LaTZ: Reviving theatre in Pakistan one play at a time
With diverse backgrounds, this well-experienced quartet has brought on stage entertainment with a hint of experimentation, aiming to revive theatre. Photo: LaTZ Facebook.
Lahore’s theatre is witnessing a slow but gradual revival as original and captivating themes aimed at bringing the interest of the audiences back to performing arts are making their way to the stage.
The Lahore Amateur Theatre Zealots (LaTZ), founded by a group of seasoned actors and directors, is one of those groups that aspires to revive theatre in Lahore.
Brainchild of Huma Ijaz Zaman, Omair Rana, Tughral A. T. Ali and Tulin Khalid, LaTZ aims to bring back Pakistani theatre to audiences. With diverse backgrounds, this well-experienced quartet has brought on stage entertainment with a hint of experimentation, aiming to revive some classical ways of acting such as Stanislavski Strasberg’s acting methods, monologues and story lines inspired by classical writers that have made their way on to the stage.
Producer Huma Ijaz, Director Tughral Ali, and actors Rasti Farooq and Shazil Khan talk about their latest theatrical performance - “The Good Doctor” and their journey so far in a conversation with Dunya News.
Ijaz talks about how it all started. “I’ve been involved in theatre for the past 15 years but I took a long break in between my career. I used to do a lot of acting but now I am making a comeback in theatre.”
“I opened up this forum through which anyone wishing to learn true form of art could come and learn,” shares Ijaz on what inspired her to start a joint venture with other artists.
Producer Human Ijaz (R) with her team. Photo: LaTZ Facebook
On the selection of actors and the process of bringing in the entire team for performance and direction, Ijaz says actors are selected based on who fits the role the best. Claiming that at least 60 to 70 percent of actors have a day job or other commitments during the day, Ijaz says the rehearsals are held accordingly.
“Our entire rehearsals are during the evenings because most of the actors have morning jobs.”
LaTZ is set to do four plays in one year, one after every three or four months. The plays will be in both Urdu and English. “This will give us an outreach to a larger audience,” says Ijaz.
On commenting over the absence of academics to support people wishing to pursue a career in theatre, Ijaz opens up about her future plans. She aims to start a school for performing arts.
“People should have a platform where they can learn about acting especially theatre acting, script writing, direction and film making, which are some of the things we will introduce later,” shares Ijaz.
“I would like a proper academy that can help revive theatrical performing arts in Pakistan. Theatre is a very vast, very personal medium where you receive a direct feedback from the audience.”
One of their future goals is to take Pakistani theatre abroad. “If we succeed in winning hearts here, then off to London and Paris in future,” she adds.
Tughral director of the recent play by LaTZ along with his cast spoke on his recent direction – ‘The Good Doctor’.
Inspired by the comedy musical which was written by Neil Simon, the play consists of short stories by Anton Chekhov. The entire story focuses on a writer, performed by Tughral.
As a director and as a story teller, he is directing and narrating the story of each and every character which is played by talented young artists. The writer, suffering from a writer’s block, narrates and addresses the audience in his own creative manner.
Introducing his cast he mentions the complexity of this play where each actor plays multiple roles.
Tughral explains how he directs his actors by asking them to identify as closely to the character as possible by correlating experiences from their personal lives to that of the character.
Director of The Good Doctor, Tughral (L) rehearses with Hasan one of the actors. Photo: LaTZ Facebook
“What inspired me to direct this play was the platform given to me by LaTZ. We wanted to do theatre which was more inclined towards reviving classical theatre.”
Tughral shares that there is a theatrical trend in Pakistan.“There is a trend of course. The already established trend is based on sponsorships which are booked by big production houses. I’d like to call it mass theater, which is currently in trend, where sponsorships and big production houses work on some theatrical performance. It has less focus on acting and more on entertainment.”
In regard to the work they are doing, Tughral hopes it would catch up. “What we are currently focused on is not yet trending, but we are hoping that it becomes a trend.”
Rasti Farooq, one of the main leading actresses in the play shares the challenges of playing characters. “It is not a slapstick-comedy type play. It is comedy but it also has some dark humour,” she says.
“It is very powerful, it is touching, it becomes challenging for the actor because at some point you have to bring in some serious element to it.”
Rasti Farooq and Shazil Khan during rehearsals. Photo: LaTZ Facebook.
Farooq elaborates on the challenges of multiple characters. “The first challenging part was to play one role and then come back as a completely different person…a completely different character.”
For Shazil Khan, this was his first theatrical experience. “It has been a very therapeutic experience for me because you really have to bring yourself in if you want to put up a good show. And it has been a wonderful experience thus far working with LaTZ team because they gave me the space and platform to be the best version of myself.”
Shazil Khan (L) perfoming one of his roles in The Good Doctor. Photo: LaTZ Facebook
As for audiences catching up on performing arts such as theatrical or standup comedy, Farooq believes there is a long way to go.
“In Lahore, larger houses that cater productions form an extreme spectrum, they are either serious or they are comedy. Not a lot of people experiment in between the comedy and the seriousness.”
And that is what the LaTZ are trying to bring to stage - plays that are more than just comedy, and as Farooq says bringing ‘something else to it’.
Rasti talks about her experiences as a theater actress. “I get a thrill out of it. I have also worked in a short film but I have exclusively done more theatre work and this is the medium I enjoy doing the most.”
“As an actor whether you are working on telefilms, television or theatre, each requires different skillset,” says Khan. “For me, working in both mediums is fun.”
Speaking on the director’s efforts, both actors believe that Tughral has given them more space to bring out their characters in the play
As director, Tughral explains that he enjoyed the two months of their preparation, terming it ‘the best part of our play’.
Director Tughral during rehearsals of The Good Doctor, with the actors. Photo: LaTZ Facebook
Ijaz says that she would like people to start contributing to theatre. And that, she says, can be done when people return to theatre, to watch and to learn stories told in a way which is ‘heart to heart, personal and performed live’ in front of the audience.
She also emphasises on how sponsors need to come forward to support theatrical art with financial assistance. “Theatre is dying in Lahore, support art and performing arts,” pleads Ijaz.
Ijaz plans on taking their plays ‘Dil-e-Nadaan’ and ‘The Good Doctor’ to Karachi.
Their next play will be coming out in January 2018.
