A group of young professionals from diverse backgrounds of law, engineering, architecture, etc. have come together to celebrate their passion and encourage others to do so as well!
The Bardolators, as they call themselves were formed only last year and have been staging free plays at Cubbon Park every month! With no fee whatsoever, this dynamic group is winning hearts all over the city as the crowd for their shows keeps increasing. We get in touch with them...
To grow organically, was the idea of The Bardolators of Bangalore. “The group was initially started with the members of the Alternative Law Forum. We wanted to perform Shakespeare in an open space – as it used to be staged in earlier times,” says Archit Guha, one of the members of the group.
The Bardolators have already staged a range of shows like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice and other Shakespearean plays from the time they were formed last year.
“We started off with only 20 spectators and grew organically only through word of mouth and Facebook events and through the collective interest of people around us,” says the young lad who has no backing in theatre!
Another interesting part about the group is that one doesn’t need to have experience in the field of theatre. Just adequate interest in it! “All of us in the group are a part of this only for the fun of it. We are a bunch of theatre lovers from different backgrounds who accumulate to celebrate and get more people involved in it,” says Madhav Chandavakar, a researcher from the city.
And to get more people involved, the group doesn’t charge their spectators any amount! “Staging an adaptation of Shakespeare in a park is quite a legacy in itself because the Central Park in New York has been doing it for ages. And Cubbon Park is a free and open space so it all just falls into place,” he smiles.
And keeping themselves going, the troupe is all set to present another Shakespearean drama – Twelfth Night on March 19. “I chanced upon them one Sunday when I was at Cubbon Park for a photography project and have been following them ever since. I love how raw their performances are and since I’m a student, I have limited funds and can’t really afford to go to plays very often though I am passionate about theatre. Their plays are usually very striking and though they don’t charge for tickets, I do like to donate as much as I can, as they only use it for props and costumes for their next productions,” says Malini Shankar, a college student from the city.
