Dinesh
Sandaruwan is an amateur dramatist who is about to stage his debut drama
direction, ‘Blood Wedding’.
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| Pix by Ravindra Dharmathilake |
Few months ago, when Gayan Randeera, Director
of Johnge Sattuwatta,
spoke to The Nation,
he said that he found the ideal person for the character of John. Johnge Sattuwatta is a Sinhala adaptation of The Zoo Story which was originally titled
Peter and Jerry by American playwright Edward Albee in 1958.
John is an isolated and disheartened
man who failed to build any form of relationship with others. Although his
appearance perfectly fits John’s character, this young actor claims that he is
not isolated and the people of the university love him as he loves them in
return. “They love me not because I am an actor or I make occasional television
appearances. They love me for the friendship we have and the good relationship
we maintain,” Dinesh Sandaruwan said. He added that the value of human
relationships is more important to him than anything else.
Sandaruwan
stepped into popular theater through Johnge Saththu Watta. Jonhge Sathuthu Watta has been staged over 20 times and its lead actor,
Sandaruwan said that they were delighted by the feedback and participation. During
this short period he has been active in the field, he played the main role of Wisekariyo (Lysistrata-Aristophnes) directed by Priyankara Ratnayake.
Sandaruwan has also contributed to Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka’s Makarata since
2012.
Dinesh
Sandaruwan is a product of the Kelaniya
University. He sat for
his Bachelors in Arts special degree final exams early this year. He is from
Dewalegama, Kegalle. “My village is beautiful, surrounded by mountains. I
didn’t know about theater productions in the city outside the mountain range.
Village dramas were different,” he recalled.
Sandaruwan said that he had loved the arts and culture in his village since
childhood, but always suspected that there was art beyond this. He received his
primary education from Bamunugama Maliyadewa Vidyalaya, Kegalle and attended
Parakramabhahu National School, Polgahawela for the Advanced Level Examination.
“Later
I met a teacher called Hemachandra Piyadasa and I was inspired by his work. When
I got to know that I could study drama for my Advanced level Examination I was
more than happy,” Sandaruwan said. He said that he had to move to another
school because he wanted to study drama. “As a child I planned to have a carrier
in the arts field. It was my hobby and I dreamt of doing my best as a
professional in the field,” he added.
Backed
by the motivation he received as an actor on stage, he will be staging his
debut direction Niyangala
Premaya (Blood
Wedding) in October. Blood Wedding is a tragedy by Spanish dramatist Federico
García Lorca written in 1932. “Blood Wedding was first directed for the final project at
the university. Considering the feedback received, I thought it would be better
for a public audience,” said Sandaruwan.
Speaking
further about Niyangala
Premaya he said that this drama has been produced before, under the
supervision of the veteran dramatist Kaushalya Fernando as Sanda Langa Maranaya.
“One may ask why we chose a pre-produced drama. Firstly this was produced for
the university and secondly we wanted to see what we can do on our own with the
script,” he said. The budding
director said that it suited his drama group’s ideologies and he always admired
García Lorca’s work. “García
Lorca’s work always won my heart. Most of his work reflected
on Spanish folk culture and we had to look into ways to adapt it according to our
society,” he said adding that the drama ‘Blood Wedding’ speaks about human
relationships deeply and makes the audience question the social norms.
When
he was asked how he was taking up the challenge of directing a stage play he
said that he doesn’t find it too difficult. “This maybe because I have acted
under skilled directors,” he said. He believes that directing is a way of
expressing himself. “We all have a vision of our own. A director will choose
the best script which suits their ideologies and make an attempt to express
themselves through the actors,” he explained. He also said that the best way to
express them is to create an autonomous script. “Blood Wedding started to
satisfy a university need. I have already started to write an autonomous
script; a political comedy. Hopefully, it will be named as Political Heenaya,”
he said.
Sandaruwan
pointed out that school education is not sufficient to understand theater.
Common perception in the society is that drama and theater is not a field in which
a person can earn money. “People are made to think that actors are those who
they see on television everyday. My view too was similar to this until I
studied the subject,” he said. “A person can make money doing drama. But a
dramatist cannot do whatever he or she wants to for the sake of making money.
Yet there are people who are making money doing whatever they want,” he added.
However, he said that there are instances where people lose all their money
doing dramas. “Sometimes dramatists get wretched. But we are a group who has
studied the subject deeply. We are the specialists. If we are to leave this to
earn money, who will be there to save the field?” he raised a question.
He
further explained the responsibility of a dramatist. According to Sandaruwan, a
director and a scriptwriter are responsible for each and every word said on
stage. “If the dramatists fake their work, the audience will know. They have to
be honest with their work. Unlike teledrama, a stage play cannot be staged
without proper rehearsals,” he pointed out.
He also said that there are three
types of groups in the audience. “When a drama is staged one group enjoys it
for its outline story. The next group whose intelligence level is superior to
the previous group tries to seek the underlying meaning,” he stressed. “There
is another group; the most intelligent, they seek for the politics and the
psychology of the drama,” he added.
According to him, the dramatist should
be skilled enough to satisfy all three groups. “Dramatist must know which
audience he is targeting. Although there are dramas which is said to be
addressing all audiences; children, youth or adults, I don’t think it is
successful,” Sandaruwan opined.
He
also spoke about the barriers to entering the acting field. He said that he has
tried to pursue a career as a teledrama actor, yet was demotivated because of
the disappointments and the hardship of breaking into the field as an amateur.
“One should either have connection with powerful people or money. Or else it is
hard for a person from middle class to become an artiste. The doors are closed
for them,” he lamented. “The only other possible route is through university
education. Through university education you get the opportunity to strengthen
skills and build the necessary relationships,” is how he expressed his grief.
He said that a person concluding school education doesn’t have the capabilities
to pursue a professional carrier in any field. “University education is a must
if a person wants to become a professional,” Sandaruwan added.
Although
he is satisfied with the university curriculum, Sandaruwan lamented that the
situation at schools is not satisfactory at all. “It’s not the subject matter,
it’s the teachers assigned. Most of the time there aren’t specialized teachers
to teach the subject,” he emphasized. “Sinhala language teachers or the dancing
teachers at school have to teach drama too,” he pointed out. According to him
when the teachers have not studied the subject, they are not interested about
the subject. “No one can guarantee that the students are getting 100 percent of
what the syllabus has recommended. If
the student doesn’t have tuition, he will be devastated,” he said. “Although the government doesn’t look into
the qualifications of the private tuition masters, sometimes that’s where the
child receives complete education,” he added. He also said that the university
education is different to this that the lecturers don’t spoon-feed the students
with the subject matters. “But since we were pampered and spoon-fed in the
school education system, sometimes the student oriented education system
becomes very difficult,” Sandaruwan emphasized. “Therefore some lecturers have
to spoon-feed the students at the university level too. The numbers of students
who refer to library books have decreased. Sometimes it is the photocopied notes
which help the students to get through the examinations,” he iterated adding
that these issues don’t receive the attention of authorities.
The
availability of jobs for the special degree holders is not satisfactory in
Sandaruwan’s opinion. Majority of graduates pursue jobs as teachers while
another percentage joins the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Some jobs are
available at the Maharagama National Youth Council too. “Many prefer teaching
since there are more benefits like free time to carry out their own creations during
the free evenings,” he said. “Majority of the general drama degree holders also
become teachers. Therefore is it worth for the special degree holders too to
become a school teacher? Why did they specialize on the subject if they just
wanted to become school teachers?” he queried.
He
said that one of the major reasons that the producers aren’t much interested in
stage plays is that they have a doubt about profits. “There are stage play
coordinators but no producers. They try to divide the sponsorship. Sometimes
it’s the director who sponsors his play,” he said. “Yet sponsors are ready to
sponsor teledramas or films since the profits are quicker and it comes easily.
They can sell their products to the media institutions,” he reiterated.
“However, producers are not artistes, they are businessman investing money for
profits,” he added. He emphasized that this is why the theater productions are
rare and many among these rare production are cheap productions.
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