International theatre festival in city soon

Kolkata, Oct 14: Come January and the aty will witness an international theatre festival with talents from all over Europe, US and other metros in the country coming to the city.

The National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, has selected the city to hold this Satellite Theatre Festival, which would be held simultaneously with the Bharat Rang Mahotsav(BRM).

BRM is the international theatre festival conducted by NSD every year in New Delhi. This year, the ninth BRM would be held from January 6 to 20 and the simultaneous festival from January 12 to 21.

Last year, the venue for the Satellite Festival was Bangalore.

''After the international and national theatre groups perform in Delhi, they will travel to Kolkata with their sets. Some of the groups have such expensive sets that they are not able to accommodate their stuff in planes. For instance, a theatre group from Czechoslovakia will sail to Kolkata with their belongings,'' Secretary of Paschim Banga Natya Academy (PBNA), a theatre outfit handling the logistics of the festival, Sukanto Ray said.

There would be two international workshops on acting and lighting in theatre. A workshop would be conducted by eminent German director, Sasha Waltz.

''We are going to have international and national plays. We still have not decided whether local groups will perform,'' Rudraprasad Sengupta, a noted city theatre persona and one of the co-ordinators of the festival, said.

UNI