Renowned playwright Sitanath Lahkar addressing the media along with festival organising committee president Lalit Sarma and vice president Taherudding Ahmed in Guwahati.

Guwahati-based theatre group Samahar Natya Gosthee is going to organise the 13th Annual Brajanath Sharma Memorial Inter-State Drama Festival from September 21 to 26 at city’s District Library Auditorium.

The six-day festival is being organised by the theatre group in association with Indian Oil Corporation.

“It is indeed a very happy moment for us to formally announce the programme of the festival. In the last 12 years, this festival has become a very important and landmark cultural event of the state. Now, it is a big responsibility on our shoulder to make it a grand success like the previous years,” said Lalit Sarma, president of the organising committee.

Since 2007, Samahar has been organising this annual theatre extravaganza in the hallowed memory of Brajanath Sharma — the father of Assamese moving (mobile) theatre.

He was the pioneer of modern Assamese theatre and had first brought women on stage to introduce co-acting in the state in 1933.

Sharma, the unique firebrand freedom fighter, had destroyed and set ablaze the British aerodrome at Bornagar, Sarbhog police station, post office etc in Barpeta district.

The festival will be inaugurated on Saturday (September 21) by veteran film actor and social worker Dilip Hazarika.

The souvenir of the festival Kohinoor will be released by eminent journalist Haidor Hussain.

City based theatre group Saanko will present Kahaya Chandee Dasa written by renowned playwright Sitanath Lahkar on the first night of the festival.

A total of six plays—Beshya by Sitanath Lahkar, Dakghar by Utpal Kumar Das,  Kalchakra by Rudrani Sharma, Bande Mataram by Tarun Talukdar,  Chora Ubacha by Sitanath Lahkar–will be staged during the six-day festival.