GUWAHATI: In 1954, sitting idle after completing their matriculation examination little did a group of 20 boys in Guwahati know that they would establish one of the most prominent and vibrant dramatic societies of Assam.
Businessman Mahendra Baruah founded New Art Players with the aim of helping these young boys utilise their free time in a positive pursuit after passing their class 10 examinations.
After receiving help from Baruah, the young group performed their first play Jibonor Posua. Slowly, with time, New Art Players (NAP) established a strong imprint in the Assamese cultural scenario. Along with Mahendra Baruah, some of the pioneers and founding members of NPA who popularised drama and the performing arts in the state were Upendrajit Sarma, Niren Baruah and Pradip Bordoloi.
During the mid and late 90s, NAP staged plays like eminent Assamese playwright, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala’s Rupalim.
“During those times, the famous plays used to be staged at Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir, Rabindra Bhawan and the District Library,” informed Arupjyoti Choudhury, the current secretary of NAP.
“Seeing its popularity and with the evolvement of the drama movement, many prominent artists and actors such as Malaya Goswami and Tapas Dutta joined New Art Players,” said Choudhury who himself joined the club in 2005. Choudhury took voluntary retirement from his government job three years ago to dedicate himself completely to NAP.
He added that noted music directors Ramen Baruah and Anupam Choudhury are also senior members of the drama group.
In more recent times, the society has enthralled the audience with plays such as Piyoli Phukan, Rupalim, Jatinga, Xei Gosjupa and Torile Dekh Morile Xwarga among several others.
Choudhury informed that this year, on the occasion of Republic Day, they had the opportunity to perform at the Gauhati High Court. “Seeing our performance, the authorities again invited us to perform at the High Court on Independence Day this month for which we will begin rehearsals shortly,” he added.
With its gaining popularity, New Art Players has seen a tremendous growth over the years, both in terms of qualitative performance and infrastructural expansion.
The members informed that earlier they used to operate from a small office at Jorpukhuripar which did not have the requisite space for rehearsal of their plays. It is a different story now. With a view to promote art and culture, the state government had allotted them a plot of land near Gauhati Club where a four-storey building is under construction. They have also received funds from different PSUs including Oil India Limited and Indian Oil Corporation under these companies’ corporate social responsibility funds.
“The new building will have all the state-of-the-art facilities and latest equipment and will serve as a nerve-centre for cultural and art activities in the city. We will invite various groups to perform here in order to develop the overall cultural scenario of the city,” informed Choudhury.
The new building will comprise library and archives, conference hall, auditorium and rehearsal room. It will also have a decent car parking space.
The NAP also organises different competitions at the state level every year such as Bina Dey Memorial Borgeet competition and Niren Baruah Memorial Recitation competition. Their dramas have also featured on Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR).
Aim to promote amateur talent
New Art Players is now focussing on promoting amateur theatre groups across the state.
“We will invite amateur theatre groups from different places to perform in the new auditorium and for cultural exchanges. Our aim is to support new talent and provide them with whatever opportunity we can in order to keep good theatre alive in the city,” informed the members of NAP.
Talking about the change in the theatre scenario over the years, Choudhury said that earlier there was an “amateurish approach” towards drama. However, today’s audience expects perfection in everything including the sound and the lighting department.
The actors earlier used the help of a prompter for their dialogues but now they have to be well-versed with all their dialogues and more alert on stage. Nowadays, the audience is closer to the actors as opposed to earlier when there was some distance between the two, said Choudhury.
“Hence, they come to know instantly if the actors are feeling the emotions or are performing mechanically and the actors need to have perfection in their acting,” added Choudhury.
Further, keeping up with the changing times and experimenting with drama forms, the NAP has developed a new form of drama called Golponaat or “story drama”.
This form of drama is performed by only one actor and is enacted in the form of long monologues.
Members say that Dipok Kumar Barthakur, the present president of NAP has been the guiding light of the society who is actively involved in taking NAPA forward and giving it direction.
NAP members say that they have great hopes from the younger generation and believe that the future of Assamese drama is in good hands.
“They are much more aware and study everything in detail. The young boys and girls are very much interested in drama and enthusiastic to take it forward and they should be provided with such a platform in every district,” feels Choudhury.