LAHORE: The Punjab Council of the Arts is going to create a database and register all theatres, actors, writers, directors and producers of the province in an effort to put an end to obscenity in the commercial theatre and substandard scripts. It will cancel the licences of theatres, which will not be registered.

The council has a plan to categorise all the registered artistes, writers, producers and directors in A, B and C categories to finalise their fee structure.

“The council is preparing the document, which would soon be submitted to the Home Department,” Rizwan Shareef, the executive director of the council, told Dawn on Tuesday.

He said that by introducing new standard operating procedures for theatres and artistes, the art body was taking a step forward to channelise the process and bring about quality to theatre performances. He said all theatres across Punjab would be registered with the council and district committees would be formed under the deputy commissioners (DCs) in this regard that would verify the credentials of theatres, their owners and the artistes.

“These committees will be supervised by seasoned artistes and the people related to art and culture. There will be new script scrutiny committees, which would work in coordination with district committees. Across Punjab, all the writers, artistes, directors and producers would be registered for a proper database. There will be provincial level committees, which would supervise the district committees. All the stakeholders from art and culture, including senior artistes, writers, producers and directors, would be invited by the council for brainstorming sessions in this regard. The registered theatres, artistes, directors and producers would get registration cards from the Punjab government.”

Plans to cancel licences of unregistered theatres

Mr Shareef said the government was considering to double the fee of all the artistes, writers, directors and producers according to their categories whose process would be carried out with the help of the artistes, writers, intellectuals and the people related to art and culture.

The registration cards would be issued through the Information and Culture Department.

Mr Shareef said the Punjab Council of Arts would also revive its dance troupe, which would present the rich cultural traditions of Punjab at national and international forums.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2020