Awami Theatre Fest gets under way.

KARACHI -- The annual Awami Theatre Festival (ATF) has began in the Arts Council's amphitheatre with the play Gold Medal directed by Shakil Shah.

A decent number of theatre enthusiasts turned up to watch the inaugural ceremony of the event.

Talking to Dawn about the crux of the opening play, Mr Shah said, 'I have both written and directed Gold Medal. The story revolves around a retired teacher, a gold medallist, played by myself. There's a beautiful message being conveyed through the story which is 'those who respect their teachers achieve success in life'.'

Apart from Mr Shah, the cast included Zakir Mastana, Pervez Siddiqui and Shani Azeem.

Earlier, addressing the audience, the council's president Ahmed Shah talked about the difficult times that the artist community had to go through due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He touched upon the idea put forward by Culture Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah about artists getting [health] insurance. 'Most of them have got the insurance, but still there is a considerable number who have not. I am sure you are working on it.'

He added that a majority of the artists face the issue of putting food on the table for their children, which the council is trying to address.

Mr Sardar Shah in his speech said a couple of years ago...