Preparations apace for fourth State-level drama fest in Berhampur City

As an attempt to showcase major talents in the field of amateur theatre in Odisha, the non-competitive drama festival is being organised every year in the silk city Berhampur by the ‘Odisha Natak Samaroh Samity'. “At a time when young generation is getting detached from live performing art due to influx of electronic media of entertainment and drama lovers are not getting chance to witness the best quality productions on stage, we are getting together active amateur theatre groups of the State for the audience of Berhampur,” says president of the organisation, Anil Kumar Patra. The eight-day drama festival will conclude on December 11. This year, the venue of the drama festival will be the Historic Diamond Jubilee Town Hall.

During the drama festival, the audience will also get a chance to interact with prominent stage and cine personalities of the State. On December 02 a special decorated vehicle ‘Sanskriti Rath' was flagged off by the organisers of the drama festival. The vehicle will move around the city and its periphery to create awareness about new generation theatre movement in the State as well as the drama festival.

Major amateur theatre groups from different parts of the State are taking part in the drama festival. The participants include ‘Dharmatma Cultural Association' of Sambalpur, ‘Shatabdira Kalakar' of Bhubaneswar, ‘Yuva Natya Sansad' of Paralakhemundi, ‘Pancham Veda' of Bhubaneswar, ‘Rupantar' of Baripada and ‘Kalinga Kala Parishad' of Rourkela. The play on the inaugural evening will be enacted by the host ‘Odisha Natak Samaroh Samity', says secretary of the organisation Mihir Tripathy.

According to him, all of them will enact plays in which they have brought in some new experiments which will surely provide the audience a plethora of theatrics during the festival. On the last day of the festival a colourful rally will be taken out. Source: The Hindu