K M Chaitanya
Senior film and theatre director
“When we went to perform at Prithvi theatre in Mumbai, they thought RS was the best theatre in India. RS has nurtured an audience. The audience is assured that when they go to RS, they can see a good play. This happens because they curate their plays and do not just offer it as a rental place. And the discipline — you have to stand in the line to enter, you can’t have your mobiles on inside, the doors close by 7.30 pm, nobody is allowed to enter after that, no matter who you are. All this has had a tremendous impact and has created a loyal audience where theatre people also feel so good.
Surendranath
Vetearan theatre person, playwright and artistic director, Ranga Shankara
“Ranga Shankara (RS) provides an affordable, dedicated theatre space at a rental of just Rs 2,500 per day. The most amazing thing that happened with this input is the impact that it has had in Bengaluru and Karnataka — Kannada theatre has turned around. The younger people are looking at theatre differently. The best thing is that RS gets people come here to perform. You can meet world-class directors, world-class playwrights here. It makes them interact with the big names, which they never had a chance before. Something beyond theatre has happened. It has helped in creating smaller places for theatre across the city and elsewhere. I would say without any doubt that Ranga Shankara is easily the best
theatre in India.”
Venkatesh Prasad
Actor, director
It is a world-class institution with a state-of-the art auditorium, and a theatre space where everyone benefits: the performers, theatre teams, the audiences, and full-time theatre practitioners like me. It gives hope of a future to the ever-struggling theatre maker. RS may have opened 15 years ago, but it feels like yesterday because it is as fresh, new and
exciting as the first day.
M D Pallavi
Senior theatre actor, director
I think one of the most important things that RS did for me and many others was a chance to explore international theatre collaborations. ‘Boy With A Suitcase’ was a German collaboration with RS that premiered about seven or years ago, and
we have performed many shows here in India as well as in Germany. The curating of the plays, the strict discipline followed there by theatre people as well as by the audience makes it such a pleasure to go there and perform.
As told to S Nanda Kumar