There can't be a more stimulating question than “What Is Theatre?” Many have answered it from time to time but N. Manu Chakravarthy’s earnest appeal tells us more than most arguments.
‘It is also necessary to recognize the fact that these (emergences) have the power to create new theoretical positions for Indian theatre. Indian theatre is at the crossroads today. But it also means the exciting possibility of taking a leap into futures that are unknown, uncertain and ambiguous but infinite in possibilities and brilliant in potential’
It's not surprising that Chakravarthy happens to be a professor of English, not a theatre practitioner. There's invariably better introspection happening on the periphery. The centre is always basking in the glory.
In a collective probe into a creative phenomenon that theatre is, wish we could suspend (if not drop) our respective positions as actors, directors, critics and spectators (why should the last mentioned be invariably placed at the receiving end) and regard theatre as a green space of possibilities.
Let the fulfillment reside in the possibilities somewhere.