All the world's a stage. said the Bard. But their 45 minutes on stage became the world for the 100-odd participants of the seven teams who qualified for the finals of Kshitij, the one-act play competition, on the second day at Pepsi-Verve '99. These teams were selected from 24 teams at the elimination rounds held on January 20 and 21 at Bharati Vidya Bhavan.Aided only by pre-recorded music and props (which had to be provided by the college), the finalists put up some great performances which held the spectators at the ground auditorium in awe.The finals began with an intense Marathi drama, Hallucinations, by the students of COEP, which focussed on a novelist who has a series of hallucinations, which finally lead him to commit suicide.The next team to perform was MIT, which put up Bhikmange, a tragedy - another brilliant performance. The plays which followed were in Marathi with Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth performing Stop That, ILS Law College - Ahilya, VIT - Eka Shwaasacha Antar, College of Agriculture - Asahi Ek Samvad, wrapping up with Tilak Ayurved Mahavidyalaya's Partners. Though some of the plays seemed amateur at certain instances, the overall impression of Kshitij was that it was quite professional, what with one of the teams having won a state-level award for their play.The four judges were noted playwright and director Shrirang Godbole, Meera Ranade, a member of Sai Paranjpe's production team, Jayashree Kuber, former drama producer, AIR, and Raghavendranath Chouhan, vice-president, Poona District Amateur Aquatic Association. The plays were judged on their stage set-up, theme, impact, expressions and coordination.
