Why Go to the Theater?

Theater is one particular of the oldest types of performing art. From the stone ages, males and females were telling stories by enacting them as soon as even no language existed. Ancient Greek theater nonetheless inspires us and they continue to be staged in all languages of the globe. The ancient Hindu scriptures regard the text of the theory of performing arts (Natya Shashtra) as the fifth Veda (Pancham Veda). And just like the Greek theater, ancient Indian Sanskrit theater had been as well very created. Even so, with the advent of film and tv, theater has been facing an uphill battle to pull in the crowd.

The playwrights, and theater firms and groups had to reinvent themselves in a lot of techniques. Sometimes they were profitable, but nonetheless we have a lengthy way to go. Technological advances in the film and tv media keeps on attracting the audience with their glitz and glamor. But we fail to recognize, theater has its personal charm. Thornton Wilder, the renowned playwright, when stated, "I regard the theater as the most effective of all art types, the most instant way in which a human becoming can share with one more the sense of what it is to be a human becoming. This supremacy of theater derives from reality that it is constantly 'now' on the stage."

There is one thing magical in watching an ensemble of actors performing on the stage in front of you, telling you a story that you share with a space complete of men and women. Arthur Miller stated, "My feeling is that individuals in a group, en masse, watching some thing, react differently and probably far more profoundly than they do in their living rooms". Once we watch reside theater on stage we can feel ourselves, we can see ourselves - after we watch a superior theater we pretty much go by way of a life altering practical experience.

The energy of stage is massive - for the reason that it is real, it is not fake as in the motion pictures. Thornton Wilder puts it this way, "We reside in what is, but we obtain a thousand methods not to face it. Great theater strengthens our faculty to face it." It is not that no one goes to the theater those days. In 2005 12.5 million folks visited Broadway shows in New York and about eight.5 million persons went to off Broadway theater. For very good high-quality regional theaters also, you are going to uncover it complicated to get a ticket if you don't acquire them in advance.

But the most neglected theater in USA is the neighborhood theater. They are complicated pressed to get a very good audience. They have to rely on these minuscule grants and donations from many sponsors. Ethnic theater groups (like ours) who do theater in their regional languages, even have a restricted audience. We constantly have to face the difficulty - how can we fill our theaters with our personal audience?

The dilemma is that most of the plays we generate fail to connect with the persons about us. They do not feel that electrifying expertise after they watch the revivals or old classics of Bengali theater. The only worth is the nostalgia that those plays invoke inside us, nothing at all else.

The second dilemma is that, those productions never have the star energy to pull in the audience. Some groups have attempted to bring in actors and directors from India in order to attract the audience, but that can't be a remedy. And lastly, of course, is the lack of production funds that is necessary to rent a theater room, to create a beautiful stage and to industry the show in well-known media like tv.

To bring in the audience, the very first situation is that we need to have to let the folks know around the occasion. Low-cost marketing and advertising ways like on the web advertising and marketing, some print media, fliers and posters can only attain a restricted quantity of folks. Nevertheless,I assume that to bring in the audience in this nation, the 1st point we will need to do is to generate our personal theater that can connect conveniently with our individuals.

We have to have to make and make plays that can reflect our personal lives on stage, and only then will our folks be interested in coming to watch their personal plays. We (Ethnomedia Center for Theater Arts) were attempting to do this for some time now and had been partially effective. ENAD, an additional theater group in the Bay Room have too adopted the similar philosophy. But we have a lengthy way to go.

But I guess we have to have to get started someplace. Secondly, I believe we require to establish a steady database of theater lovers who would like to watch our plays and then getting out the most effective suggests to attain out to them (e mail, snail mail what ever.) Building a subscriber base is a typical practice of numerous neighborhood theaters, but for the reason that we never have a typical schedule of shows planned effectively ahead, it is hard for the audience members to plan their schedule about it. And ultimately, it is the audience who need to feel the urge to go to the theater.

If a person does not feel excited around going to the theater, around experiencing the way life is enacted reside in front of them, around listening to and experiencing the stories of ourselves, then practically nothing can perform. Theater is like a mirror exactly where we can see ourselves, but we need to have to muster up the courage to face it and to get pleasure from it entire heartedly.

Sudipta Bhawmik is an amateur chef who likes to dabble in meals, motion pictures, theater and blogs at http://nynjbengali.com