Chai-Wai and Rangmanch 2020 gains momentum virtually
Staff Reporter
Auckland, June 29, 2020
Coconut Theatre has taken an ambitious and challenging project during this World-wide lockdown.
The company has come up with an Intellectual Property, Chai-Wai & Rangmanch 2020.
It organises daily Online Session at 6 pm (IST) with one theatre expert from India and various other countries on its official Coconut Theatre Facebook Page.
The expert could be a veteran actor, award-winning playwright, director, makeup specialist, music composer, designer, choreographer, or a technician, sharing their golden experiences, personal life inspiration. These can be useful to an aspiring theatre student, amateur theatre artiste, writer, director, composer, choreographer, and the entire theatre fraternity.
These sessions are open for all and no registration is required.
Devastating Covid-19
Due to Covid-19 and worldwide lockdown, 2020 has been a devastated year for everyone, especially for the theatre industry which believes in live acts.
Chai-Wai & Rangmanch 2020 has set a benchmark through online sessions.
Daily informative sessions keeping the theatre audience entertained, with growing offline viewers.
Inspite of different time zones, viewers prefer to watch these sessions live.
For an example, an enthusiast in California wakes up at 5 am everyday to attend the live sessions.
International theatre experts approached Coconut Theatre with a request to host their sessions.
The participants
Among the celebrities who have participated in the sessions are Rita Ganguly, Bansi Kaul, Manoj Joshi, Neelam Mansingh, Satish Alekar, Dadi Pudumjee Dolly Ahluwalia, Ashok Bhagat, Suresh Sharma, Amod Bhatt, Anjana Puri, Sanjay Upadhyay, Rohini Hattangady, Nadira Babbar and Himani Shivpuri.
Theatre stalwarts include Makarand Deshpande, Mahesh Dattani, K K Raina, Lillete Dubey, Rakesh Bedi, Ananth Mahadevan, Raghubir Yadav, Lubna Salim, Darshan Jariwala, Siddharth Randeria, Ila Arun, Aanjjan Srivastava, Alok Chatterjee, Salim Arif, Saif Hyder Hasan, Asif Ali Beg, Tiku Talsania, Sachin Khedekar, Sandip Soparrkar, Vijay Kenkre, Jayati Bhatia, Nina Kulkarni, Jayati Bhatia, Suchitra Pillai, Vipul Mehta, Jimit Trivedi, Rajoo Barot, Ramesh Talwar and Chandrkant Kulkarni.
Theatre stalwarts
Currently, Global Theatre experts have been added to Coconut Theatre’s repertoire.
They are writer-director David Woods from Australia, international production designer Neil Patel (Production Designer of Mughal-E-Azam, The Musical), Megan Furniss (Playwright from South Africa), actor-director Glenn Hayden from Australia, writer-director Ana Candida Carneiro, three times Tony Award winner Scott Pask and world-renowned writer-director Jeff Baron (all from USA).
Post sessions with international speakers and line-up with Indian theatre experts is also scheduled.
They include theatre legends M S Sathyu and Prasanna, theatre and Bollywood Actress Sonali Kulkarni, music director Kuldeep Singh, Saumya Joshi, eminent writer Ranjit Kapoor, Sumeet Raghavan, Waman Kendre and Parvez Akhtar.
Indian Theatre Industry has minimal support from the audience, corporates and other bodies compared to Bollywood, sports, music, and other digital entertainment platforms.
But Coconut Theatre has showcased phenomenal success during this pandemic.
It has received enthusiastic response from Indian and international theatre fraternity.
The objective is to connect the theatre fraternity locally and globally on one platform to emphasise the avenue of learning and build a career.
Its vision is to achieve more than 100 sessions before July 31, 2020.
This archive will be available shortly on Coconut Theatre YouTube Channel with no cost.
