Artists struggling to keep theatre alive
Lights, sound, action is the signal given by a director to actors to start their performance on the stage. This happens every day at Rialto Cinema House on Murree Road in Rawalpindi where a two-hour-long drama is staged.
But before the start of the drama, the actors have to spend several hours at the backstage. For the two-hour performance, the actors, writer, director and other staff spend more than six to seven hours in its preparation. Though theatre is losing its charm, artists are still hopeful that their hard work would pay off and more people would come to see stage dramas.
There was a time when Rawalpindi used to be the hub of cultural activities from performing art to painting and produced stars who started their career from theatre and reached TV and film.