Pune To Host Grips Theatre Festival

Pune, April 18, 2022: The city of Pune known for its love for art and culture, particularly the theater is all set to host the Grips Theater Festival. The fest is being jointly organized by Rainbow Umbrella Foundation and the School of Media Activity Research & Technology (SMART) of the Maharshee Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha (MKSSS) between May 7th and 22nd. All the activities including the plays shall take place at the MKSSS Campus at Karve Nagar.

This was announced during a Press Conference held in the city today by Shrirang Godbole of Rainbow Umbrella Foundation. Vibhavari Deshpande, Actress, Writer and Director, Radhika Ingle, Director of SMART and Hrishikesh Deshpande from the Rainbow Umbrella Foundation were also present on the occasion.

The Grips Theatre in Berlin, Germany is known as the emancipator children’s and youth theatre. It is the first theatre worldwide to deal sociocritically with lives and living conditions of children and youngsters and to incorporate this in original humorous and musical plays. Grips plays have been re-staged over 1500 times in about 40 languages around the world.

The Grips Theater was brought to India in 1986 by Dr. Mohan Agashe and subsequently nurtured by artists like Shrirang Godbole, Vibhavari and Hrishikesh Deshpande, Radhika Ingle to name a few. Their efforts of introducing and continuing the Grips Theatre tradition in some other language outside Germany were acknowledged and applauded during the special event that was organized to mark 50 years of Grips Theatre in Germany.

While sharing the details about the festival Shrirang Godbole said, “Four famous Marathi plays developed in the Grips format shall be staged during this festival and each play would be showcased 4 times during the festival so that more children can enjoy it”.

The plays that would be a part of this fest includes ‘Chhan Chote Waitta Mothe’ which was co authored and directed by Shrirang Godbole in 1986 along with a German writer and director. The music of this play was composed by Rahul Ranade. In fact this play actually marked the beginning of Grips Theatre in India. The play in its rejuvenated form which will be staged during the fest is being directed by young promising Director Sanket Parkhe.

The second play which will be a part of Grips Theatre Fest in Pune would be ‘Nakore Baba’. The play is based on the place of women in the family and was first staged in the year 1989. Pornima Manohar will take the responsibility of directing this play which is originally written and directed by Shrirang Godbole.

Vibhavari Deshpande, who started her journey with Grips as an audience and then completed it by not only acting in the plays but also by writing and directing some plays under the Grips format said that two of her plays  would be a part of this festival. The first one is ‘Project Aditi’ which is based on rat race and unreal expectations of parents from their children, whereas the second one is ‘Ekda Kay Zala’ that throws light on the subject of child abuse. Most of the Grips Theatre plays in Pune have been produced under the banner of Theater Academy of Maharashtra Cultural Center. Project Aditi came on stage in 2010 whereas Ekda Kay Zala the year 2017.

Commenting on the activities that are planned during the festival Radhika Ingle said, “All the plays would be staged everyday from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at Rama Purushottam Sankul located at the MKSSS campus, Karve Nagar. Apart from the plays many other activities are also planned for the children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.”

“Important ones are the workshops on acting, dance, puppetry and filmmaking which take place between 3:00pm to 5:30pm followed by the fun and entertainment activities from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. Heritage Walks to some less visited yet interesting places in the city is one of the important highlights of the festival. These heritage walks would be based on the book ‘Punyachi Apurvai’ authored by Dr. Anil Awchat. So, overall it would be an engaging and enriching experience for the children this summer”, she added.

“We have been working in the field of creating content for children through various mediums like print, television, theatre and feature films with an intention of imparting value education through an entertaining way. Now with an aim to start a well designed and structured effort in this regard Rainbow Umbrella Foundation has been started. This not for profit (Section 8 company) organization will work towards creating content and designing online and offline activities, which will help in developing certain qualities among children like being responsible towards environment, understanding the value and importance of being in Independent India, maintaining social harmony and love for animals”, said Shrirang Godbole while explaining the objectives of Rainbow Umbrella Foundation.

https://www.punekarnewsmarathi.in/pune-to-host-grips-theatre-festival/