'Patho Natok' Festival begins today
Ershad Kamol
A seven-day patho natok (street theatre festival) begins today at the Central Shaheed Minar premises. Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation (BGTF), in association with Bengal Foundation, has arranged the festival. The festival will be inaugurated by litterateur Hasan Azizul Haque. Theatre personalities and BGTF leaders will deliver speeches at the opening session. The programme will be presided over by M Hamid, the chairman of BGTF.Besides popular Dhaka troupes such as Aranyak Natya Dal, Loko Natya Dal, Udichi Drama Department, Theatre Art Unit, Prachyanat, Samay Sanskritik Goshthi and Dhaka Theatre Mancho, several other member troupes of BGTF from outside Dhaka will stage plays at the festival. M Hamid said, "As street theatre, an explicit art form, features strong messages related to our national life, we have been regularly arranging patho natok festivals since the beginning of the neo-theatre movement just after Independence. For the last two decades BGTF has been regularly arranging an annual patho natok festival in February to commemorate the Language Martyrs. "It is alarming to note that in recent days there has been a marked decline in such productions. As a result we see same patho natok at every festival. Moreover, many popular troupes are not participating in the festival this time." Akhtaruzzaman, assistant secretary general of BGTF, said that each day five performances would be staged. The duration of the street plays is less than 40 minutes.
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Actors of Shomoy Sangskritik Goshthi in a play |
