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Drama in the genes
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Feisal Alkazi shares the crests and troughs of theatre
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Fighting stereotypes Feisal Alkazi
His earliest memory is of a house with no walls. The entire space was dedicated to theatre. Feisal Alkazi adds, “Luckily the bathroom had walls!” The house was used for rehearsals. Performances happened on the terrace. The bathroom double
d as the greenroom. Hailing from one of the most illustrious theatre families of the country, Alkazi has been furthering that heritage with the Ruchika Theatre Group for the past 35 years. Even today, his week continues to be a cultural roll-call, as he jostles between counselling, directing, organising events and chairing meetings of the National Council for Educational Research and Training.
Alkazi believes in staging plays “that reflect the people in the auditorium”. Through his work, it’s clear that he wants to explore different dimensions of the modern urban woman. He recounts that even 10 years ago, he had given a talk titled “Mai roti cheekhti, chillaati, nayika se tang aa chuka hu.” Alkazi’s heroines, evidently, can’t be easily knocked into stereotypes.
Fighting stereotypes is what Alkazi has done throughout his career. On graduating from Modern School, Alkazi and a few likeminded people decided to start Ruchika. “At that time we only wanted to do relevant plays,” he asserts, “We are still doing that.” He has also worked extensively with children in conflict areas, including Assam and Kashmir. Through theatre, he helps children whose parents have been killed, to get in touch with their identity. He elaborates, “We use music and drama to bring children out of their experience. The trauma cannot be the connecting point. The common ground is that they are kids.” Over the years, he finds that the generations of children who come to him have changed. But, the need to be heard out continues. “For kids,” he says, “It’s very tough to find someone who listens. A lot of my work is listening.” In his theatre similarly, he doesn’t demonstrate, but instead helps children to find their own way. Kids who come to his workshop he says, never stop coming. When they turn 18, he has to gently tell them to stop!
NANDINI NAIR
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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