Tough to survive in theatre says Dr.Neelam Man Singh Choudhry
The state of theatre is really tough says well-known theatre personality and Punjab university professor Dr.Neelam Man Singh Choudhry.
She was interacting with the Calicut New Media at Tagore Hall in Kozhikode; the venue of the 14th National Theatre Festival .The License, directed by Chaudhry is being staged in the festival.
Lack of infrastructure, fund crunch and similar situations make things worse in theatre field. Many theatre people are suffering lot due to such problems.
Her troupe, The Company’s eleven artists performed in this play, The License.
Dr.Neelam has been in the theatre field for the last thirty years and she has large number of disciples in this art.
She says that the festival gives an opportunity of cultural cross over. People can enjoy different language and style of theatre arts.
“It is a platform for people to understand other language dramas as well.”
“In drama, the audience gets an experience of life situations.”
“The ray of hope is still we have a nice audience.”-Dr.Chaudhri says.
Neelam Mansingh Choudhury
“What I think on theatre is we can give some experience through characters. I don’t know drama gives any message. However, life is there in every plays. We portray contemporary community lives and people in dramas.”
“I don’t concentrate on any particular theme alone. Each and every play is entirely different.
“Contemporary issues are always living in dramas. I can’t portray a fourteenth century life while I live in this time.However; there are some pieces of theatrics arts that stay timeless.”
Drama has a language through words, sounds and body actions. Sometimes body movements are the vehicles of drama theme. Once you understand the play in its real sense there is no language barrier. Meanwhile, there are some expressions that are uniquely digested in local language.
Dr.Chaudhri got her training in theatre arts from National School of Drama and after that she is a dedicated artist with direction and teaching.
She is a teaching faculty at the department of Indian theatre art, Punjab University since 1990.