NCPA's Bruce Guthrie: ‘Connections India is to make theatre accessible to young performers’

NCPA theatre and films head Bruce Guthrie.

After months of preparation and lots of rehearsals and learnings on the way, students from some of Mumbai’s schools and NGOs are putting up eight stage productions at the National Centre of the Performing Arts (NCPA). Written by prominent playwrights from the UK, these plays are part of "Connections India", a youth festival which has been made possible in association with the National Theatre in London. Spread over four days, the first edition of the festival will continue till January 22 and has been helmed by Anahita Uberoi, creative learning director for theatre and Shernaz Patel, creative learning producer for theatre at the NCPA along with Bruce Guthrie, head of theatre and films. The latter tells us how the initiative panned out and why it is important for young minds to engage with theatre. Edited excerpts from an interview:

School children rehearsing for a play at NCPA.

This was supposed to happen three years earlier…

There was a version of it that was going to happen. We were just a week away from performing four plays when theatres got shut because of the pandemic. We started from scratch this time. The plays then were different and so was the model. I think this model is much better because the directors have gone to the schools and there’s an element of teacher training as well. These are better-realised plays.

How’s the experience been of helming 'Connections India'? Why do you think it is important for young minds to be exposed to theatre?

It’s been wonderful to see the children go through the journey. Particularly after the pandemic, they have been struggling with connecting with each other. It’s interesting to watch them just being present in the room with each other and not being distracted by phones or tabular devices. When they perform in front of an audience, there is a point in that exchange with the audience where something shifts within them and never goes away, which is really incredible.

The plays deal with a variety of themes ranging from mental health to individuality, choices, hope and community. An opportunity for the children to also look within, you suppose?

Massively! Also, Connections is very much about them bringing their ideas to it. It is about these kids, what they bring to it and how they respond to the material because the way that school children from one part of the city will respond to a material will be very different from another group of people. The writing in the plays is really exceptional. People such as Jim Cartwright who is something of a legend in writing and others such as Steph Smith and Dawn King among others have written these plays keeping in mind professional standards.

Rehearsals in progress at NCPA.

The (Indian) directors had access to the playwrights, and so they have spoken to them about their experiences. Some of these plays have been performed all over the world and the writers are beyond thrilled that they are being performed in India. Three of them have been translated, one in Marathi and two in Hindi and they really land. The issues are very much about today. The plays don’t talk down to them. They don’t oversimplify anything, as children’s theatre often tends to do.

'Connections India' workshop at NCPA. (Photo: Narendra Dangiya)

What is the long-term plan with Connections India?

Eventually, what will hopefully happen is that hundreds of schools from across the country will participate and then we will pick the top 10 to come and perform at the NCPA. It’s like building a national movement and engaging with young people. At present, we have plays from award-winning UK playwrights but later, we want to commission Indian playwrights from across the country to write in a variety of Indian languages and then we choose them based on the quality of the productions. It is all about making theatre accessible and to give young people a platform to perform because it can be life changing.