Tiatr Academy Goa has celebrated the birth Anniversary ofJoao Agostinho Fernandes on 14th December. He is the tallest personality of thetiatr stage. There is no other person whose work can be compared to that of Mr.Fernandes. Truly dedicated to tiatr he did not only restrict his activities towrite,stage tiatrs, compose and sing songs, he went much ahead of others. Heused the facilities available at that time to preserve tiatr forposterity.
Lucasinho Ribeiro innovated a new dramatic form calledtiatr, when he wrote and staged the first tiatr ‘Italian Bhurgo’ over 120 yearsago. Thus he should have been called the Father of Tiatr. However it did nothappen that way. Although Lucasinho Ribeiro was responsible to give us thatunique form, it was Joao Agostinho Fernandes who is known as ‘Pai Tiatrist’ orFather of Tiatr. The title of ‘Pai Tiatrist’ was given to Joao AgostinhoFernandes by the people, particularly the tiatr lovers of that time. Some ofthe reasons which compelled the people to call Mr. Fernandes as ‘Pai Tiatrist’may be enumerated as under:
Lucasinho Ribeiro staged the first tiatr ‘Italian Bhurgo’with the whole-hearted support from JoaoAgostinho Fernandes (JAF). Hence JAF too had a lion’s share in the staging offirst tiatr.
Lucasinho Ribeiro, Joao Agostinho Fernandes and all othertiatr writers of that time mostly adapted English or French plays and stagedthem in the tiatr form. JAF did not end his writings in adaptations andtranslations only. He thought of writing original scripts based on issuesprevailing in our society. He has 32 original scripts to his credit which dealsabout issues like relationships between bhatkar and mhundkar, alcoholism, dowryproblem, dignity of labour, etc.
He did not stop by only writing the scripts of tiatrs, butwent further and published some of his scripts of tiatrs in the form of a bookin order to preserve tiatr literature. However, even today there are manyartistes who hesitate to publish their scripts in such forms only because it isnot commercially viable.
He was a good lyricist as well as a singer too. Once againit was his vision to preserve Konkani music. He was the first singer to producean HMV record of his songs. The record which was named ‘Mirmireanchem kalliz’was produced 102 years ago, in 1910.
He was a very good human being and always ready to help theneedy. It is for this reason that he staged most of his tiatrs in aid of charitableinstitutions in Bombay as well as in Goa.
Due to all the above reasons tiatr lovers lovingly calledhim ‘Pai Tiatrist’ or the Father of Tiatr. By the time people started callingJoao Agostinho Fernandes as ‘Pai Tiatrist, they had completely forgottenLucazinho Ribeiro. It was also because Lucazinho Ribeiro passed away very sooni.e. on 23rd January 1928, while Joao Agostinho Fernandes died almost 19 yearslater i.e. on 29th August 1947. If today Lucazinho Ribeiro is remembered as thecreator of tiatr it was only because of the sincerity of Joao AgostinhoFernandes.
In 1943, JoaoAgostinho Fernandes took on his shoulders the responsibility of celebrating thegolden jubilee of Tiatr in Bombay. It was on this occasion that he wrote anarticle on the Goa Mail, a weekly in Konkani, and disclosed that it wasLucasinho Ribeiro who deserved the credit of introducing the unique format oftiatr. He even called Lucazinho Ribeiro as his master and guide.
Joao Agostinho Fernandes is the greatest icon of tiatr stage.He is a role model to our present day tiatr artistes. The present day tiatrartistes fortunately have a number of facilities to produce tiatrs ofexcellence. If we wish to serve the tiatr, its song and music with sinceritythen there is no other way but to march ahead in the footsteps of JoaoAgostinho Fernandes – the Father of Tiatr.
