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!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Will Thespo turn a teenager?

Before we move on to Thespo 13, you must know that Thespo 12 was a success! 
As you must be aware, it took place at Prithvi Theatre from 14th to 17th of December 2010 and at the NCPA Godrej Dance Academy on the 18th and 19th of December 2010. The festival had  a variety of activities that were organized to provide young people an interaction with numerous theatre and similar related arts. We had plays, platform performance, fringe and workshops .The shows were well attended and the workshops were a resounding success. 

One of the plays "Chakra" has even been invited to a theatre festival in the Czech Republic. This would not have been possible without your support. 
 
Thespo 13 will run from 13 December to 18 December 2011 at Prithvi & NCPA. 

We have begun taking baby steps to the next edition of Thespo and if you think you can contribute and make a difference to the first teenage year of Thespo in any way and would like to volunteer do write to us at thespo13@thespo.org or call on +91 9867562859

Further details of the festival will be publicised as soon as they are confirmed on our Facebook Group- 'Thespo' and on thespo13.blogspot.com

Thespo 13 - Get Lucky!

Monday, December 20, 2010

The results are in!


And so it ended. Thespo 12 ended with a bang. A great performance by Maryada Party and Tipping Point followed by a kick ass awards ceremony.

Sneha Nair put together a fabulous AV of the fest which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9y4emSgp14


Sid Kumar finished his last eligible year at Thespo as the host and began with a hilarious monologue that berated the teams for being too good. And then the business end took over.

Awards were handed out in the 8 categories. Here is a quick round up of what happened:

Outstanding Supporting Female Actor - Sonia Bindra from Papier Mache Petals.
Outstanding Supporting Male Actor - Entire Computer Ensemble from Tipping Point.
Outstanding Female Actor - Rujuta Shinde from Tipping Point
Outstanding Male Actor - Chinmay Kulkarni from My GoAd Pune.
Outstanding New Script - Gashmeet Mahajani for Tipping Point.
Deryck Jeffereis Award for Outstanding Production Design - Chakra
Outstanding Director - Gashmeer Mahajani for Tipping Point
Sultan Padamsee Award for Outstanding Play - My GoAd Pune.

What a great finish to a great festival.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Day 4: A day of unique experiences

The final day at Prithvi featured all types of theatre shows. Jazz Like That crooned out their own additions of Britney Spears and the like. Spiral Bound wove a mesmerising spell on the audience, and ended in an actual on-the-spot improvisation. Maryaada Party from Jai Hind were very powerful. And then Tipping Point wowed everyone with their choreography and powerful story.

The Thespo 12 juggernaut moves on to NCPA Godrej.

Day 5 has a street play from Bits Goa at 6pm called Kab Jaagega Bharat. And at 7pm is the hilarious and mad My GoAd Pune.

Theatre dozen get any better than this!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Day 3: The power of simplicity!

The festival engine seems to be picking up even more steam. What an incredibly powerful day. Rang were excellent as they wowed the audiences, Nalli ke Kutte was incredibly powerful and effective, Jaago Jaago Jaago was awesome in it's rousing up the crowd and then came My Goad Pune. Simple, effective and hilarious. Even the largely non marathi speaking audience was lifted by the strong performances.

Thespo continues into Day 4 with some excellent events.
At 6pm besoothed by the tunes of Jazz Like That.
7pm the Thespo Fringe presents the web like Spiral Bound
8:15pm Jai Hind College presents the explosive and exuberant Maryaada Party.
and finally at 9pm, come on the journey to 2050, a world of organic computers in Tipping Point.

Truly a celebration of things theatrical!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Day 2 at Thespo12 sang out loud!

On day 2 Ravi Jain continues his journey with spell bound participants at the Mask Workshop. In another part of town, Sophie Larsmon led young writers on a playwriting workshop equipped only with the day's newspapers, some blank sheets of drawing paper and markers!

Blech rocked the cafe for a whole hour with their music. But the votes for 'event of the day' went to the Fringe performance - Come To Where I Come From where audiences were treated to 3 brand new monologues by Akash Mohimen, Dwijal Mehta and Siddharth Kumar. The performance was the culmination of a very unique and 'virtual' workshop conducted by Sophie Larsmon with these writers over the last couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, Bombay traffic claimed our platform performance. The actor made record time on the sea-link only to be stuck at the infamous 'Leelavati Junction'. However, Papier Mache Petals premiered at sharp 9pm to a houseful Prithvi Theatre. The show had sold out before the festival even started and their efficient marketing team had created quite the buzz. Lots of music, beat boxing and stand up comedy guaranteed that all present had quite a few laughs!



Day 3 sees the return of young Pune theatre-wallahs with My Go(a)d Pune at 9pm tonight. The ever popular Rang return to Thespo this year at 6pm.The Fringe see the staging of Nalli Ke Kutte at 7pm followed by Jaago Jaago by our very own IIT-Bombay at 8.15pm. But the highlight of the day is the RJ workshop by RJ Neeil at 4pm at the Prthvi House where he shares trade secrets on become a successful RJ.! It's all happening at Prithvi Theatre... See you there!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Day 1 at Thespo 12 was awesome.



Day 1 at Thespo 12 opened last night to mad crowds and powerful performances.
The staged reading of Titas Halder's DARKLING was very well received.
Froydn Slip were power packed in setting the mood for the evening.
180 Degrees the movement performance piece was very exciting.
And the icing was CHAKRA who were spell bindingly good.
What a great start to the 12th edition. And to think it was not going to happen.

Day 2 line up is also pretty exciting:
Blech are playing live music at 6pm
A series of monologues called Come to Where I Come from is on at 7.
8pm sees a platform performance called TWO.
And the already sold out Papier Mache Petals is at 9pm.

Hurry tickets for the other days are filling fast. So come soon.

Monday, December 13, 2010

And so it begins....

It's finally here. D day. Or should we say T day.

Quick reminder of what's on at day 1 of Thespo at Prithvi Theatre:
Free events:
6pm: Live band performance by Froydn Slip.
7pm: A staged reading of excerpts from brand new play called THE DARKLING.
8:15pm: A movement based performance piece called 180 Degrees.

Ticket event:
9pm; Chakra: A play set in a time before language. Visually stunning, powerful and humorous all at the same time.

See you there.