KARACHI: Stories derived from communities and incorporating them into theatre, audience responses to different plays and ways to get hold of new audience were some of the themes discussed at a session titled ‘On Stage’ on the second day of the Karachi Literature Festival on Saturday.

The session was moderated by Zain Ahmed of the Napa Repertory Theatre Company. The moderator asked Sheema Kermani of the Tehreek-i-Niswan to share her experience of integrating stories from communities into her plays. She said they conducted workshops in communities to discuss themes and included them in their storylines.

“Usually those themes are about corruption of the police and arms dealers, and people dying as most families in these communities have been victims of targeted killing. Then we train them and they then go on to enact these plays. In this way we not only empower them, but also are hoping to start a theatre movement. Last year we made four plays performing in low-income areas in Karachi such as Korangi, Lyari, Sultanabad and Hijrat Colony where the audience members mainly comprised the youth of those areas who had never seen theatre before. Once the play ended we had dialogue with the audience which helped us develop story ideas for our future plays,” she said.

Shakeel who returned to the stage last year after a hiatus of 25 years spoke about his early days in theatre. “I began my career with radio and soon moved to theatre where I performed with Karachi Arts Theatre in plays some of which were directed by Zain’s father. Some of the plays were staged in the Theosophical Hall. I did all kinds of theatre from the commercial to the meaningful.” He also narrated an anecdote about performing a politically charged play in Lyari and his apprehensions about being a part of the play. “The play was called Aadhi Roti Laal Langoti and I was playing Uncle Sam. I was petrified but then my director said something which has become my philosophy on acting to this day. ‘If you perform with the utmost conviction then you will not be hooted’”

Madiha Gauhar talked about staging plays for different kind of audiences. “Some of our plays are more urban such as Ek thi Nani that related to middle-class behaviours and attitudes and hence we did not perform them in small towns as they could not empathise with the play. However some of our plays about Bulleh Shah and Bhagat Singh have been staged in India, small towns, arts councils of Lahore and Karachi because they had mass appeal.”

During the course of the discussion Shakeel mentioned Anwar Maqsood’s TV dramas and their stage adaptations as a positive development in terms of targeting those audiences that normally would not venture out of their homes to watch a play. However Madiha Gauhar disagreed and said it was not a high experience. She also criticised musical plays such as Grease and the likes for not being rooted in reality. “You need the space to perform but because ours and Tehreek-i-Niswan’s plays are controversial we never get sponsors and hence no space. Earlier the state’s censorship was quite heavy-handed but now it is much more relaxed with a certain exceptions such as Burqavaganza, but now people around you do not want these ideas to be discussed. The state is not so restrictive any more but society is becoming restrictive.”