3 min readPuneMar 25, 2026 10:18 PM IST
After being afraid throughout her childhood, a woman is going through her adult years pretending to be rid of her demons. As the play, Phish and Chips unfolds, she realises that “reality does not knock, it kicks down the door”. In another play, Schrodingerchi Manjar, there are some truths about a man and murders that “exist in more than one state at once, until observed”. The Missing Ingredient is about a young chef struggling to perfect a simple dish that just refuses to come together.
Being held at The Box Hub Pune till March 27, these are some of the plays that are a part of the Expressions Lab Solo Festival, an event aimed at showcasing more than just stories. Pradeep Vaidya, who conceptualised the programme six years ago, was responding to a problem that theatre audiences rarely see. He knew of a lot of men and women, who seriously wish to take up acting, either to follow in the footsteps of a Bollywood actor or to become a part of the stage. They rarely get the platform to be inducted into the art form. Most of the hopefuls are from outside Pune.
“They needed to understand the medium, their own talent and every aspect of storytelling on stage in the best way, the best way possible,” he says. Usually, such hopefuls will approach a well-known theatre director. A director, who is creating a play, normally relies on established or known talent and it is rare that an absolute newcomer, with no knowledge of acting, gets a chance.
Vaidya thought that teaching the new performers about solo performance and facilitating their journey into theatre so that the latter could develop their own solo expressions, would be the best thing he could do. This year, 30 participants enrolled for the programme covering an age group of 13 to 63. Over eight months, they developed their solo expression, which began with identifying or shortlisting concepts, and building a script and creating solo performances. At every stage, they were mentored.
Expression Lab Solo Festival comprises the solos, most of which are then awarded performance grants that help them sustain the production. This year, the performance grants are being given by the California Arts Association, a 25-year-old organisation formed by NRI theatre artists from the US.
SOLO 6, the name of the event to commemorate the sixth edition, celebrates talent that might otherwise be unseen. Lavanya Gupta, whose play, Dohri Zindagi, opened the festival on Tuesday, was for the first time in their life on stage. There were 40 people in the audience, watching rapt as Gupta told the story of a protagonist, Juhi, who learns the hard way that the world is not made of rosy dreams. She narrates her regrets, perhaps, seeking change as she navigates a way towards a finale.
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