This line from the classic sports movie Field of Dreams is uttered by an unseen spirit, urging the protagonist to build a baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere. His inexplicable compliance in the face of reason leads to the emergence of baseball as the hook that the town eventually hangs its laurels on.

The line is also perhaps the most apt metaphor for how the performing arts in general and theatre in particular have survived in Pakistan. Through the inexplicable efforts of individuals and non-state organisations, in a social landscape that is all but hostile to the mere idea of the performing arts, theatre has had an uphill road to climb.

In the absence of state patronage, all art forms need financial viability for survival. This is where theatre differs from the fine arts, music and film, all of which have a marketable and tangible product for the individual patron. The only thing theatre can rely on, barring state sponsorship, is tickets.

Unfortunately, not only has meaningful state patronage for the performing arts largely been missing, the problem is compounded by unnecessary regulations. These include restrictions on content, multiple no-objection certificates from various government departments and a prohibitive tax regime that, in Lahore for example, requires the 20 per cent tax on each sellable ticket to be deposited with the tax department before the curtain has even risen. And, the continued application of the antiquated Dramatic Performances Act 1876 doesn’t help.

In these conditions, beyond the heavyweights, the laborious and decidedly unprofitable task of staging plays was carried forward by small amateur theatre groups, school and college theatrical societies and a ragtag bunch of self-styled theatre practitioners. For a long time, the eclectic menu served to Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad’s theatre-going audience was limited to school and college productions on one hand and, in Lahore and Karachi, the blue humour of commercial theatre on the other.

Such amateur groups buttressed the efforts of the several — but not many — professional theatre groups such as Ajoka Theatre, Tehrik-i-Niswan and the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, etc. These played a huge part in today’s theatre landscape.

However, in terms of volume and consistency the annual plays staged by amateur enthusiasts were noteworthy. These include the National College of the Art’s various societies, the celebrated theatre societies at Kinnaird and Government colleges, the plays by the Lahore Grammar School and Karachi Grammar School, the annual plays put up by Aitchison and LACAS, and numerous other theatrical productions.

Perhaps more important than volume and consistency is the fact that these productions were equal parts art practice and pre-Facebook social networking opportunities. Unbeknownst to them, the young adults looking for a reason to hang out together and the poor aunties burdened with school plays every year made the event, if not the art-form, cool.

Amateur theatre not surprisingly, meanwhile, spawned numerous notable careers. Jawaad Bashir of the Dr Aur Billa and television fame traces his pedigree to the NCA’s Nautanki Theatre, as do Ahsan Rahim and Faisal Qureshi. Fawwad Khan started acting with a lead in a performance of Spartacus at the LGS while Omair Rana was active both as a student actor and later as a theatre educator.

One could go on listing more names. And perhaps one would be surprised at how many of today’s television and film personalities and stars of this generation have a career in the entertainment industry because of an early encounter with theatre.

The important thing, however, is whether this phenomenon that serendipitously helped theatre grow roots can be harnessed and utilised on a larger scale. Can theatre find traction in the education system at large? Can theatre, dance and other performing arts become art forms encouraged in the mainstream as a result of their marketability?

For all our hue and cry over lost cultural traditions it is both ironic and fortuitous that it is neither the state nor the old guard but an energised crop of youngsters helped by a handful of dedicated teachers that has been injecting fresh blood into a sputtering art form.