The curtain came down on the 10-day theatre festival ‘BotTala Rangamela’, organised by theatre troupe BotTala, with staging the play ‘The Mud’ on Saturday at the Mahila Samity in the capital. Veteran theatre personality Aly Zaker has been awarded with the ‘BotTala Lifetime Achievement Award’ this year. He received the award during the closing ceremony of the festival on Saturday. The programme of the closing day began with the chorus rendition at the open premises of Mahila Samity. Besides, Iranian theatre troupe Crazy Body brought their production ‘The Mud’ on the stage. The play is directed by Yasser Khaseb. After staging of the play, noted theatre personality Sara Zaker handed over the crest to the theatre troupe, Crazy Body.
During this year’s festival, Theatre troupe BotTala honoured eight theatre activists from eight divisions of the country in recognition of their contributions. The awardees included Munshi Muhammad Ali Rumi of Dhaka, Shyamal Bhattacharia of Rajshahi, Shahjahan Shah of Rangpur, Krishna Kumari Sinha of Sylhet, Jochhna Chakrabarty of Mymensingh, Manobendra Botbale of Barisal, Bimal Chandra Biswas of Khulna, and Rabiul Alam of Chittagong. Each of the awardees received a crest, uttorio and prize money worth of BDT 10,000.
As many as six local troupes and two foreign troupes staged their latest productions during the festival; those are-- ‘Matbring’ by Jessore-based troupe Bibartan, ‘GaharBadsha O BanesaPoree’ by Nagorik Natyangan, ‘Condemn Cell’ by Prangonemor, ‘KarbalarJari’ by Jahangirnagar University, ‘The Jubilee Hotel’ by Aranyak and ‘Maya Nodee’ by Theatre.
On the other hand, Koch Bihar-based Indian troupe Compass Theatre staged its play ‘Chop! Adalat Cholche’ and Notdha staged their production ‘Othoi’ at the festival. In addition, BotTala staged a special show of their play ‘Modhu Shikari’ for the children on December 9. Moreover, the festival also arranged an art camp for the children on the same day.
Besides staging the theatrical play, the ten-day festival also featured solo songs, chorus renditions and performance art. l