GCU Dramatics Club
The Club was established in 1890’s during the tenure of Prof. Bell and Mr. Dallinger as Principal of the College. In that period the Club mostly staged scenes from Shakespearean plays but this was seldom of elaborate nature.
Prof. G.D SondhiProf. Bell
By the turn of the century, GCDC not only was staging English plays but also plays in Sanskrit, Urdu and Punjabi. In 1902, the Club performed Kali Das’s Shakuntala, the play was such a big success that it was performed again the next year. The Club grew steadily and in 1924 at the Golden Jubilee celebrations it presented Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The people who witnessed the play included The British Governor of Punjab and the elite of the city. GCDC also presented melodramas of Agha Hashr, which were very popular in those days. During this time many great names were associated with the Club which included Rafi Peer, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Hakim Ahmad Shuja, and Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj. Imtiaz Ali Taj’s association with GCDC was special. In those days, male students used to perform female characters as well. Taj sahib used to perform female roles with such perfection that no one could ever recognize that it was a male who was performing the role. There is a famous joke that once a male student wrote a love letter to him. During this time students enjoyed watching college teachers performing different roles especially female roles.
During the 1940’s the Club rapidly developed and it was mainly due to the association of Prof. G.D Sondhi and Prof. Ahmad Shah Bukhari Patras. Prof. Sondhi and Prof. Bukhari both staged Hamlet and performed the role of Hamlet with perfection. The Vice Chancellor of Punjab University at that time performed the role of the Ghost. When Prof. Sondhi came back from England after his higher studies he envisaged many modem innovations for GCDC.
After partition, the glorious tradition continued and many illustrious people have been associated with the Club which include Prof Qayoom Jojo, Sonu Rehman, Mohammad Safdar Mir, Naeem Tahir, Shoaib Hashmi, Rasheed Umer Thanvi, Sarmad Sehbai, Usman Peerzada, Imran Peerzada, Prof. Khalid Masood Siddiqi, Prof Irshad Ali, Prof. Rafiq Mahmood and many others. The Club produced plays like “Men Without Shadows†by Sartre, Tartuffe by Moliere, Kaufman and Moss Hart’s The Man Who came to Dinner and You can’t Take it With You. People like Sarmad Sehbai also delved in experimental plays and produced Dark Room. Arthur Miller’s famous play Death of a Salesman was staged twice at GC. The nature of the play is such that even in USA not very many people dare to stage it but both the time when it was staged i.e. in 1973 and 2005 it was a great success. In 2005 the Governor of Punjab General Khalid Maqbool witnessed the performance and was immensely impressed by the professional quality of the amateur students. In March 2005 the Club organized Ashfaq Ahmed Drama Festival to pay tribute to the great dramatist Ashfaq Ahmed. Five different institutions form Lahore participated in the three day long event where GC University Dramatics Club staged Fehmida Ki Kahani Ustani Rahat Ki Zubani. In 2006 Eugene lonesco’s Exit the King’s Urdu translation was staged. In November 2006, the Club performed Sawan Rome Da Sufa, an Urdu/Punjabi adaptation of Shakespear’s A Mid Summer Nights Dream, and bagged maximum number of awards. The awards were given in the category of Best Actor Female, Best Actor in a Comic Role and Best Director.
The year 2007 was very hectic and fruitful for the Club as this year GCUDC staged four plays which included G.B Shaw’s You Never Can Tell, William Shakespeare’s A Mid Summer Night’s Dream’s Urdu Punjabi adaptation Sawan Rein Da Sufna, Bano Qudsia’s Amar Bail and Ashfaq Ahmed’s Behen Bhai. The biggest achievement of the Club in 2007 was organizing the Pakistan-India Inter Collegiate Drama Festival in March in which three colleges of India and institutions from all the four provinces of Pakistan participated. The event was a huge success and was widely covered by electronic and print media of Pakistan and India. In November 2007, on the invitation of Delhi University, GC University, Dramatics Club’s team toured India and performed two plays, Bano Qudsia’s Amar Bail and Ashfaq Ahmed’s Behen Bhai at three colleges of Delhi and at India Habitat Centre. Both the plays received excellent reviews from print and electronic media of India. This year GCUDC is staging Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
The most important feature of GC University Dramatics Club has always been that it never seeks professional help. It provides a platform to its students to grow and explore themselves and this particular feature of GCUDC is unmatched.
