Doing Theatre in Hyderabad: Prof David Zinder
Hyderabad and theatre are still somewhat at odds with each other, as best I can tell. A city of seven million, Indian but Western-oriented, without a single professional theatre is unusual, if not unique. And yet, as I was told last year by Rathna Shekar Reddy, founder and President of the Samahaara theatre group, “things are beginning to happen” in part due to Samahaara’s many-facetted efforts to create a theatre culture in the city and in part due to the varied semi-professional theatre activities that have sprung up in the city over the past couple of years. Nevertheless, theatre in its Western concept – as a profession and as an art form – is virtually unknown here, and as a result there are no theatre schools (apart from the Theatre Departments at Universities), no places where professional techniques can be learned, and the discipline, dedication, and training necessary for professional theatre here is still a dream in the distance.
Samahaara is doing what needs to be done and should be congratulated for it: in order to create a theatre culture in a city like this, you have to create an audience; in order to create an audience, you have to begin from the children and youth – develop in them the love for theatre as well as the need for it and the understanding that it is an art form that requires extensive training and professional discipline. With its ongoing workshops for children and adults, Samahaara is helping make this process occur. The problem, of course, is time, but with dedication and perseverance, perhaps in a few years’ time, Hyderabad will be host to its first professional theatre, and its inhabitants will have a viable and exciting alternative to films and TV series.