Covid turns villain for theatre spaces in Hyderabad

Several theatres and cultural spaces in Hyderabad had to be shut down or are in the brink of closure due to the pandemic

Hyderabad: The Covid pandemic which has been wreaking havoc for nearly 15 months has affected theatres that host live acts, and other cultural spaces involved in promoting performing arts in Hyderabad. Like theatres across the globe, several theatres and cultural spaces in Hyderabad too had to be shut down due to the pandemic.

With experts predicting a third wave of the pandemic, it appears like the practitioners of theatre art will have to wait a bit longer before going on the stage again. Giving insight on the gravity of the situation, RK Shenoy, the founder of Dramanon, noted theatre group, says: “The pandemic pushed many actors and writers into financial crisis. There are many artists who were working in some IT companies and started participating in plays as hobby. Later they left their jobs and joined the theatre full time. Such people may have had some savings, but several others had to ask their parents or friends for help. I run an architecture company, so that helped me stay afloat. However, we have set up a fund to help many Dramanon actors. Some relied on small commercials, web series, workshops or voiceovers for income.”

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Activities related to performance arts require physical presence of audience, which is no longer permissible under the Covid pandemic. As a result, they were among the first that had to be stopped during the Covid pandemic.

But as everything, from schools to offices went online, so did the theatre. “We hosted a few theatre workshops and also did the reading of plays online. But those weren’t very successful. Unlike cinema, which can be enjoyed at the comfort of the home, audience has an important role in live theatre. Their reactions and emotions help us perform better. That is one of the reasons why plays aren’t recorded. We are all desperate to do a play as soon as things are normal,” says Shenoy.

Several theatres have come to a point of being shut. Rangbhoomi, a beautiful theatre in Gachibowli, is now on the brink of closure on account of the pandemic. The owners of the space have put up an appeal on Milaap for crowd funding to save the place.

“We wanted to create a space that can be the centre of theatre industry in Hyderabad. We started building the project in February 2020, but soon pandemic hit and we had to stop. The work picked up again and we were open by November 2020. In fact, we booked several shows from January to March this year. However, due to the second wave we again had to close doors. Now the situation is such that we need a lot of money to save the space, hence we had to go online for crowd funding,” says Jay Jha, one of the owners of Rangbhoomi.

Despite the two severe waves of the pandemic, theatre folks refuse to give up. Farhan Ashar, owner of Lamakaan, feels that it is just a matter of time before the theatres will be full of audiences. “I believe, once all this passes we will pick up again. People have been stuck indoors for long and would want to go out, and those who love theatres will come back,” he believes.

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