Probir Guha in the year 1977 at khardaha a suburb town around 20 km from Kolkata. And later in the year 1990 it was renamed and re-registered as Alternative Living Theatre. The group was formed with an earnest resolution to keep on trying against social odds. It was determined that the group would never do anything to entertain people, but the sole purpose was to build social and human awareness.
It believes that theatre is not a sale able product; instead it is a weapon by which people can revolt and bring out a change in the system. The group started performing at a very small school classroom; it was a clear decision from the group that they would not face an urban crowd, because they were dealing with the problems of the marginalized people who lived in the rural areas. So instead of heading towards the city they started penetrating villages and interiors. Another problem popped up, the theatre going on in the cities are written and presented in a way to satisfy the urban crowd, but the poor villagers couldn’t understand it. It was a challenge for the group to come out of it, and they did that with a different form of presentation, very simple but aesthetically. Hence the group has discarded monotonous grammatical acting and has experimented and evolved a new aesthetic of theatre where physicality is their means of communication. The group worked at the school in khardaha for nearly 10 years and a lot of people were the spectators. Theatre giants from the country and abroad filled the small room along with the common people. The group started giving workshops on its theology to a like minded groups. Later on it build it’s residential workshop and rehearsal space name “AKHRA” at Madhyamgram, where students from India and abroad comes to learn.
