Notes on Dramaturgy in India: 1

Playmaking is not limited to playwriting, directing or the staging of a play. As a complex process, it demands a comprehensive understanding of the production process, research, literary forms, performative skills, institutional management, society, and cultural practices. The process is also known as dramaturgy. 

Dramaturgy, the process of play development, has been at the heart of Indian theatre. It comprises ideating and presenting a dramatic work through the nuanced understanding of social and political, ideological, and aesthetic aspects shaping and reshaping it. For a long time, dramaturgical practices have been informing, educating, and challenging the writers, artists and audiences to appreciate and analyse dramatic art. Transforming through the traditions of a wide range of dramatic literatures and theatrical processes, the Marathi dramaturgical practices in India reflect a vast array of playwriting practices, technical innovations, spatial dimensions, and cultural exchanges. 

Vishnudas Bhave (1819-1901), a storyteller and puppeteer living in Sangli, for the first time, brought a sense of composition to play-making. At 24, Bhave was employed by Chintamanrao Patwardhan, the Raja of the princely state of Sangli and a great patron of arts. Impressed by Bhave’s poetic and storytelling skills, the Raja asked him to compose ‘something like’ Bhagwat Mela, but in a refined form. The raja had seen a folk performance of the Bhagwat Mela troupe travelling from Northern Karnataka in 1842. Nevertheless, he was uncomfortable with the ‘roughness’ in Bhagwat Melas. In response, Bhave, as Sadhudas has recorded, for the supposed fineness and to create new models, looked at the Sanskrit theatrical tradition and refashioned it, weeding out the dhangaddhinga (boisterous activities) of folk performance. Thus, he created a performance of Seeta Swayamvar akhyan (A Seeta Swayamvar Narration) in 1843 that was played for the first time in Haripur, a village near Sangli. 

Based on a story from the Valmiki Ramayana, Seeta Swayamvar was a musical played by sutradhar and performers. Set in the form of natya kavita, a dramatic poem, the play wasn’t in the dialogue form of natak that emerged in the later years of Indian dramatic traditions. In the modern sense of natak, Bhave was neither a playwright nor a director but a composer of a play. He staged it through improvisations with his team of performers. Interestingly, Krishnaji Abaji Kulkarni, the writer of Marathi Rangbhumi, the earliest comprehensive historiographic and critical discourse on Marathi theatre, doesn’t address Bhave’s performers as actors (nat) but ‘men working in drama’. 

The performers in Bhave's company had to do various tasks, including loading and unloading materials and cooking.There was also a hierarchy in the tasks assigned to them. The performer playing a god's character would get to do 'higher level' work than someone performing a demon's role. Also, a person who can read and write would not want to participate in the performance. The players had to hone their performance skills by shouting in the open space until their throats turned hoarse.

Vishnudas Bhave conducted thorough research before embarking on the Seeta Swayamvar performance. As Bhave himself has written, he read several Maharashtra/Marathi books to understand mythological history. After deciding on Seeta Swayamvar, Bhave went on to identify music and collect songs from local performers of the Haridas tradition. He then re-composed these songs for his performance. Drawing from different stories in the Ramayana, he developed bhashan (speeches) for each character in the play.

Bhave's performance style was minimalistic. The stage would be divided into two parts, marked as areas for the sutradhar and performers. Each area would be called a "kacheri." The word kacheri is also used to designate the space for administrative purposes. Bhave's kacheri on the stage resembled the scene-blocking that developed on the later-day Stage. Each kacheri, named after a god or demon, would be marked with chairs inside.

Bhave's troupe travelled extensively through Maharashtra after the opening show in Haripur, Sangli, to earn a livelihood for the troupe members. Bhave was well aware of the theatre-going public wherever he travelled. He made changes in his plays based on the characteristics of a particular location. For example, to attract the cosmopolitan audience of Bombay, he chose to perform Raja Gophichand in Hindustani. The performance was attended by a diverse audience, including merchants, government servants, Europeans, and Parsis, representing various religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. After the show, as Vasudev Ganesh Bhave has recorded, Bhave's group had a box office collection of Rs 1800, with which they paid off their loans.

Bhave is known as the first professional theatre-maker in creating and presenting his plays.

Bhave's work was an inspiration to around 25 to 30 theatre companies that were established in the second half of the nineteenth century to perform pauranik plays. A year after his second tour to Bombay in 1854, the 'Mumbaikar Hindu Natak Mandali' was established, and in 1856, the 'Amarchandwadikar Natak Mandali' started with their plays. The performers who trained in Bhave's company became active in several newly established drama companies. With the establishment of Bombay University and colleges, the theatre-going public changed. A newly emerging urban class started showing interest in thoughts and practices inspired by Western ideas. They started losing interest in the stories from mythologies and were drawn to the stories from everyday life. With exposure to Parsi theatre, translations, printed plays, and new stories, theatre companies and performers began experimenting with various dramaturgical practices.