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Atelier’s Campus theatre

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine, with its diverse cast and representation of marginalised communities, is taking the world by storm. It’ss hilarity and breaking of negative stereotypes is something never seen before. The show is about to start with its sixth season and the fans can’t seem to wait!

Have you always been a fan of off-beat comedies like Parks and Recreation and The Office? Do the characters make you love the weird people you encounter in your everyday, melancholic life? Then, hold your horses because Brooklyn Nine-Nine is here. This American television series revolves around a team of detectives based in New York of the 99th precinct.

Jake Peralta is a goofy, mischievous, immature, and an intelligent detective whose favourite movie is Die Hard. His sidekick and best friend, Charles Boyle is the loyal, people-pleaser connoisseur whose vocabulary is not really great. Rosa Diaz is the badass detective who doesn’t believe in showing feelings and emotions and is extra secretive about her life. Amy Santiago is the workaholic, type- A personality who respects her captain more than anyone else. Lieutenant Terry Jeffords is the soft- hearted, muscular, yogurt-loving man who absolutely adores his twin baby girls. Captain Raymond Holt is serious and stern whose one-liners and lack of facial expressions would make you scratch your head. Gina Linetti is the hilariously self-centred administrator who loves to dance and practically every B99 fan’s spirit animal. Hitchcock and Scully are the two dim-witted veterans of the precinct who just love to sit and eat.

So, what makes this show so unique and a must-watch? Well, the list is endless. The ensemble cast is terrific and lovable. Apart from that, it is one of the most ethnically diverse casts on television. The main leads have two black men, along with two Latina women. The show has LGBT characters where Captain Raymond Holt is a happily married gay man and Detective Rosa Diaz is a bisexual woman. It doesn’t promote stereotypical personalities and doesn’t make a big deal about it. The show doesn’t shy away from discussing social issues like feminism, racism, police brutality, and sexism at the workplace and never makes the marginalised groups the butt of jokes.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine doesn’t stress on romantic relationship, needless drama. The relationships it presents are non-toxic and non-abusive where the emphasis is on healthy communication. It prioritises friendships where the detectives respect and appreciate each other for their hard work and talent. Many sitcoms show women characters where they are always at war with each other but in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, they do not tear each other down. They might be different but they always look out for each other no matter what. It doesn’t show toxic masculinity and ‘angry, tough, and heartless man’ as the ideal. It promptly breaks the notion that ‘nice guy gets the girl’. It highlights how men should handle rejection and back off if the women do not show interest instead of pestering them.

The show is a perfect balance of drama and comedy. It has wackiness with an amazing comedic timing. Its multi-dimensional characters and memorable one-liners are out of the world and worth a mic-drop.  The heart- warming scenes would make you smile ear to ear. Jake’s evergreen ‘title of your sex tape’, ‘cool cool cool cool, no doubt no doubt no doubt’, ‘noice’ and ‘smort’ are weirdly funny and of course Gina Linetti is the self-proclaimed human form of 100 emoji whose quirkiness and absurdness takes the show to another level. So, instead of watching hardcore police dramas like Criminal Minds and NCIS, give Brooklyn Nine-Nine a shot.

 

Feature Image Credits: Her

Disha Saxena

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Atelier’s ACT Fest aka Atelier’s Campus Theatre Festival is back with its season 10! The world’s largest Youth Theatre fiesta, this festival has witnessed more than 500 performances in 9 seasons. The Season 10 in 2016-17  is set to showcase the best of Campus Theatre with emphasis on vernacular theatre as well along with unique revived forms like dastangoi and red nose clowning.

The journey

Since its inception in 2007, ACT festival is supported by the Bollywood fraternity: Saurabh Shukla (Kallu Mama fame), Piyush Mishra (Actor and Singer), Gul Panag (Film Actor), Lushin Dubey (Theatre and Film Actor), Vinay Pathak (Film Actor), Danish Hussain (Film Actor) to name a few. The Festival Director, Kuljeet Singh is a theatre and film actor with a popular Hero Motrocorp commercial (Hum Mein Hai Hero) and a cameo in “Rockstar”. His latest film “Margarita With A Straw” received rave reviews.

In Season 10, the ACT Festival (February-March, 2017) will see more than 70 performances, engage 30,000 people directly and the total outreach is around 5,00,000 across four cities: New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata & Chandigarh through print ads, hoardings, posters, online and radio.

ACT throughout the years

ACT Festival is the most awaited Youth Theatre Festival in India. After 9 seasons, it enjoys the status of world’s largest youth theatre fiesta with participation from pan-India and International college teams. Most of the renowned college theatre groups across India participate in ACT festival.

In 2007, in its year of inception, this festival made a humble beginning with support from theatre fraternity, students, media and practitioners, although there was meagre support from government and corporate sector.

Gradually, it picked up and in 2009, with the third year in continuity, it gained immense momentum, getting support from all walks of life. ACT festival also travelled to Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai in 2010 and 2011.

Important dates and deadlines

Call for Entry: November 10, 2016
Last date to receive entries: December 31, 2016
Line Reading Sessions: January 10-20, 2017
Festival Dates: February-March, 2017

For details shoot a mail to [email protected].

Send your entries to [email protected]
OR SMS at 9891092386/7838281114

Please Note:

You can send as many entries as you wish but use separate forms for each entry.

Registration for the festival OPEN now. Visit www.ateliertheatre.in for more details. Entries close 31st December 2016.

Image credits: Team Atelier

Riya Chhibber

[email protected] 

Atelier’s ACT Fest aka Atelier’s Campus Theatre Festival is back with its 9th season, starting on February 21st and continuing till the 28th. Being the world’s largest Youth Theatre fiesta, it has witnessed 200 performances in 7 seasons. The previous season hosted the best of vernacular theatre along with revived forms like dastangoi and red nose clowning.

It is now inviting entries from college theatre groups engaged in street theatre, stage performances and alternate performances across Delhi NCR. This festival will involve screening levels which includes the Line reading session, followed by the final performance. The line reading session will be an audition round where an expert panel will judge the participating teams on the basis of their script, design, representation, discussions etc. Each team will be given half an hour to showcase their respective performance.

When asked about his expectation from the 9th season, The festival curator, Kuljeet Singh, who’s currently a professer of SGTB Khalsa College said, ” As this festival has become so coveted over time, I personally look forward to witness some refine and well rehearsed performances both during the rehearsal and finale.” He expressed that last time few performers did exceptionally well during the audition round but when it came to presenting it in the final round, they weren’t able to hit the mark. This time, more concrete parameters have been introduced to ensure a successful outcome.

Kuljeet Singh is a theatre and film person with a popular Hero Motrocorp commercialand a cameo in “Rockstar”. He’s best known for his film “Margarita With A Straw”. Shefali Vyas, former president of ‘Kshitij’, the street play society of Gargi college described her experience with the previous season of Atelier Fest as ‘fabulous and enlightening’. She said that the best part about the festival is that it provides a first hand theatre experience and takes it where it is actually needed.

Unlike College fests, the artists here get to perform on streets and other locations. Adding that the prize money kills the main objective of performing such arts, she said that this experience helps in keeping the real theatre spirit alive.

Promising a total outreach of around 3,50,000, the 7 day theatre fiesta (February 21-28, 2016) will showcase over 40 performances, directly involving 20,000 people. The fiesta will take place at Akshara, LTG Auditorium; India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road & University of Delhi colleges.

Lovleen Kaur

[email protected].