If you had been to the coastal districts two decades ago during the Yakshagana season, you would have seen some troupes performing the prasanga (episode) in tents.
This trend of Yakshagana performance had come down and more of bayalatas started showing up.
With the addition of two more melas (touring troupes) for tent performance for the coming season, there has been a revival of this form of tirugata (tour) of Yakshagana troupes along the coastal region.
The bayalatas are more of sponsored shows where the audience need not purchase tickets to watch the performance.
In the shows performed by pitching tents, one has to purchase ticket. There were only two tent melas until last season.
The tirugata of the melas for 2017-18 season (November-May) began on Thursday. More than 40 melas would perform during the season.
Badagu Thittu
“Of the about 80 bookings made for our new Kaladhara Yaaksharanga Balaga, Jalavalli, now only about 10 are bayalatas,” said Vidyadhara Jalavalli, who leads the tent mela which will begin its tour on November 16.
It will be the third tent mela in Badagu Thittu school of Yakshagana along with the existing Saligrama and Perdoor tent melas.
Mr. Jalavalli said that with a 47-member team, his mela will perform both short duration and all-night shows.
“The shows of our mela have been booked from Karwar to Kasaragod,” he said.
Mr. Jalavalli said that his troupe has aimed at presenting at least 150 shows during the season.
The mela would have noted artistes such as Krishna Yaji Balkuru, who was presented with the Rajyotsava award on Wednesday, Neelkodu Shankara Hegde, Subrahmanya Chittani, Karthik Chittani, with leading bhagawatha (singer-cum-director) Hilluru Ramakrishna Hegde.
Tenku Thittu
Another new tent mela, Mahatobhara Sri Mangaladevi Prasadita Yakshagana Mandali, Mangaluru, in the Tenk Thittu school of Yakshagana, will commence its tour on November 15. With a team of 35 members, its 60 shows have been booked now, said Jagadeesh, one of the co-ordinators of the mela. It would also present all-night and short duration shows.
The last Tenku Thittu tent mela to wound up its tour was also the Mangaladevi mela led by P. Kishen Hegde six years ago. It stopped performing after completing the tour of 2010-11. Mr. Hegde led the mela for 14 years. It will be a new birth for the mela, now led by a different team.
Of the two Edaneeru melas on tour last year, one troupe has been renamed as Hanumagiri mela for this season.