The stage is set for the 5thannual Deomali National Theatre Festival to commence on Saturday being hosted by the Koraput-based Nandanik theatre organisation.
The three-day event would be a virtual affair this year in view of the corona pandemic.
The schedule comprises Nandanik’s 6th Foundation Day Lecture, Asim Basu Memorial Award presentation ceremony, two webinars on theatre and seven plays in five Indian languages, Odia, Telugu, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi.
Celebrated classical dancer Sonal Mansingh would deliver the lecture on Saturday that would be followed by Asim Basu Award presentation. The award, instituted in memory of Odisha’s veteran theatre personality Asim Basu, would go to Himanshu Ranjan Mohanty of Kotpad.
The topics for deliberation during the webinars are “Theatre and Literature and “Theatre: Classical versus Folk”.
The festival this year is dedicated to the memories of theatre stalwarts Girish Karnad, Usha Ganguly, Irrfan Khan and Bijay Mohanty (who recently passed away), informed Nandanik secretary Monideepa Gupta.