The Rangadhara Theatre Stream was formed in the July of 1971 by a group of four theater enthusiasts, whose first production was Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT in Marathi, which won the Best Direction award and seven other awards in the Maharashtra Rajya Natya Spardha during the year 1973-74. The play was translated by Prof. Bhaskar Shewalkar and was directed by the Late Prof. Vasant Godse.
The theater group has always aimed at creative and constructive work in theater, especially to produce different forms of plays in Marathi, Hindi and Hindustani. This amateur theater group has so far produced 75 plays with over 300 performances in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, English and Telugu. Apart from Samuel Beckett, some of the other writers whose plays were translated, adapted and performed were Bertolt Brecht’s The Exception and The Rule, as Matlab Ke Is Daur Mein, Harold Pinter’s Care Taker, Edward Albee’s Zoo Story, Tankred Drost’s The Great Tirade At The City Wall as "Faseel", Max Frisch’s Fire Raisers as Aatishbaaz, Anthony Schaffer’s Sleuth as Shatranj, Philip Kings’ See How They Run as "Aagey Doudo Peche Chodo", Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal as "Prastav", Premanand Gazvi’s "Gandhi-Ambedkar",Jean Genet’s "Deathwatch", Suresh Khare’s "Aarop", Pradeep Dalvi’s Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy as Main Nathuram Godse… etc.
The Rangadhara Theatre Stream has had the rare privilege of being sponsored by Max Muller Bhavan, while the latter was active in Hyderabad. Four of the six plays that were sponsored by them belonged to the Berlin’s Grips Theater. They were Chuk Chuk Bhayya Talamtaal, translated and adapted from Volker Ludwig’s Stokerlock And Milli Pilli, Guddi, Pappu Aur Munna translated and adapted from Volker Ludwig’s MAX UND MILLI, Roy Kift’s Stronger Than Superman and Khelen To Kahan Khelen translated and adapted from Volker Ludwig’s Bizzy, Dizzy, Daffy And Arthur.
Some of the Indian writers whose works that were brought alive on stage by The Rangadhara Theatre Stream included Dr. Lakshminarayan Lal, Nirmal Verma, Badal Sircar, Sharad Joshi, Shankar Shesh, Surendra Varma, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Premanand Gazvi, Diwakar Babu, Pradeep Dalvi, Yogesh Soman, S.N.Naware etc.
Apart from the twin-cities, the group has also performed in Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Bangalore, Tiruvanantapuram, Visakhapatnam, Aurangabad, Sholapur, Nanded, Parbhani etc.
Vinay Varma was nurtured as an actor in Rangadhara, where Prof. Bhaskar Shewalkar (whom he considers his Guru) and Anant Kulkarni (one of the founders and Secretary of the group - someone who has given his sweat and salary for theater yet prefers to remain on the sidelines) gave everything they had to prepare a second-line. Vinay is a result of that effort and largely acknowledges the contributions of these two stalwarts in his theatrical and personal achievements. Personal, because as Augusto Boal said "Theater makes one a human being". This statement does not need further elaboration as most theater persons would vouch for the fact that theater has been responsible for enhancing their personal lives, and made them think like human beings.
As a tribute , Vinay, who was instrumental in setting up Sutradhar with other like-minded friends, makes it a point to collaborate with The Rangadhara Theatre Stream whenever there is a full-length production. This tie-up in the past has given successful plays like "Gandhi-Ambedkar", "Aarop", "Deathwatch" and "Main Nathuram Godse…" .