The
First International Theatre & Dance Festival, was the first
of its kind to be held in Pakistan, through the gigantic effort
put in by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop. Pakistani theatre,
over the last forty years, has made a steady progress to warrant
the holding of a theatre festival in which companies and groups
from all over the world participate and share their creative
experiences with the local groups. This proliferation of theatre
activity has included comedies and farces, ever so successful
commercially, and off beat plays meant for a smaller but a more
serious audience.
The
Festival comprised plays both of foreign and local theatre companies,
exhibition of theatrical masks, puppets, and posters and a series
of lectures and workshops on the problems facing theatre in
particular and the performing arts in general.