nagpur the citys theatre scenario is taking a back seat not because of lack of quality artistes its because of the poor infrastructure and an equally poor maintenance of auditoriums a decline in the number of plays staged in the city tells the talevikash khurana a wellknown name on the citys theatre circuit painted a sorry picture when he said nagpur has many auditoriums that are meant to promote art and culture most of the auditoriums are illequipped and poorlymaintained they do not provide a good theatre experience to the audience the minimum charges to get an auditorium on rent is rs44000 this amount is much higher than the entire production cost for any theatre group the money they charge is only for one slot if we have a twoday show then the charges get doubled up to rs8800 on one occasion our show was cancelled because a political party required the auditorium apart from seasoned artistes good lighting quality sound an impressive stage and green rooms are needed to make any play a success my theatre group once booked the vasantrao deshpande hall we paid a handsome amount for a days show during the sound check and rehearsals it was brought to our notice that there is no generator in the auditorium we had to pay from our pockets to hire one we did not want to take a risk because the play was scheduled for a sunday we didnt even get proper access to electricity inside the auditorium said khuranathe sczcc has its headquarters in the city but it doesnt have a wellequipped auditorium the other auditoriums do not have the muchdesired facilities but their charges are exorbitant once we had booked a hall for a theatre performance it was a school program and i had helped them to set up the play with students the authorities of the auditorium had assured us of a good sound system but unfortunately we relied on them due to the absence of a sound engineer and no professional to take care of the lights and sound the show came to an abrupt halt midway the artistes and the audience were stunned that day i experienced a failed production on stage for the first time it would have been a bad experience for any producer added khuranaa few auditoriums in the city offer affordable rates but parking is a big issue spectators have to park their vehicles inside central mall they have to walking from the mall to the auditorium which is quite a task said khuranathe other auditoriums such as scientific society hall are booked on a daily basis for repeat programs but seats which are in bad shape dirty corridors and unhygienic lavatories make it undesirable for groups performing at the venue we had to bring our own sweepers to sweep the stage the auditoriums are not soundproof and are mostly given for weddings and family functions these hurdles affect the performance of the artistes they get disturbed and the