6 plays in 5 days : Guwahati Theatre Festival set to take off on 14th September

I like a line that I often repeat in my articles. When expectation meets fulfilment, it is a heady cocktail of emotions. Today, I find myself in the enviable position of playing host to a plethora of top-notch stage artists – each of national repute. We have admired their work on the celluloid screens of Guwahati’s movie halls, swayed to the emotions that they portrayed. And here I am taking the sheer, gratifying pleasure of laying the out the delightful prospects; prospects that the coming week holds for entire Guwahati. Needless to say, this is unprecedented for the city. Nothing ever as magnificent has been mounted on the performing stages of Guwahati and I can only term the upcoming event as the theatre connoisseur’s ultimate fantasy. The G Plus Guwahati Theatre Festival, 2016 is set to singe the stage of Pragjyoti ITA, Machkhowa from 14th to 18th September with a play line-up that simply cannot be any more impressive than it already is. Just sample this: 14th Sept: Hamlet The Clown Prince directed by Rajat Kapoor and performed by Vinay Pathak, Neil Bhoopalam, Sujay Saple, Puja Sarup, Asmit Pathare and Mansi Multan   15th Sept: The Living Room directed by Kalki Koechlin (pronounced Kayklan, just so we all stand rectified), performed by Hussain Dalal, Ratnabali Bhattaharjee, Jim Sarbh and Shaun Williams   16th Sept: 2 To Tango, 3 To Jive directed by Ashvin Gidwani, performed by Saurabh Shukla, Achint Kaur, Preiti Mamgain and Sadiya Siddiqui   17th Sept: Two plays on this day viz. The Vagina Monologues (yes, that’s the provocative title) directed by Mahabanoo Kotwal, performed by Dolly Thakore, Mona Ambegaonkar, Swati Das, and Dilnaz Irani and The Truths of Womanhood, directed and performed by Kalki Koechlin   And finally on 18th Sept: One On One, multiple directors, performed by Shernaz Patel, Rajit Kapur (of Byomkesh Bakshi fame), Sumeet Vyas, Shikha Talsania, Gopal Dutt, Ritesh Singh and Neil Bhoopalam     Needless, to say any internet search for the top Indian plays from Mumbai throws up each above results. Each of these plays has travelled world-wide and has been performed to the biggest of draws in the premier cities of the world. We, as the organizing team take pleasure in presenting the festival to our readers, patrons, fans and public of Guwahati. All the plays are scheduled to start 7 pm except for the ones on 17th September. Two plays have been lined for the Saturday and The Vagina Monologues will be performed at 4 pm while The Truths of Womanhood, the Kalki Koechlin solo, will be performed at 7 pm.   “At G Plus, our attempt is to initiate and create all opportunities for the people of Guwahati that add to its development indices so that we can be a truly world class metropolis. This reflects in our publication and its outreach and our platforms like the Guwahati Theatre Festival is one such experience,” said Sunit Jain, publisher of G Plus.     The festival will also include two workshops to be conducted by actors Neil Bhoopalam and Saurav Shukla on 15th and 16th September respectively. The workshops will be held in the morning hours and are open to all keen actors and people interested in theatre. The entire festival has been curated by Dr. Asha Kuthari Choudhury. The festival has managed to create a huge buzz over social media and Guwahati seems to be bracing up for the extravaganza. “The Guwahati Theatre Festival is an offering of 6 of the top theatre groups of Mumbai presenting some of their extremely well known plays that have been performed to international acclaim. They will now perform at Guwahati between the 14th and 18th of September. We plan to turn this into an annual feature, and to extend the scope and reach of the festival to include plays from other parts of India as well as international offerings. There would also be workshops that would focus on school children,” - Dr. Asha Kuthari Choudhury, Director, G Plus Guwahati Theatre Festival, 2016 The festival will have top Bollywood artists like Vinay Pathak, Kalki Koechlin, Saurav Shukla, Rajat Kapoor, Rajit Kapur and Neil Bhoopalam performing at Pragjyoti ITA, Machkhowa from 14th to 18th September; workshops on theatre to be conducted by Kalki, Shukla and Bhoopalam