Arts Council’s theatre festival to kick off on November 3

The festival will run till Nov 21 and become an annual feature

The theatre festival that was scheduled to be held at the Arts Council in August will now be organised from November 3 to 21 and will be an annual feature.

 This was stated by Ahmed Shah while addressing a press conference at the Arts Council on Wednesday afternoon.

The programme, he said, could not be held in August because of funding hiccups. “Impetus to art and culture has a trickle-down effect in cultivating a more harmonious society, free of the trappings of extremism and prejudices,” said Shah, who is a former president of the Arts Council. 

He lamented that there was only one or, at the most, two theatre halls for a city with a population of 25 million. He said that it was imperative to utilise the energies of youth in a more constructive channel and for that it was essential to initiate them into art and culture, into productive pastimes.

“Art and theatre must not just be considered entertainment but as a reflection of social and national issues,” Shah said. 

He said that since they wanted to cater to the people at the grassroots level, where change in society was driven, they planned to cater to the low-income groups who could not afford tickets with prices running into four figures. He said entry would be free.

However, he said, in order to control the numbers to keep the shows from becoming unmanageable, aspirants to the shows would have to come to the Arts Council a few days before the commencement of the play, produce their CNICs and get an entry pass. Entry would not be allowed without production of these passes, he said.  The opening play of the festival will be the one by intellectual luminary, Intizar Hussain, who passed away early this year. The play is titled ‘Khwabon Ke Mussafir’.

Prof Ejaz Farooqi, president of the Arts Council, also spoke to the media and said the Arts Council was endeavouring to give impetus to the arts with a view to cleansing society of the evils of extremism, prejudice and crime. He hoped that these altruis6tic efforts would bear fruit.