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About Joker The Theatre Group
About Joker The Theatre Group
1. ‘nhi school me hi shuru krdia tha, 12 saal ki umar mien’ replied Sandeep
Kumar, the founder of the Delhi-based The Joker Theatre Group,
when asked how it all started?
Meet Sandeep Kumar, who first started acting in his school at the age of twelve
and at the age of fourteen he won his first best actor award in the inter school
completion organised by the Delhi Public School, vasant kunj. Sandeep’s
interest in acting and his decision to be a theatre actor was influenced by the
likes of Ratan Thiyam , Habib Tanvir and Ranjit Kapoor. Sandeep first started
acting as a hobby but soon this hobby became the passion of his life. The year
was 2006 when he decided to leave his day job and pursue theater as a full time
profession. He says that leaving his job for acting was a 'instinctive decision'. In
his career as a actor Sandeep essayed more than twenty lead roles under reputed
theatre directors like Bhanu Bharti, Barry John, Gulshan Walia, Vidhu Khare
Das. And after performing various roles with diverse theater groups he decided
to establish his own The Joker Theater Group.
2. What is the most difficult part about being an actor and a director of
a theater group?
'Pehchan banana'-- Prakhar says the difficult aspect was to create an identity for
himself and the group among the audience."It wasn't easy, in the beginning only
our family and friends would come to see the performance, there were times
when we had to cancel a show just because no one turned up, we performed for
free for a long time. But now things are stabalized. I never imagined they ever
would be."
3. Why you started the Joker Theater Group, and what is your vision
about it?
"Theater for me is a pure, uncorrupted medium for expression. Uncorrupted-
because you do the show live, you prepare for it, there are no specific camera
angles or gimmicks whatsoever,” Sandeep asserts. He started the Joker Theater
Group, which he calls JTG in short, because he felt that Theater is dying, but he
believed that theater writing and acting could be learnt and taught and we
wanted it the legacy of Theater to live forever. That's exactly what i want to do
and what we are trying to do with JTG.
Though there are many playwright i am fond of, like Girish Karnard, my
favorite playwirght is Vijay Tendulkar.
Literature, Sandeep believes, is the soul of the theater. This is where the good
scripts come from. Although trying to write a play himself, Sandeep's Theater
Group produces adaptations of famous works - Waiting For Godot, Coffee
House, Hum Honge Kaamyab, Ek Aur Durghatna. He believes that Theater
brings good art within the reach of people who are too lazy to read. He also
believes that a On-screen or a On-stage adaptation of a Literary work adds a
fresh 3-Dimensional perspective to it. " There are many stories of Rajan Khan
that i would like to see as plays because i really enjoy the way he analyses the
minds of his characters. It makes you think and explore your own mind and
analyze other people as well." Sandeep replies to the second question.