One tries to find the French connection of this theatre group ATELIER, meaning "Artist's workshop" in French.
It takes a lifetime to think on the lines of life. What is the meaning of life ?? What are we doing ?? What we are doing has any relationship to the meaning of life ?? If not, then why are we doing it ?? Will not doing it will make any difference and will doing it add some meaning to life ??
With these questions and more Atelier Theatre Society is all geared up after the performance of their new production Goodbye Blue Sky at India Habitat Centre on 17th and 18th December 2005 to reach the larger cross-section of people.
As Ravi Shanker, Director of the society puts up,
"Atelier Theatre Society is born out of concern for the world we live in. This group of theatre-enthusiasts realized the character each one of us has to portray, which is unfortunately not lived upto.
Atelier's prime objective is to explore the real characteristics of the character we are. Therefore, the choice of subjects that the group takes up is primarily based on the options we are blessed with and what we choose.
Goodbye Blue Sky is the consequence of that choice".
Atelier has a motive behind all the actions they take; be it training school students for a big performance or working out some finances to put up a play relevant to the times.
The play is Choreographed by Anand Singh, Costumes are designed by Abhinav Vats, Original music composed by Anirban Ghosh, Lights designed by Avtar Sahni and Direction by Ravi Shanker, Goodbye Blue Sky is a visual treat for buffs and scholars alike.
"It's a movement and not just a play…we are planning to take the play to the very core of the masses ranging from bastis to schools and colleges to educational institutes", confirms Mr. Rajeev Bawa, Chairman of the group.
The play opens up with a prologue portraying the process of inception of the mankind followed by differences, ends up with seperation, all aesthetically done with highest degree of grace. The symbolism of the play heightens the message and makes it forcefully communicative. With powerful directorial inputs, this production has developed a great structure with a very thin storyline.
"It is a play about perpetual hypocrisy.
A simple situation where the players are claiming tall statements about the most humane values. At one point of time, the same performers face the stark reality, to which they all succumb. This is perhaps the turning point, which actually questions the integrity of an individual in general and an artist in particular.
An endeavour to assess the accountability of The Artist", interprets Sandeep Bhandari, an active member of the group.
For Ravi, the story is not the same. He has a different perspective towards the play. He feels it's not just the society who is to be blamed…rather the individual who is doing it again and again. In Goodbye Blue Sky also, this repetition is translated through action.
"The repetition intensifies the act, terrorizing not only the actors but the audience as well, thus forming a vicious circle.
Goodbye Blue Sky is a valediction to blue sky, which is a metaphor of peace. The exploration of theatre in the play is not merely to showcase the economy of expression but to heighten the intensity of the emotions that knock at our numb psyches. The situation is taken from the past and present, which is real as well as imaginary. The intention is not to provoke but stir…about the happenings that hardly make any difference now. Perhaps these brutal acts are happening so often that the mind is immuned to it and thus passive reactions", confirms Ravi Shanker.
Ask him about the inception of this improvised production and he gets carried away,
"For a long time, our primitive society where we live with differences, suspicion, fear, hatred and conflicts, where hypocrisy is the face of human, where religion is spirituality and ego is God, has been upsetting me. I could see it the other way around, the way IT IS and wish my fellow beings to see the same way- everything on the rational platform. It seems difficult but not impossible. We just need a wake up call and GoodBye Blue Sky does the same by knocking at the dormant parts of our minds".
With so much of determination and sincerity, Atelier has to run a long mile amidst innumerable constraints and hiccups. Good wishes ATELIER.