By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 31 Jan: The Shakuntalam Theatre tour ended with a powerfully hilarious show at St Kabeer Academy, here, on Thursday. The tour began on 20 January and culminated with a show for the children of SKA. Over 1800 children saw the mesmerising show. All together, over 7000 individuals saw the shows at different venues of Dehradun, including Welham Boys’ School, Nanhi Dunya Rangshala, Avikal Theatre Company Studio, Summer Valley School, the Green Field School, The Raphael Special School, Mahant Indresh Medical College, Nanhi Dunya School for the Deaf, The Doon Girls’ School, Manava Bharti International School, etc. The team of four actors comprising Shri Ram, Sager, Ankita and Rupesh Tillu staged two plays – Shakuntalam and Madbeth – directed by Rupesh Tillu, an actor, writer, director of stage and films, who has over the years made a special place for himself in Uttarakhand. Over the past 15 years, he has been staging plays, conducting workshops and exhibiting his films in the region. This year, he completed an entire film in Uttarakhand, including local venues and actors. He is the founder of Red Nose Entertainment and works in India and overseas for Art, Culture and Education. Both the plays were well received by children and adults including those with special needs. Madbeth was staged for Grahic Era University, today, and will be on at Summer Valley on 1 February. The plays were presented by Alok Ulfat, who is a founder of Avikal Theatre Company, Nanhi Dunya Rangshala, Alok Ulfat Centre for Performing Arts, Alok Ulfat Workshops and Rang Himalaya Festival. He has been contributing to Art and Culture of the region for the past three decades through his workshops, stage shows, conducting seminars, directing plays, screening films and bringing international artists to Dehradun. His Avikal Studio is a small light house for performance where many shows were held in the last two weeks including a show by a couple, Betina and Andres of Amares Theatro Company from Uruguay, South America. This theatre tour was also a part of Nanhi Dunya Movement founder Prof Lekh Raj Ulfat centenary celebrations. Ulfat hopes that, in the years to come, the pioneering Avikal Centre will inspire many new individuals and centres to emerge in Dehradun. He believes that culture demands human participation. If there is no engagement in arts and nature, artificial intelligence will take over and isolate people. Rupesh Tillu said at Welham Boys’ School, “Screens on our phones and computers will separate us, but theatre has the power to unite. We can laugh together and this is a hope for a positive change.” Uttarakhand will become a centre for art and diversity and everything will be done for its creation feel Nitin Bansal, Abhimanyu Kochhar, Surbhi Soni and Satvika Goyal.
