Volume 7: Short Plays and Sketches

The principle of economy of force applies even at the stage of conceiving a play. Many good ideas can be put across on the stage in a short play or a one-act play. They need not be put on the rack and stretched to a full length script. (It is cruelty to the audience.) This is the reason so many full length plays in English in India are bright and attractive in the first half an hour and run out of steam after the intermission. Not surprisingly many movie scripts are the same.We have avoided the label one-act plays, preferring to call this compilation short plays. One-act plays had a historical context in the West, and served that context well. The context is different today, especially in countries like India where the ecosystem of theatre performances makes its own demands on the performers. The short play has a legitimate place here. A one-act play will qualify as a short play, but not all short plays are one-act plays. And then there are the sketches. How does one define a sketch? Theatre folks have not found a satisfactory definition yet! The last sketch in this Volume, Ringaling, has no spoken word. It is done entirely with moves and sound effects - a wide variety of ring tones of mobile phones.