pune when citybased theatre group samanvay recently invited mumbais mercurial theatre guru satyadev dubey to conduct a series of workshops for actors in the city nobody saw it as the beginning of a new theatre movementbut last week just as the first batch of 80 students began attending the 10day workshop june 24 to july 4 dubeyji as he is fondly called by theatrewallahs realised something special was on hand more than 250 applicants most of them in their early 20s had signed up for the course forcing the organisers to divide them into three batcheslooking at this response i have lost all sleep dubeyji told the participants because i understand the performer in each of you needs work and performing space so over the next few months lets try to ensure we get performing space and ideas we have to assume we will not have the money to do so but i have managed to do theatre without money all my life i could guide you these words came as manna from heaven for the citys theatre aficionadosin a city which has been the vanguard of marathi theatre few memorable plays have been staged over the last decade most groups are struggling to retain good actors who keep running off to mumbai for a career in film and television exclaims madhav vaze of theatre group jaagar who has been associated with amateur stage in the city for over 40 years i believe we should have invited dubey to conduct a series much earlier he addsagainst this backdrop the fact that hundreds of youngsters flocked to the latest workshop series which is basically in marathihindi was a heartening signeven the organising samanvay group was pleasantly surprised the basic intention behind organising the workshops was to pass on dubeys ideas to a new generation after all samanvay was founded 10 years ago as an outcome of a similar series of dubey workshopsbut the fact that hundreds of youngsters turned up shows they care about literature and theatre and are not happy with the status quo isnt this the first sign of a new movement true some of them were attracted by dubeyjis name and others have an eye on lucrative careers in tv and cinema but dubeyjis workshops are no cakewalk he is a hard taskmaster and only the committed and talented come through even if a few of these stick to theatre its a welcome movemadhav vaze however is not so convinced whether the new initiative will lead to a fresh wave of theatre activism depends on what happens after the workshops without a plan you just groom talented youngsters who either get frustrated later for lack of work or gravitate to film or tv he cautionsdubey seems to have thought of the problem therefore the first thing he is scouting for is a venue like mumbais famous prithvi theatres or the legendary chhabildas school where theatre movements like rangayan and avishkar flourishedto begin with dubeyji proposes to import one