Street theatre (Therukoothu) artists whose livelihood was dependent on performances during temple festivals were severely affected due to the COVID-19 lockdown and a few of them have taken the performance online to make ends meet.
Street theatre troupes in Elachipalayam which were expecting better earnings during the temple festival season this year were severely affected due to the lockdown. However, a group of youth from Ealchipalayam are providing necessary support to take the art form online.
Members of Swami Vivekanandhar Ilaiyor Kalai matrum Samugha Mempatu Maiyam, a group of youth from families of street theatre artists started organising online performances. V. Ram, a member of the organisation and a street theatre artist said, “there are over a 60 performers here and for many among them, this is the only occupation they know. Their livelihood has severely collapsed due to the lockdown and they were dependent on cash relief and free ration announced by governments. To support them, we decided to organise performances which could be viewed through video conferencing portals.”
Mr. Ram added that as a start, they organised one performance through Google Meet and payments were received digitally. “We advertised through social media platforms and per person was charged ₹50. We staged a drama named ‘Bheeshmar Prabhu’ which was less than two hours unlike our traditional performances which would stretch the entire night”, he said. He added that the effort received good response and persons even from Sri Lanka and Malaysia watched the performance.
“However, there were some technical glitches and we are trying to set right it in upcoming performances. We are trying to get high speed internet for better video streaming and works are on for the next play”, Mr. Ram said.
V. Parthibhan, a performer and head of the organisation said, “besides the economical angle we decided to organise such performances after people started complaining about being stressed locked at homes. Earlier, people in towns would prefer movies and street theatres, while temple festivals were major stress busters in rural areas. With people restricted to homes, many complained of lack of proper entertainment as they were bored looking into screens for long as well.”
Mr. Parthibhan said that a lot of work was also involved in staging an online performance. “For online, the script needs to be reworked as the performances are planned to be within two hours, unlike performances which extended for entire night”, he said.