Welcome to Thespo 12

Welcome to Thespo 12

“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
(Last line from the play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams.)

Once again, not for the first time since 1999, Thespo found itself struggling to make ends meet. Team Thespo knocked on many doors and waited in numerous swanky corporate reception lobbies. We were offered a variety of items from a cup of coffee to 4,000 packets of potato chips! But no cash.

So we took a desperate leap of faith and turned to the world at large with our FRIENDS OF THESPO initiative. We first approached ex-participants, ex-volunteers and the ever dependable theatre community with a unique proposition. We offered them part ownership of Thespo for a nominal amount in exchange for a t-shirt, magazine and 2 free tickets to one of the shows. The response was reassuring. But what was overwhelming was the outpouring of support – from strangers, from one time audience members, from musicians, from theatre practitioners in foreign lands. It has been a truly humbling and energising two weeks. We are still far from the target amount. But the clock has been re-wound and we are ready to strike Twelve!

About Theatre Group Bombay

THEATRE GROUP BOMBAY


Theatre Group Bombay (TGB) is India’s longer running English language theatre group. Formed in 1941by 20 year old Sultan ‘Bobby’ Padamsee. The group has since seen a different generation of spearheads with each passing decade. Deryck Jeffereis, Jean Bhownagary, Adi Marzban set alight the Bombay stage with productions of ‘Othello’ and ‘Salome’. With the tragic passing away of Bobby in 1946, Ebrahim Alkazi, Deryck Jeffereis, Hamid Sayani and Alyque Padamsee took over the stewardship of the group. Legends like Pearl Padamsee, Gerson da Cunha, Vijay Crishna and Sabira Merchant maintained the TG mantra of delivering quality theatre. For more than five decades, the Indian English theatre scene was ablaze with TG productions of ‘Equus’, ‘Candida’ [1955] and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ [1974] among others.

The Headquarters of TG is still Kulsum Terrace in Colaba. Home of Bobby. Yearly AGMs are still conducted around the large horse-shoe table in the drawing room. In times gone by, conventional concept of performance spaces was challenged when plays like ‘The Birthday Party’ were staged there. In its constant bid to innovate, TG created the Terrace Theatre – a performance space built on the patio of Chotu Terrace in Colaba (which was home to the Jeffereis), that could seat a 100 people. Besides these, venues such as Sundarbai Hall, Jai Hind College Auditorium, BEST Hall, etc. were also roped in as staging areas.

TG has been stretching limits and rethinking the tried and tested in almost every sphere of the dramatic world, from staging a frighteningly creative production of Marat/Sade in the St. Xavier’s College Auditorium to being the first production to ever use stage lights.

As it grew, TG attracted young theatrewallahs such as Raell Padamsee, Farid Currim and Ayesha Sayani.

TG’s latest project is to kick start new writing in India. The Sultan Padamsee Playwrighting award has been re-initiatied after a few decades. For more details on the awards please check theatregroupawards.wordpress.com

Thespo was created with the intention that the legendary horse shoe table will always crackle with sparks of drama.

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