Best Performers

From bashful suitors to harassed husbands, cool dudes to geeks and Dronacharyas to Professor Higgins we had them all taking centre stage at this year's play fest. As in the past NIE's play fest ACT 1 threw up new theatre talent. With almost twenty-two best performers awarded, the future of Bangalore theatre looks promising.

We interviewed these budding actors and actresses and asked them about their roles, about acting and NIE and their aspirations. Our questions elicited a variety of answers but all of them unanimously agreed on the fact that they enjoyed doing their roles and would love to keep on acting in the future. So here's presenting the best performers of NIE play fest '99.

Rising out of a coffin with amazing make up on, it wasn't hard to believe that Binoy Babu playing Euripedes had come straight from 300 b.c. According to Binoy, the primary aim of St. Germains was to entertain the audience with the mythical story.

Entertaining the audience also seemed uppermost in the mind of Jagdish K.C. a.k.a. John in 'The Man in the Bowler Hat' with his fantastic comic timing he had the audience in splits. And it came as no surprise when after this performance the play was adjudged the most popular play of the day.

Rohit Jaikar of Bangalore Military School was another person who had the audience rolling in laughter. Rohit said he enjoyed playing the role and possibly that is why it came so easily to him to play the role of a bashful suitor. But in the end it was Bharat C.G. who had 'The Last Laugh.' with his realistic acting as an innocent guy on a train journey. He had everyone fooled till the end when he turned out to be the real crook.

While good, clean, wholesome fun was the aim of these guys, others had more serious messages to get across. In a country where religion is a sensitive issue 'Khel Mandiyela' was a very relevant play. Harsh's brilliant acting as a son who has lost his father because of religion and is on a quest to discover who he is won him the best performer prize. "Believe in your self" is Harsh's motto in life and this was clearly evident in his confident portrayal of the character. In fact he was so convincing that he left many members of the audience contemplating about who they were and where they stood on religion.

In the same vein of religion was 'Another Dronacharya' which spoke about the teachings in the epics. Arvind played by Rohit of VNS earnestly played the part of an idealistic young teacher who refuses to compromise on his principles no matter what.

Arcana -the secrets of catharsis was another play which provided food for thought. The play was an introspection into the darker side of the human mind personified in 'The Shadow' ."I believe that there is a darker side to each one of us which has to be conquered to reach perfection", said Swaroop Srinath -The Shadow. Evidently it was this understanding of the human psyche that helped him in his fantastic portrayal of fear. Masked, he had the audience captivated with his commanding stage presence and eloquent voice. So realistic was his acting that it set us thinking about the possibility of the existence of this faceless shadow in each of us.

Following Arcana was the light hearted 'The Pie and The Tart' with a brilliant performance by Veena Mohandas. In her fourth play, Veena captured the hearts of the audience and judges. "She felt her character from deep within. She 'was' the character and didn't have to 'act' it," said Chippie Gangjee of this expressive performer. She was a clear favourite with the judges when they later talked about potential talent for professional theatre.

In 'Genesis' another good actress was discovered -Nandita Rao. Clear and confident with terrific stage presence she was clearly the star of their play.  Likewise Smita Sharma of B.C.G.S. in her role as an M.P. was excellent. Smita said she wanted to show that contrary to popular belief of politicians being heartless scoundrels, they can be compassionate and true friends.

A harrassed husband is what Omesh played but he thinks that a situation like his in the play does not exist anymore. "Equality is the order of the day" according to him. At what has been his best play fest to date this young performer expressed the desire to be a professional actor someday.

Playing characters closer to their age were Spandan, Gautham and Amit. Gautam no stranger to the stage though this was his first English play [he has acted in Kannada and Telugu] said, "I almost played myself and it came very naturally to me."

But Amit D'Souza vehemently disagrees when it comes to his character Bala - the geek. He played the character to the hilt in 'Breathe' a satire on the high pressured life of a typical teenager. Amit feels "pressure comes from parents, skools kool"He also agreed that the carefree school scene was a typical classroom situation in FAPS. His character of a regular 90' s teenager torn between who he wants to be and who he the world wants him to be related to the teen aged audience.

In National Junior School's play came along an "0 so cool dude' who reminded us of the wannabe Americanised Indian complete with long hair and chewing gum played to perfection by Spandan. Spandan who sometimes lets go said the only obstacle he faced while playing the part was not to swear as it is typical of such a 'dude.' Last but not the least literature's greatest character came to life.

Henry Higgins was played by Kaushik T.S. of Baldwin Boys. 'All the world's a stage where every man must play his part' and these students have done exactly that and they have played their parts well on the stage provided by NIE. And here at this play fest they have taken their first step on the road to fame.