In January this year, the Kathmandu-based Mandala Theatre, in partnership with Let’s International, organised Purbanchal Natak Yatra, a tour featuring the staging of the play Sarjameen in various cities in the east. The tour was organised, according to Mandala’s artistic director Rajan Khatiwada, “to decentralise Nepali theatre and to extend the theatre culture to various parts of the country.” Even though there are more than a handful of theatre groups currently active outside of Kathmandu, for them staging plays regularly is still a far cry; most of them resort to renting government-owned halls to stage plays. The Jhapa-based Kadam Theatre is currently raising funds to build its own theatre house. 

Amid this, Pokhara has now got a new theatre house, Gandarva Theatre, which was inaugurated this week. The theatre opened to the public with the staging of the play Sirumarani, written by Sarubhakta and directed by Somnath Khanal. The play is currently on stage every day at 4:45 pm every day, at the new space. Prior to this, the theatre artist Krishna Udasi established a theatre school in the lake city, National Art School in Lekhnath, Pokhara. As its first batch, the theatre school produced 17 theatre artists last year.