This week You! talks to a few theatre mavens to highlight the current situation of performing arts in the times of COVID-19…
The city of Karachi was all set to see more robust theatre activity lined up for this year. Come coronavirus and all of it came to a halt, causing organisers, actors, directors and the paraphernalia a loss that runs into millions. Performing arts, especially theatre, had gradually climbed up the social acceptance ladder to become a regular go-to feature among Karachi’s social events.
“Lockdown was announced in the middle of National Academy of Performing Arts’ (NAPA) International Theatre festival which I was a part of,” says Bakhtawar Mazhar, NAPA graduate and a well-known theatre and TV artist. “My play obviously ended up not happening. Most of my theatre friends had been rehearsing and some were part of projects with international artists and theatre groups, who had to leave without performing,” laments Bakhtawar.
Blow to theatre activity
NAPA had been running the International Performing Arts Festival from 5th to 22nd March, 2020. On March 14th, it announced closing down of the festival due to coronavirus threat. “We had noticed a drop in attendance as well as increasing safety concerns for the audience and the performers led us to make the decision,” reports Zain Ahmed, Artistic Director at NAPA and the Festival’s Director also. “Safety was the primary concern for us as we did not want to be a health risk for anyone - be it performer or any audience member.”
Renowned Classical Dancer and social activist Sheema Kermani was preparing for the 4th Tlism Performing Arts Festival – a celebration of Tehrik e Niswan (Sheema’s women’s rights organisation). “It involved more than 10 different productions of dance and theatre that were to take place in July 2020. At this point, it does not seem possible that the festival can take place. The auditorium was booked, we had our dates confirmed, and we had also invited performers from abroad. Now we do not know whether that will be possible,” she remarks. Sheema was also to perform a play, ‘Aik Hazar Aur Theen Rataen’ on 18th March at the NAPA’s Performing Arts Festival. “The lockdown news was extremely devastating for all of us,” she regrets. “We were at the last stages of our rehearsals for that show.”
The Arts Council was due to launch Hasina Moin’s play, 'Ankahi', directed by Dawar Mahmood on March 15. “The KopyKats Producations had booked the Arts Council auditorium for a month and a half from March 15th,” tells Ahmed Shah, President of The Arts Council. “The Production Company received a severe financial blow when the lockdown was announced on March 14th. They must have lost almost a crore PKR. So did the Arts Council in rent of almost Rs 2.5 million for the premises,” informs Ahmed.
Theatre activity has thrived in Pakistan on very uneven grounds, hardly in a position to provide stable employment to those attached to it. However, many who were passionate about theatre joined the bandwagon over the years and thespians emerged with a more sense of acceptance in the society. If an industry hasn’t emerged from theatre activity, there is a large number of people who have made theatre their main bread and butter, while either teaching or acting for other broadcast mediums as side substitute to incomes.
“When we talk of different types of theatre in Pakistan, we should take into account involvement of lot of people including actors, producer, director, playwright, costume designer, set designer, sound designer, composer, choreographer, music director etc.
Then there is involvement of audio engineer, lighting technician, electrician, production manager, stage manager, wardrobe supervisor etc,” notifies Zain Ahmed. “Consider the commercial Punjabi theatre performed in several theatres in many cities including Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujrat among others. Each play involves 30 to 40 people including all the onstage and backstage personnel. Then there are the theatre groups like ‘Ajoka’, ‘Azad’ and ‘Tehrik-e-Niswan’ etc across the country who are constantly devising new plays or restaging important previous plays. Karachi has a number of groups which include artists from NAPA, the Arts Council Academy as well as others such as ‘KopyKats Productions’ by Dawar Mahmood. There are also Sindhi theatre groups in different cities. Some have performed at NAPA as well. In the last Sindhi theatre festival in Larkana,13 groups performed. In addition, there are amateur student groups linked to colleges and universities that are constantly popping up. The numbers of people affected would be in the thousands by my estimate,” he elucidates.
Eminent actor and thespian Sania Saeed believes that all theatre in Pakistan has been sponsor-driven. “NAPA was probably the only institution that had an endowment fund for it to sustain its efforts,” mentions Sania. For some years, sponsorship towards theatre, especially corporate, has been diverted to films and movies, leaving little or almost no sponsorship for theatre. KopyKats Productions was one of the few organisations that made money on tickets, but most theatre activity in Pakistan has not solely relied on gate sales. Theatre has survived the hardships and remained a part of the social offerings in the past years.
Before the coronavirus attack,the financial year 2019-2020, Zain Ahmed reported, had been a great year for NAPA with record audience numbers at all their events. “We had to turn people away (from the gate due to full capacity). It was wonderful to see such overwhelming support and interest from the people of Karachi for the performing arts. The NAPA International Performing Arts Festival is Napa’s largest event and we had hoped for the trend to continue. However, the fears of the virus led to a drop-in audience numbers and the cancellation of half the festival meant a loss of income for NAPA but more importantly it meant a loss of income for the groups who could not perform as they could not be fully compensated.” he regrets.
As far as the support to the theatre actors is concerned, an immediate succour for those working for the ‘Awami theatre’ at the Arts Council have received meagre pays for performances, “The Arts Council is providing ration twice in a certain period of time. We are also trying to align with the Ministry of Culture to provide rations and supplies to deserving artists. Also, we have seen to it that people employed with us don’t lose their jobs,” explains Ahmed Shah. “At this point, we cannot think of any future plans for theatre. We will be shifting to digital media after Ramazan to put up concerts, TV shows etc, but theatre’s lifeline is live audience and physical involvement. Theatre may take time to revive,” he comments.
“In Pakistan, theatre activity is already not sustainable and with physical distancing it will be totally destroyed,” warns Sheema Kermani. “Many theatre companies in the world are shutting down and theatre halls are closing. Many companies are bringing their work on line but the essence of a live performance cannot be replaced by anything,” she adds. However, Sheema also advocates the cause of art that must be kept alive at all costs, especially in these difficult times. “There will not be any art without artists and we must take care of them. Be it plays, or film or TV dramas or music, and all those who are involved in their productions should be looked after. They have kept audiences entertained at home. So, art is important in all its forms,” she stresses.
Sania Saeed believes that there cannot be a contingency plan to salvage theatre at this point, but she is certain that theatre will find its momentum one way or the other. “We have seen sponsors cancelling sponsorships at the very last moment, or an audience not turning up for a play, or you may not find the right hall or venue to do a play. But we still went on with doing theatre for years,” she quips. “Pandemics have come before but theatre activity hasn’t been halted entirely. It will adapt to new conditions. There may be a revival of open-air theatres, or instead of once packed to capacity, the audience may sit a seat apart; or if worse comes to worse, there may be drive-in theatres! Who knows!”
Zain Ahmed enlightens that there are a number of experiments (being done) around the world of live streaming plays and musicals. “I am not sure if that is the way forward as a play recorded on video has a very different impact than a play seen live. At NAPA we are discussing how we can support our young artists and keep some activity going on. Safety remains a primary concern so for the time being all activity will have to be online,” he points out.
Bakhtawar Mazhar feels that audiences can be kept engaged by offering dramatic readings and workshops for a shorter duration and for smaller groups of audiences or participants. “Theatres might have to skip a seat while selling tickets. Organisers may start ensuring masks, sanitizers, a safe distance while seated or even standing outside the hall. People may become sensitive towards others and avoid theatre halls (cinema or live) even if they are merely sneezing, coughing or feeling unwell. This may help revive theatre activity,” suggests Bakhtawar.
Zain Ahmed prays that this pandemic will end soon so that, “We can return to live events, otherwise theatre as we know it will not be possible. Some new form of activity will be created for the interim till it is safe to return to the magic of live theatre,” he concludes.
