Name five plays each of Bhartendu Harishchandra and Vijay Tendulkar? Name five Indian contemporary theatre directors who are still around?
These are some questions which were asked by the director of the MP School of Drama, Alok Chatterjee to the candidates on Wednesday - the first day of the four-day final selections for admission to the School at Ravindra Bhawan in the city.
They were asked about the plays they have seen, the names of their writers and directors etc. They were also asked to sing, dance, act and improvise. Around 54 candidates from across the country were selected in the preliminary round. Finally, 26 candidates would be selected for admission to the school.
Candidate number 16 who was from Sehore introduced himself as farmer’s son. He sang Devi Bhajan ‘Araj Hamari re…’. The judges asked him to express his love to his sweetheart which he did.
Candidate number 17 showcased his talent by singing a song and enacted a mime. Candidate Number 18, a post-graduate from MCU presented Rai dance and played the flute.
A five-member panel of artistes including Rajeev Verma (Bhopal), Vani Sharma(New Delhi), Amit Ranjan Banerjee (Kolkata), Rajkamal Nair (Raipur) and director of the School, Alok Chatterjee judged the performance of the applicants.
The candidates displayed their artistic skills but their knowledge of theatre and literature was poor. Most of them couldn’t answer the questions put by Chatterjee and other judges.
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