Methodology: Questionnaires, Case studies, Interviews
Language: Marathi
Catalysts: Anita Date
Youth Fellows:
Chinmay Kelkar
Rajhans Shinde
Suhas Sirsat
Suhas Modar
Anita Date
Manaswini L.R.
Sneha Majagaonkar
Ketaki Saraf
Coordinator:
Pallavi Shinde
About the Subject:
In today’s world where technology can bring every form of entertainment to one’s living room who has the time and energy to go to a theater to watch a play? The fact is even today, Marathi theater is popular and the audience large. But experience of these experimental theater artists showed that there is a disjunction between what the audience seems to demand and what the serious playwrights like themselves wish to present. The only way to find this out was to do a full fledged research on the subject.
Challenges & Learnings:
This groups questionnaires were answered by the audience participants, students and the booking Clarks. Some of the directors, famous theater artists and support teams were interviewed. Since they were upcoming artists and playwrights themselves they were performing while trying to complete their research agenda, a task requiring enormous determination and discipline. This process compelled them to reflect deeply upon the strengths and weaknesses of their own profession, helped them to have a dialogue with the audience and learn about few methodologies of the social science research.
Conclusion:
The group was happy to find out that despite the proliferation of electronic media there is a small but loyal and sensitive audience for good theater. Many people revealed that new theaters need to be built considering the sprawl of the city and the transportation systems available to people. Fifty percent of the audience who were interviewed opined that they would prefer to see experimental theater in many other performing spaces instead of regular theaters. Many shared the fact that the small audience for the experimental theater was related to lack of knowledge and advertisements of the plays and the lack of accessible spaces.
End Product:
This group created a pamphlet depicting their findings which they were planning on distributing to their audiences.
Click here to download this research project report.
