Theatre institute in name only

hyderabad: an exclusive body for promotion of theatre -andhra pradesh theatre institute repertoire - exists in the state but only for namesake. a group of people interested in promotion of theatre came together and sought the help of the then chief minister m channa reddy who agreed to the proposal to set up an exclusive body for the promotion of theatre.subsequently, a government order was issued in 1981 and it came into being in january 1982. noted persons in the field of theatre a r krishna, eranki seetaramaiah and others contributed to making it popular. for the hundreds of artistes who depended on theatre for their livelihood the institute came in as a boon. some of the popular dramas the institute produced include -ma nanna kavali, abignanashankuntalam, and ramadasu. subsequently during the regime of former chief minister n t rama rao, the sahitya, nritya and nataka academies were merged to form the telugu university. the funds for the theatre institute repertoire were reduced and the teaching and research of theatre was given to the telugu university. now the theatre institute repertoire has neither adequate staff nor funds and is virtually inactive now. the repertoire has become almost defunct from 1985-86. some years ago, it used to stage at least 15 to 20 plays per month at ravindra bharati competing with other private drama companies with funds to the tune of rs 2 lakh to rs 2.5 lakh per year. some of the officials in the department of culture are of the view, if revived the repertoire would provide some relief to the genuine theatre workers. when contacted, director of department of culture, rekha rani said the department proposes to conduct a series of theatre workshops soon. "we are not giving money to any private drama companies. the programmes are being conducted through the government departments only," she said.