Theatre Day inspires old and young alike

Dharwad: Dharwad, the state's cultural hub, continues to expand its range of activities with new breed of artists ca rrying the baton forward. The World Theatre Day celebrations over the weekend provided ample proof of the enthusiasm among the young and old alike.
Several new theatre groups have come up independently and talented youngsters are being groomed into actors, direc tors, script writers and theatre technicians.The veterans who once hogged the limelight are still active and continue to perform.
Abhinaya Bharati, a troupe which has been around for two decades, staged Kannada play January 16 ra Ratri, (the Indianized version of Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th) written by Lohit Naiker and directed by Shripati Manjanabailu.
The story revolves around the murder mystery of a rich businessman in Mumbai and the legal course that follows. The mystery remains unsolved, thanks to the loopholes in investigation and the dependence of the judiciary on the witnesses and evidence provided by the probing agencies and prosecution. Though confined to the courtroom, the 90-minute play succeeds in capturing the incidents which occurred outside the courtroom. Sunil Patri, Vishwanath Rayadurg, Basavaraj Hongal, Veeranna Pattar, Arvind Kulkarni, Vishaya Jewoor, Sanmati Angadi and others excelled with their matured performance.
Rangayana, which has been organizing various programmes to keep theatre alive, organized two events on Sunday. The morning session at Suvarna Cultural Complex saw discussion on the theatre movement, rendering of Ranga Geetegalu and presentation of the skit, Bendre Darshan by Anant Deshpande. The evening session at the open-air theatre saw staging of Kannada play Gaarudiganaata.
Ranga Snehitaru, a team of youngsters, presented the annual Ranga Snehita award to veteran actress Kshama Hosakeri. Hindustani vocalist and Padma Shri Pandit M Venkatesh Kumar was felicitated on the occasion.
The four-day theatre festival organized by Ranga Parisara in memory of Handiganur Sidramappa featured special lectures on different aspects of drama and staging of Kannada play Raja Harischandra.