A night of theatre

A still from the rehearsal of the show, that took place in a virtual format

Since June this year, city-based performing arts platform Kommune has been working to organise Tamasha, a virtual dramatic readings event. The process started with putting out a call that invited artistes to send in their audition tapes with minute-long performances. Once talents were hand-picked from a set of 300 entries, orientations, masterclasses and rehearsals were held, to train them for their performances.

Sheena Khalid

This Sunday, in a two-hour long event, the performers will showcase readings of seven scripts, playing out stories including themes like romance, heartbreak and suspense. "At Kommune we've wanted to provide artistes with opportunities for years. I felt that one of the simplest things to do would be to organise dramatic readings online, to give people who were eager to showcase their skills a good platform," says founder Roshan Abbas. The idea was to give new talent a platform, and to train and teach those who were eager to perform and equip them with the best tools available. "I wanted someone who understood acting and could teach this well. I got theatre professional Sheena Khalid on board and, through her training, she identified talent that could be a part of this digital event. We then named the event Tamasha, like the movie, out of fondness for its director Imtiaz Ali and as an ode to the art form of theatre," he shares.

Roshan Abbas

Khalid, who helmed the teaching and training over the past few months says, "I conducted a masterclass, where I pointed out everything that must be paid attention to while doing a dramatic reading. In a reading like this, they have the script in front of them and the audience can visualise the story."

On: September 5, from 7 pm to 9 pm
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