Pune to host Maharashtra’s first theatre festival dedicated to mental health

Maharashtra is set to witness its first theater festival dedicated to mental health. Three plays focusing on mental health will be shown at the Manasrang Theater Festival at The Box, Pune on 5th November on the occasion of Marathi Rangbhoomi Din.

At a press conference on Thursday, Dr. Hamid Dabholkar, theater director Atul Pethe and mental health communicator Izim Inamdar of Parivartan Trust, a Pune-based NGO working for mental health, announced a scholarship from theater of Rs 50,000 for three theater artists. The scholarship is part of the NGO initiative, Manasrang. The scholarships and the festival are being funded by Bajaj Auto, through its CSR initiative.

Nashik based theater director Sachin Shinde of famous production ‘Hardabhar Chandanya’. (express photo)

Chosen artists are Nashik Sachin Shinde-based theater director of the famous production ‘Hardabhar Chandanya’, Abhijeet Zunjarrao, director of several acclaimed Marathi plays including Mumbai’s ‘Lejhim Khelnari Pora’, and actor-director Kshitish Date, part of Theatron. Pune Entertainment.

Over the next three months, each of these artists, along with members of their respective production companies, will work on a 30-minute piece focused on the theme of mental health. All three plays will be screened at the Manasrang Theater Festival and admission to the festival will be free for all.

When asked about the process through which these three names were selected, Pethe said: “We came up with a list of nine people in Maharashtra who have been a part of theater for the last eight to 10 years and have their own production houses. . Our plan is to have three editions of the festival, where three names will be chosen each year. For the first year, we didn’t have to think much about the choice: these three have done a phenomenal job over the last decade.”

Abhijeet Zunjarrao, director of several acclaimed Marathi plays including ‘Lejhim Khelnari Pora’. (express photo)

A two-day pre-festival workshop will be held between June 22-23 for those making the works. Leading psychologist Dr. Anjali Joshi, noted theater artist and author Dr. Chandrashekhar Phansalkar, and members of Manasrang will guide five people from each drama group on various aspects of mental health so that the plays are well informed.

The Parivartan Trust’s emphasis on using expressive art to raise awareness of and improve mental health took the form of Manasrang (“Colours of the Mind”) five years ago. After identifying the positive impact of media such as acting, poetry writing, singing, and art, Pethe and Inamdar decided to develop an initiative where not only artists, but also people with mental illness could use art. as a means to express themselves and, consequently, erase the Stigma around mental health. Since people with mental illness can often find themselves socially withdrawn and feel guilty, initiatives like these play an important role in bringing them back into society.

“One of the patients wrote poems about his illness. The poems were eventually published as a book and he managed to earn a decent sum,” said Pethe.

This scholarship and theater festival is one more program of the initiative, whose main objective is to bring a conversation around mental illness to the forefront. Pethe believes that theater is one of the most powerful mediums. “The theater followed by a discussion with the artists about its content can have a great impact on the audience. The accessibility of the artists to the public is what makes this a unique and incomparable experience. Also, a play is not limited to living rooms and movie theaters, but can be staged in every street, nook and corner,” she added.