Street theater is one of the low cost media used specially for the empowerment process of the underprivileged masses. In a world of modern media scenario, many think that street theater has lost its relevance. But to me street thaeter has more relevance in a world affected by modern media messages. Stree theater always has the advantage of direct access to the people who watch the show. Immediate feedback is possible in this type of communication. Without much economic burden, messages could be communicted to people in a powerful way. It doesn't depend much on the external factors like costumes, PA system, satge, etc. In fact, street theater is a simple means of communicating a message, but a powerful tool.
Ravi Bharati has been involved in training street theater teams for the past 25 years or more. Every year the institute conducts street theater festival in collaboration with the professional/semi-professional teams within the city and outside. It is a three-day festival consisting of seminar in the morning hours of all the three days and street play performances by various teams in the afternoon. This year Ravi Bharati completed 25 years when it conducted this festival from 19-21st February 2011. It is not a competiotion, but a platform for all those who are involved in using street theater as a means of communicating empowering messages to people, to come together and share experiences and learn from one another.
This year 15 teams particiapted in the festival. Street plays like 'gadda', 'sava ser genhu', 'machine', 'katha sarai ke', 'janta pagal ho gai', 'gopi gavaiya bagha bajaiya', 'bade bhai saheb', etc. were perfromed, which kept the audience spell bound.
Noted script writers and theter artists like; Parvesh Akhtar and Rishikesh Sulabh were resource persons for the seminar. Interested individuals and groups participated in the seminar and interacted with the speakers.
Street theater festival is conducted during the first weekend of February every year.
This will be a useful place to visit.
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