That's not all. A couple of plays (which have been read at Theatre Positive) are also scheduled to open in the near future.

It all began... in April 1997. A month after a gruelling three-day play-reading festival of Indian English Plays during which four full-length and four one-acts were read. Since then, Sanjna Kapoor and Prithvi Theatre have been very keen that the theme should continue -- the playwright be placed under the spotlight and be provided a forum.

What is Theatre Positive? The expression has been coined by a highly-rated academician and intellectual in Malayalam literarycircles, TMP Nedungadi (alias Nadir Shah). Once during an abysmal production of a Habib Tanvir play at Ravindra Natya Mandir, a few of us were whispering, sniggering and shifting our weight. Nedungadi silenced us. He ordered all of us, whose "blood group was not Theatre Positive to leave the auditorium".

The idea with Theatre Positive... is to tap, a playwright for a script (preferably unperformed and unpublished, in any Indian language) and then hand it over to a director, who in turn has to organise a reading. These readings are open to the public and there is no entry fee. Post-reading, there is a discussion in which the audience interacts with the playwright, director and actors.

But there will always be criticism .... Satyadev Dubey (who read his Inshallah in December) feels Theatre Positive is excessively rule-bound. It's a valid argument. Because we would like to read all the 30-plus scripts that have been sent to us. Also, ideally, one aspires that the selection of plays and their readingto be more free-wheeling and genuinely anarchic. But to achieve this Theatre Positive will require time.

The achievement of Theatre Positive... To start with: it has survived a year. But the readings have fertilised into positive gains. For eg, there have been four productions. Also, of the 16 readings, we have witnessed two exceptional playscripts. These are: Sayaji Shinde's Tumbara, which was subsequently directed by Sunil Shanbag. And an excellent translation of Satish Alekar's Begum Barve into Gujarati by Chandrakant Shah. This translation (aptly titled Opera), magically recreated the entire Bangwadi tradition.

Then, there is the living truth of the audience who have been trickling in. This audience has an unusual demographic mix which ranges from Juhu and Matunga to Thane and Nalasopara. They are well-informed and have high expectations from the reading.

Is It Enough? This is a relevant question, which has developed on that bleak datum: Much ado about nothing. For one, readingshave existed in the past. If one looks back -- PEN (courtesy Nissim Ezekiel); and the formal readings organised by Vijay Tendulkar and Awishkar can take credit for sowing the early seeds. Even today, there is a definite trend towards play-reading.There is Nehru Centre's Samvaad (on the third Friday of the month). Then there is Chauraha at the NCPA, and Awishkar's readings (on the last Monday of the month) which is organised by Chetan Datar. However, today, the question is, what is the future. Because, as Girish Desai (who will be, shortly, organising readings of K M Munshi at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan) points out: "So far, these readings have excluded all those who don't belong."

And this is worrying. It's a chastening experience to realise that one's ideas are not upto the real thing. That these ideas are limited since one sees very little of it in real performance with actors and productions. Play readings have to be made relevant. To achieve this, a network of readings will have to grow out of theBrahminical environment. They will have to be read at schools, colleges, building-terraces, drawing rooms, etc. It's the only way to beat the system. And the theatre of star-hierarchy and the box-office. Yes, there's a lot of work still to be done. But things should be easier if your blood group is Theatre Positive.