Gram Theatre
Gram Theatre (Village Theatre) and Its Roots
Gram Theatre refers to theatrical practices in the ancient localities of Bangladesh in conformity with modern theatrical aesthetics. In the year 1980, during the staging of Kittankhola, me and Nasir Uddin Yusuf’s plan to form organizations promoting tradition as well as contemporaneity in arts in the rural areas of Bangladesh saw the first broad daylight.
The beginning of Gram Theatre was the inception of a fair by the school teacher Aminur Rahman Mallik. The fair took place in 1979 at Taluknagar in Manikganj and its occasion was the festival (uras) of Late Pir Azahar Khandakar Bayati. The disciples of Bayati visisting the fair from different parts of Bangladesh were generously aided by us, whether in terms of financial help or otherwise.
By this time writing the play Kittankhola was almost complete. Its style smelt of the thousand-year old earthy theatrical tradition of Bangladesh. The beauty of the full moon in the month of Kartik, the plentitude of gold coins scattered all around in the bloomed winter sky, all exerted a pull in ur blood. We felt the little yellow mustard blossoms galloped from Ghior to Terosree to Kusta and Ulain. The migratory birds and a profound pleasure made the firmament an indigo sitar, filling the air with melody. It was through the fair that the desire to create a new form of art was generated in me, was generated among us. I kept on thinking about the possibility of surviving in the fond public memory for another century- not through my own plays but by being a part and parcel of this process of resurrection of folk culture and by trying to popularize the same among our Bangladeshi people.
Gram Theatre refers to theatrical practices in the ancient localities of Bangladesh in conformity with modern theatrical aesthetics. In the year 1980, during the staging of Kittankhola, me and Nasir Uddin Yusuf’s plan to form organizations promoting tradition as well as contemporaneity in arts in the rural areas of Bangladesh saw the first broad daylight.
The beginning of Gram Theatre was the inception of a fair by the school teacher Aminur Rahman Mallik. The fair took place in 1979 at Taluknagar in Manikganj and its occasion was the festival (uras) of Late Pir Azahar Khandakar Bayati. The disciples of Bayati visisting the fair from different parts of Bangladesh were generously aided by us, whether in terms of financial help or otherwise.
By this time writing the play Kittankhola was almost complete. Its style smelt of the thousand-year old earthy theatrical tradition of Bangladesh. The beauty of the full moon in the month of Kartik, the plentitude of gold coins scattered all around in the bloomed winter sky, all exerted a pull in ur blood. We felt the little yellow mustard blossoms galloped from Ghior to Terosree to Kusta and Ulain. The migratory birds and a profound pleasure made the firmament an indigo sitar, filling the air with melody. It was through the fair that the desire to create a new form of art was generated in me, was generated among us. I kept on thinking about the possibility of surviving in the fond public memory for another century- not through my own plays but by being a part and parcel of this process of resurrection of folk culture and by trying to popularize the same among our Bangladeshi people.