Nona and Item bag META 'best play' awards

The theatre fraternity came together in the national Capital for a red-carpet awards gala at the 13th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) festival. Promoted by the Mahindra Group as part of its cultural outreach programmes, and curated by Teamwork Arts, the week-long extravaganza came to an end as the best of the year from Indian theatre were awarded the coveted META at the gala awards night at Kamani Auditorium on Thursday.

For the first time in META history, two plays, Nona and Item, bagged the award for Best Play. Leading the awards tally, Nona bagged a total of four awards including Best Director (Jino Joseph), Best Stage Design (Jino Joseph) and Best Light Design (Sajas Rahman and Abid PT). This is the second victory for Jino Joseph at META who won the 2015 META for Best Director, Best Production and Best Original Script with Matthi.

A first-time entrant at META, Kshitish Date (Natak Company) won the Best Play for Item along with co-artiste, Sainath Ganuwad who won the META for Best Actor in a Lead Role (Male) for his brilliant portrayal of L. Rakesh, the on-stage narrator of the play. The Umbilical Theatre (Hojang Taret), also a first-time entrant to META walked away with three awards. The Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) was also presented to Srishti Shrivastava from Shikhandi: The Story of the In-Betweens.

Eminent theatre veteran, Vijaya Mehta was conferred with the META Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Indian theatre. In a message to META and to theatre artists as well as audiences, she said, "I love and admire the generation shaping the art world and theatre today. I find them smart, wise and aware - perhaps in a different way from my own generation of the 1950s of the pre and post-Independence period. It is nice to know that young people are recognising and are aware of my work."