Welcome to META
Ravi Dubey, Creative Director
“To look for excellence is to look for a peak in the distance. As you come closer, it gets higher and more difficult to reach. And when you get very close, you get lost in its foothills and cannot see the peak at all. I have cheated and stolen that unabashedly and inaccurately from what Mr. G.K Chesterton once said, I think, about the pursuit of truth. But, be that as it may, such indeed is the story of the search for excellence in theatre. And, hence, our story in the first five years of META.
I cannot, with any gumption, claim that we are anywhere near the peak. But I do think that we have navigated the trees at the foothills, crossed the rocks and other forbidding obstacles, steered a clear path, and are on our way on an upward journey. We have moved from a few to a large number of geographies and languages – that I can say; we have a process which is unbiased, honest, rigorous and committed – that I can say; the upliftment of theatre in India with all its collaterals is our only motivation – that I can say; we have begun a journey – that I can say; we have still further to go – that, too, I can say.
Having established a framework over five years in India, the need to create an international exchange with similar institutions overseas has now become an imperative. Quite unnoticeably, we have been exposing META to visitors from overseas over the past few years and the responses have been very encouraging. In our sixth year we hope to be in the international arena and re-invent ourselves on the global platform.
All of this is gradually building up the tempo towards the creation of the grand Mahindra Academy For Excellence in Theatre. This might well be the peak or summit that we are now beginning to get a glimpse of, and that we had always had in mind. Separate faculties for separate disciplines of the theatre – carpentry, stage design, costume design, script writing, direction, lights design, acting, stage management….the less said about it the better. It will come!”
