MT News Service
Jammu, June 14:
Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Awardee, theatre actor/director Chakresh Kumar illuminated ‘Young Voices of Theatre’, a unique National Theatre Talk Show by Natrang with his brilliant thoughts today. The show, which is featured at the Facebook page of Natrang Jammu everyday, showcases outstanding young theatre practitioners of India, who share their inspirational views with the global audience. Director Natrang, Balwant Thakur informed that this distinctive endeavour of Natrang has become a much sought after theatre happening of the country because of its content and valuable views of the guest speakers, he also complimented them for their praiseworthy work. As per press statement issued to mercury times, Chakresh Kumar is a theatre actor, director born in Etawah, U.P. but travelled to many cities of the country in connection with the postings of his father who was in the Army. After completing his graduation from Punjab University, Chandigarh, he established a theatre group ‘Alankar’ to serve and aware the society. He completed Masters in Theatre from Indian Theatre Department, Punjab University, Chandigarh. During the final year of his post-graduation he directed a play ‘Macbeth’, which was telecast on seven regional television channels. After serving as a faculty in ITFT College, Chandigarh, he started working as a director and acting trainer in his own theatre group. He has also worked with many theatre groups in different capacities. Recipient of Junior Fellowship from Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Chakresh Kumar has acted in more than forty plays, a few of them are; ‘Ek Aalap’, ‘Sakharam Binder’, ‘Raja Harish Chandra’, ‘Is There Any Exist’, ‘Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja’, ‘Romio Juliet and 7 Clowns’, ‘Bade Bhai Sahab’, ‘Andha Yug’, ‘Aawaaz Ka Nilaam’, ‘Koshish Jaari Hai’, ‘Gagan Damama Bajiyo’, ‘The First Teacher’ etc. Member of Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi for the last 10 years, Chakresh has more than three hundred performances to his credit and directed thirty seven plays like ‘Macbeth’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Thought For The Day’, ‘Clerk Ki Maut’, ‘Kafan’, ‘Andher Nagri’, ‘Bade Bhai Sahab’, ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’, ‘Gagan Da Mama Bajiyo’, ‘Andha Yug’, ‘Poster’, ‘The First Teacher’, ‘Ek Ladki Paanch Deewane’, ‘Aawaz Ka Neelam’, ‘Kanak Di Balli’, ‘The Lower Depths’ etc.
In an engaging conversation with Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee Actor and Nartang’s senior artist Anil Tickoo, Chakresh narrated his momentous journey of theatre which started from his childhood and never stopped. A resolute theatre practitioner, Chakresh has always endeavoured to learn and explore. He expressed his gratitude towards all his mentors, well-wishers and colleagues who have made his journey of theatre meaningful. With the support of many like-minded people he started the group Alankar out of passion of exploring the immense possibilities of theatre and later enriched it into a professional set up which is doing multi genre futuristic activities for its economic sustenance. Speaking about awards and recognitions, he humbly asserts that it definitely gives a push to your motivation but the seed of that motivation has to be nurtured by your own-self long before you get awards. Speaking about his process of mounting a production, he explains that he does a lot of research, study and consultation about the basic idea of the script which helps him in creating effective theatre productions. He also tries to relate/contemporize the text so that people could relate to it. As an experiment, he takes his actors to a different space (far from their comfort zone) and explores new things. He believes in offering something new to his audience, even if he gets the same audience every time. Empathetically speaking about the present time of the Corona crisis, he invoked artist fraternity to speak to each other at this time of dismay and try to help those who are in need as unfortunately there is no substantial support from the system for the artists who are worst hit. For those who want to pursue theatre as a career, he advises to keep the passion alive and focus on learning.
Natrang’s dedicated team which is managing this National event includes Neeraj Kant, Anil Tickoo, Sumeet Sharma, Sanjeev Gupta, Vikrant Sharma, Mohd Yaseen, Brijesh Avtar Sharma, Gauri Thakur and Chander Shekhar. NSD alumni, theatre actor, director and light designer, Sajal Mondal would be featured in this talk show on 15th of June, 2021.
