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In February 2010, BLT was invited to present a paper at a national seminar on Urban Growth in Bangalore. BLT’s paper examined the role of English language theatre in the urban arts environment of Bangalore, taking a historical perspective from the pre-independence era. Extracts from the paper, reproduced below, serve to sum up BLT’s history in the context of the development of English theatre in Bangalore.
Old-timers of BLT have often been asked the secret of the group’s long life when, in contrast, we see hundreds of cases of groups starting with a bang and dropping by the wayside in a couple of years. The difference, it seems, is in the simple fact that BLT is a membership organisation and, therefore, a genuine group. From this fact has followed a number of guiding principles that appear to have served BLT well over the years. For instance:
All of this actually makes it far more difficult to “manage” the organization. It is so much easier to let a charismatic leader take charge and “run” the group as he or she wishes. Many visitors from other cities (and other countries as well) have remarked that BLT continues to be a fun group, and yet pretty serious in the pursuit of its organization and management. An apt description of the group.
Over the years, some of the initiatives we have set in motion are:
The significance of these principles is understood better when we see that a sizeable majority of the theatre talent in Bangalore, including the “big names”, has been in BLT productions, workshops and training programmes earlier. They continue as members of BLT even if they perform under other “banners”. Related to this point is one other indisputably important feature of BLT. It is the only English language theatre group in Bangalore (perhaps anywhere in India) with strong links to the local-regional theatre, building bridges across language divides. Many of the stalwarts on the Kannada stage and screen have been either life members of BLT or have been prominently involved in some capacity or the other. Indeed, BLT has been a substantial support to Kannada theatre groups in their start up stages and has always worked closely with Karnataka Nataka Academy.
As a socially responsible theatre society, BLT has readily taken on many a fundraising production for worthy causes. In 1970-71 BLT’s production of the new play by Badal Sircar, Evem Indrajit, was the first fundraising event to contribute to the Prime Minister fund for the Bangla refugee crisis. An original script, Head Start, by Vijay Padaki, was produced for CRY in January 1996. Since then BLT has made a constitutional commitment to dedicate one production for a charity every year. Through its considerable resources the group also provides various kinds of help to theatre projects in colleges, schools, clubs and other institutions.
The strategic planning exercise BLT undertook in 2005 led to a restructuring of Bangalore Little Theatre Foundation and the creation of the Academy of Theatre Arts.
Play Development works as a cross-cutting activity through several programmes of BLT and ATA. Not surprisingly, it finds a special place in the plans of the newly created Academy. The proposal now is to revive SHORTS, with an emphasis on:
A paucity of Indian plays in English.
We are committed to the promotion of theatre and performing arts. We celebrated our Golden Jubilee last year. In the 58 years since our inception, BLT has produced over 200 plays, pioneered systematic training in the theatre, initiated play development as a serious pursuit (launching several Bangaloreans as playwrights), reached out to the community in a wide variety of ways, and built strong bridges with the regional language theatres.
Bangalore Little Theatre Foundation is registered as a Charitable Trust with a non-profit status.
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