It is not just those who act onstage that make up a tiatr, but also those who silently work backstage, especially tiatr organisers and tiatr contractors. While tiatr contractors are responsible for bringing tiatr from the village ‘mattov’ to the city halls, the organisers are responsible for the successful staging of tiatrs in villages.
Although church organisations are primarily credited for keeping the tradition of tiatr active in villages, there are a few other associations and clubs of Goa that are also involved in organising tiatr festivals in their respective villages.
During the last summer vacation, I was fortunate to witness one such tiatr festival organised by the 'Rising Stars of Sanvorcotto' at Cuncolim. The nine day festival was attended in huge numbers. In fact, according the the organisers, the event could seat about 2500 people. Despite this, one could see a lot more people standing around the fence. I have witnessed Konkani lovers gathering in huge numbers at Kalangan Mangalore for Konkani functions organised by the charismatic Konkani activist Eric Ozario, a festival attended in such numbers here in Goa, was something unique.
The man who worked behind the scenes towards the success of this festival is our own tiatrist, Dy SP Sammy Tavares. The birth of this club too has an interesting story. It is said that somewhere around 1974-75, a Gulf expatriate from the village who happened to witness some local boys playing football asked them to organise themselves into two teams and offered a prize money of Rs 2 to the winners. Later one, while discussing how to spend the prize money, the winning team came up with the idea of starting of the Rising Stars of Sanvorcotto. From thereon sports and culture became the chief interests of the club, with the tiatr festival coming into existence eight years ago.
What is noteworthy is the attachment of people to this club. At the festival I attended, donations crossed six lakhs on the very first day! In addition to that, winners of the Housie game which is organised every day usually donate the prize sum of 5000 rupees right back to the club. When a tiatr festival of such high caliber is organised, people take pride in being associated with tiatr. Thus, if tiatrs have to flourish and receive the support and cooperation of people, we need to emulate the
example set by this club. With the commencement of the new tiatr season this month, a lot of tiatr festivals will no doubt be organised in many villages. May tiatr be the real winner in these festivals.
