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META: A Platform Welcoming Diverse Performances

I have had the good opportunity to closely observe META over the years. I regard it as one of the significant theatre festivals to be held in our country. META is different from the other curated theatre festivals because it welcomes all kinds of performances across the country. Its criteria for accepting applications is only limited to practicalities; otherwise there is full freedom for any theatre company or individual to submit their work. The festival screens hundreds of entries each year through a process, which the META Secretariat has always been ready to tweak. Each year has been a learning experience and this is never an easy job. Yet the festival has managed to bring to the fore lesser known and sometimes unknown theatre companies to urban city audiences in Delhi. It has indeed been a platform for every kind of play. This I think is META’s biggest strength and its greatest contribution while encouraging many a theatre artiste.

My own reflections about the theatre we have, are part awe, part concern. Without doubt, India’s theatre scene is a unique one in several respects. The sheer diversity and scale of the theatre we have is a wonderful thing. We have rich traditions- both folk and classical that continue to inform the work of various theatre companies and individuals. Our theatre has been influenced by the West and by other Eastern traditions as well. The bulk of our theatre practitioners work against odds and have sustained themselves in trying circumstances. I see young people continue to gravitate towards theatre and all of this is very encouraging.

I however miss a passionate, full-bodied theatre experience; a leap that would lead me to places I haven’t been before. This is rare – just like it is probably rare elsewhere, and especially in these times of ours, when we need it the most. It is a current sadly missing and often we find ourselves staring into the done and the dated, the tried and the tested. The theatre can be literally anything but it must have a vitality. It must bleed.
Deepa Punjani
Selection Committee
META 2017

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