''Ranga Shankara'' is one of

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

's well known theatres. It is located in the south Bangalore area of J.P Nagar and is run by the Sanket Trust. The auditorium, which opened in 2004, was envisioned by Arundathi Nag, in remembrance of her late husband, Shankar Nag, who was a renowned actor in the Kannada film industry. It aims to promote theatre in all languages and prides itself in lending out the space at an extremely low fare. It follows an at least "a play a day" policy, six days a week (except on Mondays). Its annual theatre festival brings to the city plays from across the country, giving the audience a good spread to choose from. Over 2,700 performances have been staged since inception, most of them in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, though there have been plays in 23 other languages too.

History

Shankar Nag's dream was to create a vibrant, affordable, inclusive space for theatre and theatre lovers in the city of Bengaluru. After Shankar’s tragic death in 1990, Sanket Trust, with the help of friends and lovers of theatre from all over the country, worked towards building Ranga Shankara, a premier theatre in Bengaluru. In 1994, the Government allotted a plot of land reserved for civic amenities, at JP Nagar, to the trust, on a 30-year lease. However, due to lack of funds, construction only started in 2001. The entire cost of the project of around 3 crores. was raised through contributions, ranging from 5 from ordinary theatre lovers to big sums from industrialists. The Ranga shankara complex was designed by architect Sharukh Mistry and it was opened to the public on 28 October 2004.

Objectives

Ranga Shankara is a space dedicated to theatre and resembles

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Prithvi Theatre Prithvi Theatre is one of Mumbai's best known theatres. It was built by Shashi Kapoor and his wife Jennifer Kapoor in memory of Prithviraj Kapoor, Shashi's father, who had dreamt of having a "home" for his repertory theatre company, Prithvi Th ...

. It aims to * Showcase theatrical performances from India and abroad * Produce and commission new and innovative theatre forms and productions * Facilitate outreach programmes to build audiences for theatre and to impart theatre skills. The theatre is rented out only for theatre shows that are open to the public. It does not allow private shows.

Facilities

Performing space

The auditorium has a thrust stage with a floor area of 1575 sq ft, with four green rooms and state-of-the-art sound, lighting, and technical facilities. The stage and the auditorium arrange the acoustics such that artificial amplification is not required.Ranga Shankara - The Performing Space
/ref> The auditorium is air conditioned and seats 320. For the convenience of the disabled audience, Ranga Shankara has special access facilities (an elevator, specially equipped rest room and the capacity to accommodate wheelchairs inside the auditorium).

Book Shop

Ranga Shankara has a bookshop at the front corner of its lobby. It is operated by Paperback Bookshop The collection includes many theatre and performance-related books. It also hosts special events like book launches and reading sessions.

Café

The café is open from 11am to 9pm and serves food that ranges from akki roti, sabudhana vada and bhajjis to

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