Stepping Out

The Atelier Youth Theatre Festival in Delhi,which began as a small initiative to showcase campus theatre,is today one of the major youth theatre festivals in the city. Colleges like Khalsa and Guru Gobind Singh are active participants. Time then,says Atelier director Kuljeet Singh,to spread wings. “We noticed that in Mumbai,the Mecca of theatre,campus plays were few and far between. To give youth theatre in Mumbai a fillip,we will hold AYTW in Mumbai from December 5 to 9,” says Singh. The first edition of the festival in Maximum City will include four plays by campus groups as well as a performance of the play Dirty Talk by Mumbai-based group Working title 2.0.

“Dirty Talk is about a young Indian scientist who has invented something that has touched the hearts and lives of millions,” says director Nayantara Roy. “Everybody loves him,the capitalists and the communists,the feminists and the socialites,” she adds. The scientist decides to contest an election and that’s when strongmen get active and covert underhand actions begin. This is the “Dirty Talk” that the play refers to. The festival will end in style — with a young Russian troupe called Theatre of Young Spectator of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) which,says Singh,“was selected for the spectacle with which it renders even a simple story”. “They will perform I Am Edith Piaf based on a story by Nina Mazur. It’s a simple story of a girl who,neglected at home,sets off to explore the world and figure out love,” says Singh,who next intends to take the festival to Kolkata and Bangalore.