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The
play 'To Mee Navech' is a courtroom Drama and the author has used
the technique of flashback scenes for narration. This calls for
frequent shuttling between the Court Room the present and the various
other scenes from the past. The operational problems in actually
depicting this on stage were daunting and the first Director hit
upon a solution that was considered novel in those days. He divided
the stage in two parts, and used two separate curtains to cover
them. These curtains would go up and down alternately and cover
and uncover the two halves as required. This enabled the stage behind
the stage behind the closed half curtain to be set while the narrative
progressed on the other half of the stage.
A few
years later, the rights to 'To Mee Navech' passed into the hands
of Atre Theatres. The owner of this Company, the playwright Mr.
Atre insisted on a new style of presentation. Panshikar applied
himself to the problem and came up with a true winner the 'Revolving
Stage'. After conceiving the idea, he made a model. The stage was
painstakingly fabricated by Mr. Mhadba Mistry at his 'Vishwas Engineering
Works' Kolhapur. He was ably assisted by Mr. Shamrao Salokhe and
Mr. Rajaram Chavan. This is the world's first portable Revolving
stage. The credit for this invention goes to Prabhakar Panshikar
and thereby to Marathi Theatre.
1966
- Natya Sampada hit upon its first success with 'Ashrunchi Zaali
Phule', a play written by Prof. Vasant Kanetkar. Panshikar designed
the 'Sliding Stage' for this play and further enriched the process
of technical development of Marathi Theatre.
1967
- Panshikar produced a Musical play 'Katyar Kaljat Ghusli', written
and directed by Mr. Purushottam Darvhekar. Panshikar designed a
'Triple Revolving Stage' specially for it.
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