Abi Reddy talks theatre

Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once said, "I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."

For nearly 30 years the Dubai Drama Group has tried to enthusiastically share this philosophy with its audiences, and has served as a social, cultural and artistic focal point within the city.

But times have never been easy and having been somewhat nomadic for several years, DDG was finally given a home at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre (DUCTAC) in the Mall of the Emirates. It was the drama group itself, with Brian Wilkie at the helm, which instigated the idea of building the facility with a view to having a permanent base.

They worked hard to find the funding to bring the dream to realisation.This sort of persistence and drive to bring local-based theatre to regional audiences is why the Dubai Drama Group has survived and still has a fruitful relationship with DUCTAC.

All their productions are performed under its roof, either in the 556-seat main auditorium or the 200-seat studio theatre. But, as with so many things art-related here, funding is a continual bugbear.

Enter Abi

This is where Abishek Reddy (or Abi, as his friends know him) enters – stage left, you might say. As new treasurer and committee member, he is one of a small team who hope to transform the Dubai Drama Group into a prosperous and established staple of Dubai's cultural scene.

He came to Dubai only about a year and a half ago from the UK on the invitation of his uncle, having previously worked in New York running and promoting theatre workshops and generally indulging himself in the thriving and diverse art scene in the city.

He says of his arrival in Dubai, "At that time the [DUCTAC] theatre here had recently opened, so it was quite coincidental really. I found the drama group through an old colleague and went along and got cast as an extra. I sort of fell into producing."

He first fell into theatre after studying four years of hotel management and a year of international management at MSc level, and has also worked in e-marketing and business development, but of producing Abi says, "I've gone the management route, if you like.

It's been a hobby, but it's more full-time now. Not many people can say that they're doing something they love. I have a great passion for theatre anyway. I've had it from an early age and it was something that I wanted to pursue, but obviously I had to have a stable job. I'm enjoying the opportunity to produce now. It's a great feeling."

Amateur hour

With The Importance of Being Ernest, Twelve Angry Men and now Art under his belt, Abi (alongside the other committee members) is now concentrating on taking DDG to a more secure footing. "Right now, we're going through a revamp and re-branding," he explains.

"Art is the start of it. Last year we picked up the pace and put on four shows. We want to build on that. When asked if future plans include taking the DDG towards being a more professional group, Abi is obviously concerned about retaining the original amateur roots of the company.

"We want to keep the DDG accessible, so we're probably not going to go straight from amateur to professional. We still want to have people who have that love of theatre to be involved, and if we make it professional straight away I'm afraid that we're going to lose them. We'll become exclusive. It would be great to see the DDG becoming something akin to the Dubai Repertory Company. It would still be accessible: we'd always have a bank of actors, but we'd still hold open auditions."

On the up

The city's arts scene is still very much in its infancy. A growing number of galleries, small music venues and arts centre spaces are appearing on the scene, as are a selection of theatres. But the idea of a repertory theatre company based in Dubai and consisting of expat as well as local talent has yet to emerge.

That is where Abi sees the DDG heading: "We need something like that as well as a home-grown professional theatre company. They can support each other. With the re-branding we will be working towards that goal.

With the new chairman, Hugh Grant (no, not that Hugh Grant) we will be working on getting DDG on track."

The foundations are already being laid. The DDG has gradually moved away from being purely the stage for European expat thespians that it once was.

Abi comments, "In terms of the participants it's a mixed demographic. For the last show, Twelve Angry Men we cast men and women of all nationalities – Australian, British, Bahraini, Pakistani, as well as emiratis. With Ernest we cast two Aussies in the lead roles! It's not just UK or European expats; it's slowly attracting a wider demographic."

In Art the three-hander cast consisted of one Emirati (Mohammad al Sudairy) and two Indian expats (Gautam Goenka, who also directed, and Rohit Prakash), which inevitably encourages audiences of diverse cultural backgrounds to attend as well.

"I think it would be great if we could do local Arabic shows or English Arabic stories," says Abi. "It would open the audience demographic up as well."

Open door policy

The DDG has always had an open door policy to anyone who wants to participate. "It's finding the talent," Abi continues, "which is why we always hold open auditions.

We are always looking for talent. But we don't necessarily go to casting agencies; we just put an ad in the local press or, while we're writing up our current play, we'll announce the next production and audition dates."

And the policy doesn't stop with actors. The stage door is also open to budding designers, producers, backstage crew, directors and playwrights.

"If a director comes to us and says 'I want to put this play on', we'll read it. We're looking for originality, and whether it will get the audiences in, whether it's entertaining."

"Original pieces are always great – something that's never been performed before. We'll talk to the director and find out how they propose to do the piece, ask them how they think audiences will react, so we get more of a feel as to whether we want to put it on as a group, and whether it's suitable. We welcome new directors who want to learn or producers who want to produce a play, and there is always someone on the committee to help them out and guide them."

Supporting the arts

When asked what he believes is crucial to surviving as an art institution, apart from the obvious financial requirements, Abi responds without pause: "Supporting new talent, whether it be actors or directors or producers. And nurturing their creativity, supporting them however we can and building long-term relationships, because ultimately they're the people who are going to keep coming back to you with the creative stuff and who are going to push you forward. They will also be the ones to keep the sponsors onboard as well; if I was a sponsor I wouldn't want to be putting my money into something that's been done before. It is all about finding all these elements and giving the creatives the opportunity to grow."

So as a breeding ground for new talent across the theatrical spectrum, the DDG would appear not only to be crucial to the future development of arts in the region but key to the social fabric of the city, especially as there are also medium- to long-term plans to make DDG expand its activities to include outreach projects and possibly theatre-in-education.

"I'd love to have a residential summer school – a week's writing course from conception to performance – something along those lines. Maybe do Shakespeare in the park and find unique performance venues, such as performing in art galleries," Abi adds.

But before this happens, the housekeeping has to be done and the all-important question of financial stability needs to be addressed. "We're currently looking for sponsors – long-term as well," says Abi who holds the company's purse-strings. "The financial situation is that we've got some money but obviously we could do with more to put on more shows.

We had some minor sponsorship for Art, but we are also looking for larger long-term sponsors who are looking to support the group as a whole, so when DDG put the shows on there's a permanent backer. There is no reason why they won't sponsor us if they're looking to support the arts, which is a growing industry.

Here it's still new and developing, and there is a lot of opportunity to get in early and be part of it."

There is no doubt that the opportunities are vast in a city which, over the next few years, will see a burgeoning art culture with developments such as Studio City, the Media Production Zone, opera houses, arts centres, and museums all coming online. "I am very optimistic about the arts in the region.

I like where it's going," Abi smiles. "I'm really glad to be a part of it. Just seeing auditions as well – there is a large pool of talent out there. You've also got all those zones coming up and with Bawadi, I have heard there are going to be about 15 to 20 theatres there as well. So it's slowly happening and it's good to be at the grassroots level and helping to build that up."

Looking ahead

The way the DDG wants to go forward at the present time, though, is to produce four main shows a year – well-known pieces whether they are large or small scale, but also throughout the year to have two-man plays, or monologues, or dinner theatre where people are entertained with monologues while they indulge their palate.

"We don't want to be really mainstream," Abi is careful to add, "We want to have that originality as well with smaller shows like Talking Heads. I personally want to see playwrights such as Tennessee Williams performed out here."

But in order to get to the performance stage at the moment requires a lot of people to give their time and services voluntarily. DUCTAC is, and always has been, very supportive in offering rehearsal space and, obviously, the theatres to the DDG, but being unfunded themselves, their resources are also limited.

In order that the DDG and DUCTAC can survive, develop and nurture future artistic talent, whether amateur or professional, they need the backing of investors or philanthropists.

Abi says, "If anybody has a rehearsal or performance space, would like to sponsor the company or would like to get involved in any other capacity they can get in touch with me and it would be great to have them involved."

And on the topic of Dubai as an upcoming cultural centre: "I do see it becoming like London and New York where you've got fringe theatre, Broadway and off-Broadway," Abi responds.

"That sort of thing will be great with touring companies coming over. And the Dubai Drama Group will be one of the companies here. We'll have an amateur company and a home-grown professional company as well."

If you want to become involved in any capacity with Dubai Drama Group, contact Abi at: abi_reddy @ hotmail.com