In its 120 years of existence, Tiatr faced a lot of challenges for its survival. It had to withstand many disastrous situations. It never had any backing of any governments during the dictatorial regime or in the present democratic set up, except the organization of yearly tiatr festivals by Kala Akademy since 1974.
It could survive only because of thepatronage and love towards it of the Goan people. However in 2009, Governmentof Goa established Tiatr Academy of Goa in order to bring an all-rounddevelopment of tiatr, its song and music
Although the tiatr is commercially verysuccessful among the masses, its standard needs to be developed. In theliberated Goa, a lot of improvement and innovations are introduced on the Tiatrstage, yet it requires improvement in Script writing, directions and in otheraspects of technical development of the stage. ‘Kantaram’ which are verypopular among the masses too need original music to give authenticity to theoriginal lyrics. There is an urgent need to understand the importance ofspecialization in this modern world. Hence an attitude needs to be inculcatedin the lyricists to allow the musicians to compose music for the lyrics. Thiswill go a long way in improving the quality of ‘kantar’. Enough importance isnot paid to stage setting, background music, light effects, etc., which arevery essential in making an impressive presentation of the tiatr. This aspectneeds to be tackled. Publication of books of scripts of tiatrs and lyrics of‘kantaram’ must be encouraged so that they are preserved for posterity. Theculture of publishing tiatrs and ‘kantaram’ in book form needs to be cultivatedamong the script writers and lyricists.
20to 25 years ago, every celebration of the feast in the village as well as inthe wards of a village included a staging of a tiatr written, directed andacted by the residents of that area. Young and old of that area used to involvedirectly in the production of the yearly tiatr. Today also no feast is completewithout staging a tiatr. The only difference being, instead of localproduction, the tiatr is presented by the commercial artistes on that occasion.Non-production of tiatrs at the village level has adversely affected thecreativity among the new generation, as far as the tiatr is concerned. Thegolden tradition of yester years needs to be revived on priority.
GoanTiatr undoubtedly is the most popular dramatic form of Goa. Unfortunately, it hasnot yet made its presence felt on the national cultural scenario of ourcountry. Tiatr should have been an ambassador of Goa’s dramatic art in thecountry but in vain. Goan tiatr must achieve that status in the near future.There is no enough documentation of this Goan art. Criticism of the works doneis almost absent. No art form in the world has improved without there being anycriticism and Goan tiatr cannot be an exception.
Although tiatr’s popularity is unparallel tothe popularity of any other dramatic form in Goa, the urgent need is to improveits standard. The writers, directors, actors, singers, etc has to work withdedication in order to face the challenges of taking tiatr to greaterheights.
