But the time has come to locate modern theatre in the marketplace in the present socio-economic contexts of this country. It’s believed that practitioners of modern theatre learn to invent the best mechanisms only after they feel an urgency to address the opportunities and challenges faced in the marketplace on a regular basis. Only as producers, marketers and sellers of their creations will they be able to carve out professional identity.[break]
Modern theatre in Nepal hasn’t carved out its own marketplace yet. On a fine autumn day of 1905, Manik Man Tuladhar, someone trained in the modern theatrics of the times in Calcutta, was ready to stage the play “Indra Sabha” on the Tundikhel’s open greens for the general public. Tuladhar represented a cultural force that evoked the anthropological bond between marketplace and modern theatre practitioners in Kathmandu. But Premier Chandra Shumsher Rana ordered him to stage the play for those who had money to sponsor the show. This made Tuladhar and his team to perform for the members of the Rana families. Since every major palace of the Ranas had a theatre hall, Tuladhar got Rana audiences throughout the year.
In course of time, a Nepali version of the Parsi theatre became very popular, and it dominated the performance culture of those times in Kathmandu. One of the most talked-about artistes of this form of theatre was “Master” Ratna Das “Prakash.” He’s regarded as the “superstar” of the theatre of the 1930s and ’40s of the last century in Kathmandu. Hundreds of artistes worked for the Ranas and other selected audiences.
During the occasion of Gai Jatra festival, theatre groups popular among the general public would also be asked to perform for Rana playgoers. During the 1950s, the period when the Rana autocracy saw its last days, several palaces where the Nepali version of Parsi theatre had thrived, were nationalized or sold. Performance cultures, which had come to settle in the Valley for over half a century, melted into thin air. There was no other market available for this form of theatre in Kathmandu. Master Ratna Das Prakash got a job in the newly opened Radio Nepal. Only a few artistes got such opportunities; many lived with the memories of the stage and the audiences which they had loved. History as well as changing times deserted them.
By the 1960s, an important group of modern theatre creators started to work for government-run theatre houses. Since it was the beginning of the Partyless Panchayat regime, this group of theatre creators worked in tandem with the emerging Panchayat polity and did their best to create a modern theatre culture in Kathmandu. In no time did the (Royal) Nepal Academy and the Rashtriya Nachghar become the powerful stages for the Panchayat polity to spread its propaganda. It’s critiqued that these theatre centers became busy only on the birthday occasions of the kings and the queens. Though these government-run art and cultural centers tried to create bigger flows of audiences through staging several plays and performances, the modus operandi of the Panchayat polity directly made them suffer very badly. Even in the post-1990 social and political contexts, these centers haven’t recovered yet. They still remain empty places, and no significant performance has ever been produced by these institutions for one and a half decades now.
In the 1980s, a group of young theatre enthusiasts, one led by Ashesh Malla, tried to free theatre culture from the impasse that the state-run theatre centers had created. Malla and his friends introduced Nepali street theatre in Kathmandu and inspired others to do so. But by its nature, street theatre avows to be different from modern theatre. For the first time, theatre creators in Nepal started to work for both street and modern theatre. Nepali street theatre evoked a very strong socio-political frustration of the pre-1990 period.
But modern theatre creators also started to work for I/NGOs in the post-1990s’ open as well as difficult situations in Nepal. The trajectory they followed did bring some confidence as well as difficult days ahead for them.
The Gurukul can be taken as a metaphor of the recent karma of modern theatre creators in Nepal. About 200,000 watched the performances at Gurukul during the period between 2003 and 2011. Gurukul worked in tandem with various I/NGOs and cultural organizations at the local level. The activities of Gurukul were taken as landmarks in the history of modern Nepali theatre. But to everyone’s shock, Sunil Pokharel, Gurukul’s Guru, announced that he had no option other than closing Gurukul because of the economic burdens. No I/NGOs and governmental entities did come to rescue Gurukul. Pokharel is still trying his best to find a venue, preferably in the middle of the city. Ashesh Malla’s Sawarnam theatre group has finally constructed its own theatre hall. As a small-sized theatre building, it offers some limited forms of performances only.
By pointing out the history of modern Nepali theatre, mainly of Kathmandu, in brief, I want to highlight a historical eco-cultural battle that the theatre creators here haven’t won yet. They haven’t been able to develop a free and competitive marketplace where they can create and sell their productions on regular basis. Because of this failure, the dreams of many aspiring stage actors of this country have remained in jeopardy.
Government policymakers aren’t solely responsible for this. Individual theatre promoters in Nepal, too, haven’t brought any significant plans ahead. It’s a fact that many theatre creators in Nepal still spend their energy in forming theatre groups that finally end with no funds to sustain them. They also operate with an uneasy sense of jealousy among themselves. Many aspiring theatre artists live through a sad period of spending their important creative energy in forming theatre groups.
My personal impression is that theatre aspirants of this country can, if they want to, come together and wage a historical battle. For this, they should project themselves as the custodians of the modern theatre culture needed for this country, but not as members of their own groups only. They have personal images and creative impulses to influence political parties and policymakers at the government levels and thereby pave the way for professionalism in modern theatre in several cities in Nepal. They can make the government to pass a Bill that directs government offices to provide certain areas of open spaces in the middle of the cities on lease to registered groups of performing stage artists. Such a policy will directly bring new energy and vision among the members of this creative community. If united, theatre creators in Kathmandu and other cities in Nepal can herald a new age in their profession. Divided, as they are now, there’s sure to be the same bad karma ahead.
Therefore, my suggestion to them is that it’s already time they marched ahead hand in hand in the name of long lasting and vibrant theatre cultures. Let’s win the historical battle and celebrate modern theatre, this time in the marketplace.
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