An Akademi in search of playwrights
By Chaman Ahuja

EAST or west, north or south, wherever one goes, one plaint is common in the theatre circles of India — the absence of good plays. Thanks to the National School of Drama, now we do have great actors, wonderful directors, even good designers and technical hands, but there are no playwrights. The near-simultaneous blossoming of Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar, Mohan Rakesh and Girish Karnad had prompted people to believe that playwriting too was rearing for a big leap, but that didn’t happen. Could the NSD help through specialisation in playwriting? "Writing cannot be taught," argued one of its directors, "writers are born, not made." This is the work of the literature departments. Declared the other, the third one objected to the very idea of expecting the School to do anything more than what it is doing.

For long, Sangeet Natak Akademi also concentrated exclusively on promoting directors through its scheme for young theatre workers; but when that scheme started staggering, it realised the need for good playwriting. Since 1994, it has been organising playwrights’ workshops — one workshop every year, in a different Indian language. The big idea is to lend a helping hand to the regions where theatre has not been able to dig its feet for want of good plays. What such a workshop can achieve was proved about a decade ago when Ford Foundation supported Satish Alekar in organising playwrights’ workshop in Marathi at Pune: The young playwrights discovered then are big names today.

Of course, it would be naive to expect every workshop to throw up great geniuses. Witness, a week-long workshop that another Marathi playwright, Mahesh Elkunchwer, conducted at Chandigarh a couple of years ago. He was quite serious and so seemed the participants but, despite the great promise of the exercises, one is yet to learn about any gains in terms of the consequential creativity.

The SNA scheme envisages a workshop in several phases in which the aim is to afford to some promising playwrights the benefit of the experiences of established playwrights, directors and critics, and to facilitate the production of the best script so that, in the process, its writer gets acquainted with the resources of the practical theatre. The playwrights to be invited are identified through the involvement of eminent artists, state akademis, departments of culture, zonal centres, organisations and individuals, who are requested to send names and addresses of the potential playwrights. Those recommended are contacted and asked to send bio-datas, copies of published work, an early draft of a play in preparation, and a panel of directors with whom they would like to work. An expert committee formed for the project goes through the submissions and shortlists the participants for a week-long workshop, in which the members of the committee select the playwright whose work is to be supported. After the workshop, the playwright is expected to work with a selected director to develop the draft into the final script before the director produces it. If the expert committee finds the play as produced of an outstanding nature, the production is taken to different parts of the country. After some years, there might be a festival of all the plays written and produced under the scheme. Also the SNA plans to get the plays published and translated into other languages.

Quite an elaborate scheme that is going to cost the akademi a huge amount every year, it certainly deserves a fair trial. Whether or not it will bring about a sea change in the theatre scenario, only time will tell. Anyway, what is needed is not just the willingness to implement the scheme but also the will to modify it in the light of the experience of every workshop. At least the third workshop in Punjabi (after Tamil and Gujarati) did yield some points to ponder.

The final phase of the workshop in Punjabi ended in the first week of August when Preet Mohinder Singh Sekhon’s play, "Dhol Sipahi," was presented at Amritsar under the direction of Kewal Dhaliwal, who had collaborated with the playwright in finalising the script after the expert committee had selected it in November 1998, in the course of a workshop at Patiala. The other two plays that were read out and discussed were Prabhjot’s "Nikki Bole Payee" and Sanjeevan Singh’s "Freedom Fighter".

The workshop at Patiala had left one dissatisfied on grounds more than one. First and foremost, there were murmurs about the selection-about the absence of some writers with better trackrecord. The akademi had a valid defence in arguing that it was a workshop for the young, upcoming ones and not for the old hands, and that, in any case, it had to select from the names recommended and the scripts submitted. As it happened, only three writers satisfied the basic requirements and all of them had been invited. Interestingly, when asked to suggest suitable names, an addressee had invariably suggested one name — his own. At times the names suggested were established writers as old as sixty! Many a playwright sent not the script of a play-in-progress, as required, but a mere synopsis. Possibly such oddities could be obviated by making the communications unequivocal in respect of terms and conditions. Maybe, for the sources of information, the akademi would do well to cast its net wider by inviting scripts direct through ads in the local press. If the focus of search is not a play but a playwright, the basis of selection should be more scripts — not just the first draft of one play.

At Patiala, instead of running for a whole week, the workshop was reduced to three days — one day for each play. Every day there were just two sessions: the one in the morning was devoted to the reading of the script and the selection of two scenes for animated reading in the afternoon; in the second session, after the scenes rigged up were presented and commented upon by the performers, there was just an hour or so left for discussion. Since the discussants included experts, observers, participating playwrights, directors, critics and the audience in general, the session inevitably became an exercise in airing observations rather than offering in depth analysis or making constructive suggestions. Surely, the interaction would have proved more worthwhile if there had been more time for discussion, if the audience had been confined to experts, and if the scripts had been sent to them in advance for comprehensive study from all angles. The discussion of the enacted scenes rarely yielded any meaningful insights; perhaps this activity could be pursued at greater leisure in the evenings — with the involvement of expert directors. All told, it was not so much a workshop for playwrights as a seminar on plays. Since a workshop is a place where what is done is work, not talking, and since the "wright" in the word playwright also implies manufacturing, the aim of the playwrights’ workshop should be not critical appreciation but collective creativity in devising for the playing-hand the outfit of a more acceptable identity.

Now, has the workshop in Patiala/ Amritsar really witnessed the birth of a great playwright? At least the production of "Dhol Sipahi" did not hold out the promise of a new signature: with a stale and predictable story, stereotyped structure, stock characters, melodramatic tenor, it appeared yet another typical, mediocre play. Maybe, it is unrealistic to look for a masterpiece in a maiden attempt, but is it too much to expect a measure of originality in some way? Even if one were to concede that, as a result of the workshop, Punjab may soon have reason to celebrate the emergence of a new name in Punjabi drama, the question is: is that enough; will this one swallow make a summer? Couldn’t the scheme be so modified as to motivate more people? Indeed, it is time the akademi asked itself what its scheme seeks to promote or should promote — a play, a playwright, or the playwriting scenario? Having answered that question, it should go on to ask if the present format has been really effective in realising that objective.

Ideally, the scheme should motivate many people, help the more promising ones, and patronise the most promising of all. But that calls for a caution. Since the need for a workshop implies want of adequately high standards, it is absolutely necessary that the workshop should refuse to perpetuate the current norms through the blind patronage of a mediocre work by projecting it as model. It is necessary, therefore, that the workshops must serve as occasions to establish new standards, to inject young blood, and to let in fresh air from outside. For example, while interacting with some of the participating playwrights, it became clear that since they had read plays in Punjabi only — and since in the dramatic literature of this language, mediocrity is the order of the day — they had no idea of what good playwriting meant. With no good models, and with hardly any acquaintance with the dramatic theory and practice, they cannot aspire for anything great — unless some effort is made for their proper initiation and adequate exposure to literature beyond their region. In other words, the SNA scheme calls for a more elaborate structure with a view to providing more extensive benefit, at different stages (collectively as well as individually), from the scholars’ knowledge, playwrights’ experience, critics’ insights, and directors’ collaboration.

The akademi proposes a comprehensive review of the scheme next year after the fourth workshop in Orissa; hopefully, drawing right lessons from its vast experience, it will modify the scheme to perfection. Anyway, with a view to helping that exercise, I have been discussing the pros and cons of the present format with some of the participants. Some suggestions have emerged, but our experience being comparatively limited, it would be presumptuous to pontificate and tell the SNA what it should do or should not do. What follows, therefore, is an attempt at sharing a possible format — not exactly a parallel alternative but the same scheme with changes in respect of details.

Phase I: The decision to hold a workshop in a certain language will automatically imply that one of the national theatre festivals (which the akademi organises every year) is going to be held in that region. In other words, the workshop will take off with the festival — a fact that would be adequately publicised through ads in the press. The idea is to attract the young talent and to let the plays of the festival serve as models for those interested. In the festivals, invariably, mornings are devoted to the discussion — of the performances of the previous evenings. This seminar will be so modified as to afford to the would-be-playwrights an insightful introduction to theatre practices as well as to the theory of drama. In the afternoons (that are kept free now), there will be lectures and films on theatre in general and playwriting in particular. A couple of afternoons will be devoted to interaction with established playwrights who will read their masterpieces and talk about their work, art and experiences.

Phase II: Those who thus get bitten by the bug or who come through the scouting process, will be asked to write some fresh scripts in the next month or two, and send them along with some earlier work by a certain date. On the basis of all the submission, the screening committee will identify the promising talent. Even as the committee takes its time, those who have sent the scripts will be motivated to read anthologies of masterpieces of world and Indian drama (copies of which will be gifted /supplied/ circulated by the Akademi).

Phase III: The selected scripts will be sent to all the participating playwrights and they will be invited to a workshop to discuss those scripts. To make the discussion focused, it will be restricted to the expert committee, the screening committee, some leading playwrights, a few experienced directors, a couple of critics, and the young playwrights. On the basis of the scripts discussed, the participation , the measure of sensitivity, receptivity and maturity evidenced, the expert committee will pick up one or two playwrights for the final workshop.

Phase-IV: The selected playwright will complete the play to his own satisfaction and bring the script to a workshop specially devised for him; here, sitting with a leading playwright, an experienced director, and a seasoned critic, the playwright will work on form, structure, characters, and the script — act by act, scene by scene, line by line. There will be provision for trying the scenes, if and when felt necessary, with a group of performers.

Phase-V: As the finalised script is produced by a director, the playwright will attend the rehearsals and discuss every change that is deemed necessary. After the premiere show, there will be a discussion among the audience; in the light of that as well as the reviews, the playwright and the director will effect changes, if deemed necessary.

Phase VI: The final evaluation by the expert committee will take place after at least a dozen shows. Only if it is found outstanding, the play will be taken round, published, and translated into other languages.

After his selection in phase III, the playwright will receive handsome honorarium so that he can devote full time to the process. As an incentive for further work, there will be a provision that if a playwright involved in the scheme submits a subsequent play, it would be got evaluated; if it is rated outstanding, the akademi would facilitate its production or/and publication through a subsidy. Such sustained patronage, it is hoped, will yield lasting dividends and usher an ongoing movement.