This Summer, beat the heat with a theatrical bonanza: Summer Theater Festival brings three magnificent productions for Delhi

This Summer, beat the heat with a theatrical bonanza: Summer Theater Festival brings three magnificent productions for Delhi

·         Presented by the Films And Theatre Society, Summer Theatre Festival will be held from June 20-22 with three different plays to be staged each day at the Shri Ram Centre

New Delhi, June, 2014: An artist knows no seasonal bounds! There is no heat, no chill that can overwhelm an artistic heart. As people of the capital look for summer retreats and ways to beat the heat, a large group of artists are silently working to present a mega theatrical extravaganza next week for Delhiites reeling under the hot weather.

Presented by the Films & Theatre Society, the Summer Theatre Festival promises to provide the theatre lovers among you a much-needed artistic weekend to break the monotony of the summer heat.

From the story of a family broken by the devastating Indian partition to an adaptation of Shakespearse’s classic Merchant of Venice to an adult comedy satiring Indian men, three widely different and interesting plays will be staged over three days at the Shri Ram Centre Auditorium from June 20-22.

The three grand productions are full of emotions and liveliness, are supported effectively by Indian music and have a rich content that will both entertain you and touch you deep inside.

The USP of this festival is the variety it is offering. While Couple Trouble is an adult comedy which subtly underlines the double standards of married men, Saudagar has been adapted from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice in an Indian set-up. The last play of the festival, Wo Lahore, will introduce to you to a small blissful family living in Lahore which is eventually destroyed as a consequence of India’s partition.

“We have put together a diverse ensemble of plays for the festival. From comedy to tragedy to drama, the festival will have something for every theatre lover in it. Our plays are full of life and are wonderfully complemented by music and lights. This is our way of providing an artistic relief to the people of Delhi in the sultry summer. Interestingly, summer time is the time when theatre academies are buzzing the most with activities. With schools and colleges closed for vacations, this is also the time when a large number of young people can come out to enjoy theatrical productions. The Films & Theatre Society aims to popularize the art of theatre and take it to a wide variety of audience,” says writer-director Atul Satya Koushik.

The festival will begin with Couple Trouble, a play directed by Vikas Bahari, and based on a Marathi play Ankh Micholi. Originally written by C.P. Deshpande, the play is a depiction of the fantasies and sexual frustration of married men and aims at exposing their double standards while exploring the changing values of marital relationships in modern times. The play promises to be a comic crapper.

The second play to feature in the festival on June 21 is Saudagar, an Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s classical ‘Merchant of Venice’. Directed by Atul Satya Koushik, Saudagar will unfold in pre independence India and will follow the story of a merchant who borrows a loan at a heavy price to help his friend woo a princess.

The last day of the festival will recreate the tragic devastation of India’s partition, through the story of a family based in Lahore. Directed by Koushik, ‘Wo Lahore’ is a musical drama set in the middle of twentieth century India. This is a story of an ordinary woman Jamuna, a mother of three sons, who tries to keep her family intact amid everything that is happening around.The plays start at 7.00 pm every evening.

About The Films and Theatre Society (FTS)

The Films and Theatre Society, formed and run by writer-director Atul Satya Koushik, is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 on All India Basis. The main objective of the society is the production and promotion of Theatrical Plays and Short Films in India. All members of FTS are from diversified professions and educational backgrounds but what is common to all of them is a passion for theatre and creative appetite. Within a short span of four years, the society has been able to come up with 15 complete productions so far which have been performed in Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Hissar, Chandigarh, Bathinda, Meerut and Gurgaon. Over 100 shows of the plays have been showcased from July 2010 to May 2014, including performances at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai and Parliament House Auditorium which are some of the golden feathers in this society’s cap.

The society has been successfully organizing its annual event RANG-A Festival of Indian Arts for three years since 2011, which brings together theatre, literature, cinema, photography and folk arts.  Many renowned artists such as Nadira Zaheer Babbar, Onir, Sushma Seth, Anoop Soni, Gauhar Raza, Shibani Wazeer Pasreech, Sonal Mansingh have associated themselves with the festival.