Thursday 29 May 2014

Cutting Chai with Bhawana Somaaya - Day 357

Writer’s Bloc 4

29.05.2014



Playwriting has always faced extinction - the lucre of cinema and television tempting the young writer. In 2002, nurtured by Rage Productions and the British Council, UK’s international organization for cultural relations created as a unique playwrights’ program me, Writers’ Bloc which put the script at the focal point of the theatrical experience. The idea is novel and the process is at once simple and complex - playwrights from around the country are selected by a panel of theatre practitioners, the prestigious Royal Court Theatre, UK and then put through intensive training workshops. The scripts that emerge from these intense brainstorming sessions and workshops will then be staged at what a novel concept is called Writers’ Bloc Festival.


Conceptualized in 2004 the festival has blossomed in 2007 and 2012, producing 32 playwrights who've had their work staged both in India and abroad especially the UK. Young playwrights from across India writing stories of human conflict and struggle and love and hope and set in backdrops ranging from Kashmir and Orissa to metropolis like Mumbai and Bangalore, this is indeed a fruitful experiment in the new theatre language.

Bhawana Somaaya / Tweets - @bhawanasomaaya

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