Stringing Together

Various dimensions of puppetry are being explored in the city like never before both on and off the stage

The glass foyer of Tagore Theatre was buzzing with activity prior to every performance slated as part of the recent Chandigarh Arts and Heritage Festival. Giant puppets,muppets and masked actors with stringed puppets welcomed the audience and interacted with children,danced and cracked jokes,before leading them to the main hall. An initiative of the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi (CSNA),along with Chandigarh Puppet Theatre (CPT),the effort was to expose the audience,theatre practitioners and art students to the power of puppetry and showcase its dimensions.

In this part of the country,we are not sensitive to the art of puppetry. Its a medium that can say so much and is essential in the teaching-learning process. The idea was to give a first-hand experience to those who want to practice puppetry,as well as to local actors. We got Dadi Pudumjee to not just stage his renowned production Gandhi,but also conduct a five-day intensive puppetry workshop in the city, says GS Chani,Chairperson,CSNA.

As part of the initiative,CSNA organised month-long theatre and puppetry workshops in 10 government schools of the city. Making puppets,creating scripts and handling the play of light and shadow was part of the Theatre in Education project,with a play titled Dar being the latest performance,where actors with puppets expressed their fears about various issues.

For Tagore Theatre,we had created colourful puppets and choreographed songs on the themes of Independence Day and Mother India. Like street theatre,we want puppetry to be part of the common art and theatre scene, says Subhasis Neogi of CPT. Though initially,Neogi says,it was tough to get the audience involved but with a few light skits and sequences,the ice was broken. Chakresh of Alankar Theatre used a giant puppet as part of his play,Mandir. I did the voice-over and used the puppet to talk to the audience about caste differences, he says.

Chani agrees that sensitive issues can be addressed well with the medium. A puppet can say things that an actor cant. The art delimits and liberates you from your own background. Its essential that theatre directors and actors say things about social issues in a new way,so the idea of the workshops,including one with Pudumjee,was to take them beyond their styles,moves and theories and also prepare audiences for puppetry, says Chani. CSNA is now planning to take puppetry on stage in city colleges as well.

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Stringing Together

Various dimensions of puppetry are being explored in the city like never before  both on and off the stage

Various dimensions of puppetry are being explored in the city like never before both on and off the stage