A 40 member Ajoka Theatre team of actors and technical crew crossed the Wagha Border on Saturday 12 September, 2015 to participate in the first-ever festival of Pakistani theatre in India. “Humsaya Theatre for Peace Festival” which opens on Monday at Delhi’s most prestigious theatre venue, will feature four of Ajoka Theatre’s landmark plays including “Bulha”, “Dara”, “Kaun hai Yeh Gustakh” and “Lo Phr Basant Aee”.
The festival is being held by Ajoka in collaboration with a Delhi-based peace organization Routes 2 Roots. In view of the current tensions between the two governments and the on-going talks between border security chiefs, the festival has already generated huge media interest in India. All major newspapers and news agencies including Times of India, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Statesman, Deccan Herald, Hindu, Naubharat Times , Asian Age and Mail Today have ran the story with interviews of Ajoka’s Shahid Nadeem and Madeeha Gauhar. The four-day festival will be followed by a seminar on Theatre for Peace being held at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. The speakers at the seminar include Pran Nevile, Usha Ganguli, Bansi Kaul and Kewal Dhaliwal from India and Asghar Nadeem Syed, Madeeha Gauhar and Shahid Nadeem from Pakistan.
Ajoka’s Executive Director Shahid Nadeem said,
“we hope that the border chiefs talks in Delhi are successful but irrespective of that, we are crossing the border with the message of peace and goodwill from the people of Pakistan and judging from the media and public interest already generated, we are sure our festival will be a bid success and boost for the peace process”.
Leave a Reply