The Q factor

Thespo has also been a catalyst in the formation of new theatre groups like Akvarious, Proscenium Theatre and First Play Theatre in Mumbai by grooming youngsters in every aspect of theatre and providing guidance. It has also aided the rise of young theatre artistes like Ajay Krishnan and Ram Ganesh of Bangalore as well as Mumbai’s Akarsh Khurana, Arghya Lahiri and Nadir Khan. In 2001, Thespo turned national by taking its talent search to Bangalore. Over the years, Delhi, Kanpur, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata have been added to its annual itinerary. This year, judges went to six Indian cities to audition 84 plays. Of them, Dalan and Proof from Mumbai, Video from Kolkata and Bhadmanus from Pune made it to the festival.

In the last few years, Quasar has worked as a consultant, letting younger Thespians (as Thespo volunteers call themselves) take centrestage during the annual event. But he has never been alone in keeping the fire burning. His friends Himanshu Sitlani, Christophe Samuel, Toral Shah and others have always been by his side. Though since 1999 some original Thespians have branched out and new people have moved in, Quasar’s commitment remains unflinching.

Many would credit Quasar’s parents for his passion for theatre. But the son of Dolly Thakore and Alyque Padamsee—two of Mumbai’s famous theatre personalities—denies any familial inspiration. His logic: he spent his formative years, 8-18, away from home. So in the absence of his parents’ motivation, the task of introducing Quasar to his true calling fell on the great American playwright Tennessee Williams.

“It was while acting in a school production of Williams’s The Glass Menagerie at Rishi Valley that the penny dropped. I was blown away by the power of words. I knew then that I would always be associated with theatre,” says Quasar. However, it took some more years for him to take up theatre seriously. He went to Singapore to do his International Baccalaureate which offered ‘theatre’ as a subject.

But it’s St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, where it all started. English Professor Eunice De Souza asked Quasar, then a second year graduation student, to co-direct Inherit the Wind with Ayesha Dharker. With the actress choosing to act in Santosh Sivan’s Terrorist, Quasar handled the task alone. This helped him realise that he loved direction more than acting. The young Xavierite returned to direction the following year with The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. Soon, the play moved out of campus to the National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai. With this, Q Theatre Production (QTP) was born in January 1999. Under QTP, significant plays by young actors and directors, including The President is Coming and Crab, were performed. Ten months after QTP, Thespo made its debut with a day-long festival of one-act plays. The next year, it became a festival of full-length plays.

After graduating, he worked in an advertisement agency for a year. In 2001, Quasar, his friends Shah and Karl Alphanso decided to give a shot to full-time theatre—at least for a year. The only regular job Quasar has taken up after that is of assisting Tim Supple for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “For the last three years, I have been touring with Supple’s production. And I am paid to do professional theatre,” he says. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the reason why he hasn’t directed another play after Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace, featuring Jayati Bhatia, in 2004. In 2009, he plans to direct a devised play.

Most theatrewallahs harbour the ambition of moving to films. But Quasar denies having any such desire. “Cinema for me is strictly for entertainment. I don’t want to know what happens between the shots,” he says. But with theatre he is always keen to demystify the magic.