Inter Act Art: their Struggle
Ishara Jayawardane
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German director
Gustavo Fijalko
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Inter Act Art is a cultural group active in various cultural and art
work for the last 20 years. They have already built an alternative
theatre space by introducing the Black Box Theatre in Sri Lanka. They
have their own theatre house and conduct a theatre festival annually.
Their next goal is to organize an international theatre festival in Sri
Lanka.
Festival Director Safeer has taken on quite a task in his attempt to
make and International Theater Festival happen. For the last two years
this idea has been on the board. One question that comes to the mind is
why should we have an International Theater Festival in Sri Lanka. The
reason being there are many benefits such as exchange of knowledge and
international recognition.
The Colombo international theatre festival 2012 will take place from
March 26 to April 2 with the main performance being in the British
School in Colombo.
Safeer's partner is the German Cultural Institute that has been of
tremendous assistance to him by offering their premises to conduct
workshops, seminars and meetings. They already have an auditorium for
the main performance at the British School in Colombo. Electronic media
sponsorship by Sirasa/MTV and Print media sponsorship by Associated
Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. "Take a look at India. They have had seven
international theater festivals. Pakistan had two, Bangladesh had two
and Nepal had two. Sri Lanka doesn't have up to date an international
theatre festival. No one has been able to do something like this for the
last 50 years. The response I have received is: 'Safeer are you mad? Do
you really think you can do this?'," said Safeer.
Safeer who says he has no illusions about the difficulty in staging
an international film festival and says it won't be a bed of roses.
"The biggest challenge for me was finding at least two countries. In
the end 28 countries have applied now I have to eliminate certain
countries. Right now India, Indonesia, Australia, Pakistan and Iran are
on the list. And God's send! We have received a response from Germany as
well. German director Gustavo Fijalkow is in the country for three
months on an official visit for a dance theatre production," added
Safeer.
A dance item of his will also be featured on the festival.This will
be the first time in 40 years that an Indonesian and Iran theater group
is coming to Sri Lanka.
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Safeer and his team. Pictures by Ranjith Asanka |
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