AMATEUR THEATRICALS

When I came to American College from Madras Christian College as a lecturer in English, I had already put up several plays in MCC, including the highly acclaimed Murder in the Cathedral.

In Madurai I was expected to take over the Shansi plays, of the Oberlin Shansi group. I did just that for awhile. Most of the plays put up were hits. The Shansi reps like Julian Smith, David Gere and Sarah Lindholm were very good performers. Julian Smith later became a famous architect, and designed the satellite campus of the American college. David Gere was the younger brother of Richard Gere, the Hollywood star. After performing for awhile under the aegis of Oberlin Shansi we decided to start our own club.

It was called Curtain Club, and had as its symbol three arches which were erected on the stage too.

Some popular actors


Prominent among the Curtain Club players were Mrs.Thilaka Ratnam, the headmistress of Vikaasa School at that time, Miss.Aneena Joseph who had been my student in MCC, and was now a lecturer in Lady Doak College, and Miss.Shyamala Laxman, a lively character who was a lecturer in Fatima College.

Mr.Ernest Ratnam, the husband of Tilaka Ratnam sometimes joined the group and played roles opposite to his wife. Dr.A.R.Venkitaraman of the Chemistry department of the American College, played many roles in the Curtain Club. Prof Nedumaran played flamboyant roles much appreciated by the younger audiences. His roles in Arms and the Man and You Never can Tell were smash hits.

Julian Smith gave superb performances in Mr.Pim Passes By and An Inspector Calls. In the former he played an absent-minded bungler with hilarious effect. Another outstanding performance was by Usha Ratnam , the daughter of the Ratnams. We were performing four plays that day, and Usha had a role in one of these plays. On the final day the main player in one of these plays had to leave because of a death in the family. We didn’t know what to do, and then Usha Ratnam suddenly offered to do that role too. That was the main role, and Usha already had a major role in another play. Anyway, we rushed through a few extra rehearsals. And on the day of the performance we were all stunned by the masterful performance put up by Usha in the two plays.

A theatrical gesture


I instructed the rest of the cast to take one backward step while taking the bow in the end. I made a brief announcement about Usha’s achievement and then all the other actors and actresses took one step back, leaving Usha in the centre stage in the front.. The applause that followed was thunderously enthusiastic.

Another lively actress was Meena Balasubramaniam, who took the type of roles that Shyamala Laxman had done.Meena was a student in the first batch of MA(Eng) in American College. There was one scene in the play in which Renu Bose said that Meena would not have gone off but must be eavesdropping at the door. “I’ll prove that that at least is wrong” says Nedumaran and pulls the door open only to have Meena falling flat into the room. This scene was greeted with clamorous applause. And every time Meena fell down with great effect. She had a good role to play throughout the two years she was in the MA Class. One play, Waiting for Godot was performed in Madras, and won great laurels.

Curtain Club lasted for several years and won rave reviews in the press and great popularity among the theatre going public. It closed down when I retired in 1994. It is still fondly remembered by many.