GUWAHATI, July 6 � Theatre group Purbaranga which has earned rave reviews for its productions that have highlighted a wide range of social issues is going to celebrate its silver jubilee with a year-long programme. Apart from holding seminars and a theatre festival at the national level, Purbaranga will also showcase its contributions to the theatre movement in the State over the years.
Gunakar Dev Goswami of Purbaranga informed that in keeping with the silver jubilee celebrations, two productions would be staged, one in this month and another one in August. The plays are Basavdatta and The Puppet. Basavdatta will be staged on July 9 at Sivasagar and The Puppet would be staged on August 19 and 20 at the Rabindra Bhawan here.
�We have also decided to hold a national-level theatre festival from this year,� informed Goswami adding that this endeavour is aimed at promoting originality, experimentation and thematic variation in the field of theatre.
It needs to be mentioned here that thematic variation and experimentation is the hallmark of the Purbaranga productions that have won critical appreciation in the State and outside the State.
The National Theatre Festival is going be held in December every year. �This year the festival will kick off on December 3. This week-long fiesta will present 14 plays from different States,� said Goswami mentioning that the festival will also include production-oriented seminars and exhibitions.
This is going to be a multilingual theatre festival that would be revolving around the theme �searching for roots�. The festival will highlight those productions that have retained the original theatre forms of their respective States. According to Goswami, this festival will be a platform for the theatre groups to promote the original forms of theatre as well as exchange ideas. The national-level seminar will be held in the month of October. On the other hand, Purbaranga is also going to continue a photography exhibition at its office premises that has been a journey of the group over the years.
