“I find that people who have helped artists are the other artists” — Anusuya Vaidya, Director at Akshara Theatre, in an interview with the team of ITISARAS. Steeped into the performing arts industry at an early age, Anusuya represents a life long commitment to the field.
The interview started with the acknowledgment of the role that arts; performing arts in particular have played during the pandemic, and the hope that people have now realised their importance. On the other hand, for the artists themselves it has been a ‘make it or break it’ situation with most of them breaking. Discussing the idea behind ‘Akshara Theatre : a home for the mind of India’ Anusuya took us on the journey of its establishment in1972. She took us through the Ramayana performances all over the world, thus working with the lighting and sound team in her early teens which was the start of her career. From places like Kolam, in Tamil Nadu, Deolali, in Maharashtra, to world renown universities of United States of America, Anusuya have experience it all. It was creating Akshara itself in its present form which became a real challenge. Initially, it was a 50 seat theatre inside the bungalow assigned to her parents, expansion began in late 1980s and with it Akshara became institutionalised. This proved to be financially straining, travel Performances weren’t possible now so making the institution self sufficient became an issue. However, Akshara was becoming a safe space for original ideas as well as a reflection of India’s constantly evolving culture. Today, Akshara provides an aesthetically pleasing environment and has proven to be a home for the mind of India and for the artists of India too, along with its own artistic thinking, training programmes and performances.
While sharing her experience and the journey of Akshara’s iconic Ramayana shows, Anusuya was asked about the challenges of performing it infant of non – Indian audiences, given the cultural gap. The answer lied in the script written by Gopal Sharman, founder of Akshara Theatre and our interviewee’s father, which presented the characters with simple human sentiments, who were to make their own choices in life, before turning them into divine entities. It had a universal appeal. Additionally, the fact that the play was written in English, and English being the lingua franca of the world now, it was accessible to audiences in most parts of the world. The reaction of the audience varied from place to place, like in Switzerland where people were beguiled at the one-woman play. It was Jalabala Vaidya, Anusuya’s mother, whose craft amazed people. Performances in the Fiji Islands —in front of mostly Indian audiences, who had migrated in the 19th century — proved to be an eye-opener for the culturally stuck audience, seeing the characters as mere humans. Thus, different aspects of the play appealed to different parts of the world. One of the perks of performing in the best-known universities of America with an audience consisting of Nobel prize winners and various other scholars was the after-show discussions at dinner parties. Anusuya had the opportunity to be part of the most fascinating conversations, listening to eminent scholars of time discussing the intricacies of political, economic and cultural facets of the world had given her the intellectually privileged teenage years, which one can only dream about. Performing in other places like Fiji came with its own technological challenges, spaces in remote regions of the country had no proper lighting which demanded the recreation of the entire play.
Fast-forwarding to the current situation, Covid-19 pandemic, Anusuya was asked about the challenges that Akshara Theatre faced with evolving sense of space in the performing arts industry, and about the possible solutions they have come up with. Initially, the lockdown brought a great deal of uncertainty, without the live audiences performing arts was on the verge of losing itself in the abyss. The fear of losing its audience was somewhat curbed — during the brief duration of relaxation, which will be November 2020 to April 2021, Akshara saw its audiences coming back in large numbers. It encouraged the team to think about alternative strategies to reach the audience. Making their into the audio-visual platforms is full of competition, without the special ingredient of theatre, that is the energy of live interaction between the performers and the audiences, and thus require producing a technological wonder. Instead of jumping straight into the virtual mode, the Akshara team decided to showcase its archive of recorded performances, documentaries, and short features on various online platforms, during the last year. Anusuya and her mother also started a series called ‘Remember the time,’ which talked about their experience of 50 years of Ramayana. Platforms like BookMy Show have tried to sell tickets for online plays but it hasn’t been a financially viable option yet. Akshara is now working to recreate some of their works for the audio-visual medium, which for one definitely opens new horizons and have the potential to become a different kind of art form as it will be a combination of theatre and films. These are to be out by the end of the year 2021.
Talking about the wonderful initiative, ‘Save the Stage,’ that Akshara started, we learned that this was an initiative headed by one of the students of Akshara. It was more about streamlining governmental procedures to make life easier for artists coming out of the pandemic. Other artists also gave their inputs, one such young director is Nikhil Mehta, he worked towards making it easier for artists to work in unconventional spaces which are bound by unnecessary rules that can be accessed by following simple regulations. The initiative also included suggestions that can help the artists, like exempting them from GST. Thus, it was a package proposing economic as well as procedural relaxations for the artists. Another attempt by Akshara Theatre, unfortunately with little success, was that the registering of the life bearers of the performing arts of India — music, dance, theatre, paintings, etc. It is the garhanas and the gurukuls which have kept the art alive for centuries, without getting much recognition. By suggesting their registration with the government and allowing them to give authorised certificates, Akshara wanted the students of these schools to benefit just as much as these schools themselves. Such compact lists of suggestions and proposals have found their way to the culture minister’s office, but things seem to be moving at a slow pace. The question about acquiring governmental help in the pandemic for the performing art met with a grand no.
Anusuya finds corporate India and the government truly distant from the art and artists of the country, with little regard for their survival. She knows of no one benefitting from the government’s end, it’s the artists themselves who helped each other out. It’s not the government or governmental institutions who preserved the Indian culture to date, it’s the generations of artists and the audiences who kept alive the different art forms and are now slowly losing themselves as well as their art in the chaos and fight for their own survival. Folk performers top this list, with no access to social media or to big production houses, there’s no way for anyone to hear their plight. Lastly, the help that audiences can provide during such difficult times comes in the form of buying tickets to online plays, concerts, stand-ups, etc. Another way would be to donate money if someone’s trying to raise funds for the cause, in fact, Anusuya feels it is the common people who actually remember, appreciate and help the artists and just hope for the people in power to do so too.
To know more about how the pandemic has impacted the performing arts sector, especially theatre, please watch our interview with Anusuya Vaidya:
We, at Itisaras, believe that awareness and action are integral for change, and for the same we have launched a petition on change.org that urges the Ministry of Culture to extend institutional support to the people of the Performance Arts sector. Please join us in our effort and help get more signatures for the petition – http://chng.it/zhFTnGdPMm
Kunal is a Delhi based lawyer & policy analyst and has been working in the social sector since the last seven years. He is the Founder of ITISARAS and currently presides as the Chairman of the Governing Body of the organisation.
Khyati is a third year History student at Lady Shri Ram College for women. She believes that words have the power to change the society, and tends to use these. Interested in research, she's expecting to pursue the same in furure.
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