examination in ‘flying colours’, and is therefore not entitled to a refund!

The play had the audience in splits and the enthusiasm of these College students was visible not only onstage but before and afterwards too. Kudos also to the efforts of their teachers and the support of the college.

Today, play ‘Merchant of Venice’ will be staged by CRESTA School of Management, Science and Arts at 5 pm and play ‘One Dark Night’ by University College of Fine Arts at 7 pm.