15th META awards to be online affair

The 15th edition of Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) will be given to the best of the best in theatre at what is claimed to be the first-of-its-kind "virtual award ceremony" on Aug 30. The three-week-long celebration of theatre, starting with a Theatre Critics Conference on Aug 10, will culminate with the online award ceremony honouring thespians and theatre personalities across 13 categories.

Organised by Mahindra Group and Teamwork Arts, the META 2020 festival was earlier scheduled for March this year, but was later postponed due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19. "The show must go on. We rise to the challenges thrown up by the pandemic and I applaud the entire theatre community for coming together at this difficult time. META 2020 is going to be a first-of-its kind virtual awards ceremony for theatre in the country. My humble appeal to everyone is to support theatre and theatre artistes by logging on to events online, as this year, the rules for the 'new normal' are all in a digital idiom," Jay Shah, Vice President, Head – Cultural Outreach at the Mahindra Group, said.

This year's META will also see the launch of the first-ever published edition of the 'META Best Original Script', and a tribute to the META 2020 Lifetime Achievement Awardee Barry John. The jury for the 15th META comprises renowned playwright, stage director and filmmaker Mahesh Dattani, acclaimed playwright and novelist Makarand Sathe, veteran actress and a teacher of speech and drama Sushma Seth, actor-writer Vinay Pathak, and film, television and theatre actor-director Lillete Dubey.

Earlier in the year, META 2020 received over 385 entries which were scrutinised by the Selection Committee and was pruned to a final list of 10 nominations. The nominated plays give a diverse flavour of India's eclectic theatre scene and include plays in multiple languages such as Hindi, English, Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Assamese (blended with gibberish) and a non-verbal play.

Nominations feature five productions from Maharashtra, two from Kerala and one each from Assam, Delhi and West Bengal. The short-listed plays are: "Chaheta" (Hindustani), "Ekadashavtar" (Marathi), "Mickey" (Marathi), "Every Brilliant Thing" (English), "For The Record" (English and Hindi), "The Old Man" (Assamese), "Gagan Damama Bajyo" (Hindi), "Bhaskara Pattelarum Thommiyude Jeevithavum" (Malayalam), "Ghoom Nei" (Bengali) and "Maze" (non-verbal).

The awards will be presented in 14 categories including the Lifetime Achievement Award alongwith 13 competitive categories of Best Play, Best Director, Best Stage Design, Best Light Design, Best Innovative Sound Design, Best Costume Design, Best Actor in a Lead Role (Male), Best Actor in a Lead Role (Female), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female), Best Original Script, Best Ensemble and Best Choreography..

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