Bangalore Little Theatre is an enormous exercise in imagination. It remains an aspiration for theatre performers and a source of inspiration for practitioners. The passion, perseverance, toil and grace is the hallmark of this intimate Institution, which has embarked on many pathbreaking initiatives, programmes and productions. If the History of Ideas programme was unique, the translation and adaptation of Indian classics in English is a huge service. In the programme Vijay Padaki has presented a pertinent model, wherein the play scripts transcend the cultural specificity and period in time to speak in a universal language that addresses our contemporary concerns. Although we read the text in English, we experience the content in the original. A truly remarkable feat.
BLT has had a strong play development programme for a long time. It is most appropriate that the plays are being published now. Several volumes of plays can be expected in print very soon. This is a huge contribution to the institution of theatre in India. We can be sure they will be received with enthusiasm world-wide.
It may be worth extracting a few lines from the Preface to Volume 1. It was about the Cantonment context just after Independence when Bangalore Little Theatre was created.
It can be said that English language drama in India was essentially a colonial cultural legacy. The very term colonial legacy has, inescapably, a negative connotation...In 1960 a small group of committed persons in Bangalore sought a theatre experience that could be a genuine alternative to the order of the day that was called BBC Theatre - British Bedroom Comedy.
When BLT was created we had a remarkable collaboration of expatriates serving in Bangalore and local artists already engaged in the theatre. They had a vision of a Community Theatre best described by the slogan invented 25 years later. Think Globally. Act Locally. The plays in Volume 6 salute some of the expatriates in BLT in the formative years who gave the group a distinct pride in its Indianness:
• Scott and Margaret Tod. Scott was an Electrical Engineer seconded to Indian Telephone Industries, but also a trained Director in the Little Theatre movement in England. Margaret was a trained actress and a fine trainer. On arrival they found a British expat community active in amateur theatre. They chose not to join them and, instead, joined others in founding BLT.
Gordon and Esther Muirhead. Gordon, a solicitor, was attached to King & Partridge in Bangalore. Esther was the Representative in India for Oxfam and War on Want before they opened offices in India. They were both committed Gandhians. During the partition riots, one served in the refugee camps in the Western border, the other in the Eastern Border.
• Glynn Wood. He was sent to Bangalore as Director of the American Cultural Centre (USIS). Young and active in athletics, he endeared himself to the college campuses in Bangalore and Karnataka. He went on to do his Doctoral studies on the political history of Karnataka and became a Professor of Political Science. He was a distance runner. Back home he introduced President Jimmy Carter to distance running.
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