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Sudharshi Institute - Reality Shortplay Rehearsal
Right now we are doing rehearsals for a short play
The Environment is very noisy and it’s very difficult to do a dialog rehearsal,
hard to remember a dialog and it’s hard for a person to capture another person’s emotion
Constantly we are disturbed by the sound of vehicles, crows and the wind.
Also there are so many other rehearsals going on here.
There are other halls here which other people book and they have their own practices and we cannot stop them.
We have to rehearse amongst all their noise and disruptions.
Sudarshi Institute is been used by many stage drama crews because the price is very low.
Normally for 3 hours there are halls here from Rs.60 up to Rs.200.
Gladiator Premaya - Rehearsal
So the question we all have is if this is all the money they have to do a rehearsal.
It’s true, most of the stage drama actors/actresses face this situation.
Young actors and actresses like us mostly engage in short plays. Generally they don’t have money at all.
No money for rehearsals. No audience to stage a play.
The rehearsal we are doing now is for the state drama festival.
If we try to book a hall and stage a short play we will not have an audience.
For us, young and upcoming actors and actresses
the only audience we have is when there is a state drama festival or a youth festival.
We do short plays for those festivals.
Other than that it's hard to say that there is a place for short plays.
We still continue in this field because we are crazy about it.
But the factors determining the manner of doing these things are not done within the administration work in our country.
There is no structural frame work to build the existence of these things.
We do have a cultural department. They host the state drama festival every year
because it is a must or more likely as a traditional practice.
Other than that there is no good done for the Sinhala theatre. It’s just another point in their agenda.
Everything has been complicated for a long time now. Long time means from the time we know.
The most recent example I can state is that
The Nelum Pokuna Theatre was built by the government for the purpose of theatre and drama.
Where else for John De Silva theatre, the cost to oil the door hinges are not provided;
instead they have demolished the canteen and made the Nelum Pokuna theatre.
That is the most recent example I can take.
It’s not that I'm saying we don’t need theatres like Nelum Pokuna in Sri Lanka, we do.
In Sri Lanka there is no stage or hall which will fulfill the level we need to stage a play.
They might be saying that they are in the process of building halls and they might have already built.
There are a few theatres like Lionel Wendt and Tower hall, but we as young and upcoming actors
and actresses have no financial support and we find it hard to do a drama to that extent.
It’s either the youth festival or the state drama festival that we get the chance to stage a drama.
Let’s take John De Silva Theatre which we are at this moment for an example, when you enter
this place you can see if it’s suitable to stage a play, with the noise and the other disturbances around the theatre.
This is the hall that we are supposed to be staging the state drama festival in.
There is a saying that a stage actor depends on his plain-tea,
but here there is no place to buy a plain-tea or even some food.
Changing rooms don’t have lights.
Don’t even mention the washrooms.
These are the main and common problems faced by many stage actors and actresses.
Most of the stage actors and actresses don’t have jobs.
I’m not saying that we’re depending only on this to survive,
but if the other countries have professional acting careers then why can’t we?
Even to do that, the director and the crew will have to do it by themselves,
because the responsible parties haven’t done or will not do anything to help.
We go through hardships for months and years to stage plays
Then we go home, come back for the award ceremonies, and go back home with the awards.
Then again the next state festival will take place in the following year.
By doing so the quality of the plays will go down.