Pascoal Tony Fernandes, popularly known as Pascoal de Chicalim on the Konkani stage, hails from the serene village of Colvale in Bardez taluka, but presently residing in Vasco.
At the tender age of 13, Pascoal penned his first tiatr ‘Sogllim Ami Ektaim’ and it was staged in the village for the annual feast of Mother Mary. And he continued contributing his tiatrs ‘Bunead’ and ‘Kupam’ for the village feasts.
Pascoal’s production ‘Tuzo Rag Mhozo Bodlo’ penned in 1990 catapulted him to fame. “It was at this juncture,” he conceals, “Late Fr Savio Gama, the healing priest from Verna in Salcete taluka, who was then associated to the Colvale church, baptized me with the stage name ‘Pascoal de Chicalim’.
Apart from his productions, Pascoal also contributed towards Mapusa-based Joe Boy’s tiatrs ‘Soiro and ‘To Melo’, with cast comprising of Wilmix/Sharon, late William de Curtorim, late H Briton and late Young Chico. He was also cast in late Bonaventure D’Pietro’s tiatr ‘Chitrakar’ and in one of Fermeena Khaunte’s tiatrs.
Besides scripting one-act plays, tiatrs and acting in them, Pascoal was very passionate of singing and he would never miss the opportunity in village tiatrs, with comedian Leslie. He also scripted one tiatr ‘Gulfache Udok’ for producer Seby de St Jose de Areal, which had a cast of commercial tiatrists and it was staged on 11 occasions.
Availing of the opportunity at Kala Academy’s annual tiatr competition, Pascoal participated with his tiatr ‘Pojisanv’ in 2010 and bagged the fourth place. From there, he hopped in the commercial field in 2012, with the same production.
And since then there was no turning back for this writer, director and producer. Pascoal’s commercial and suspense-wrapped productions include ‘Doria’ (2013), ‘Viva Sao Joao’(2014), ‘Devchar’ (2015), ‘Anj Boddvo’(2016), ‘Sopon’ (2017), ‘Kolakaram’ (2018), ‘Rochnna’ (2019) and his forthcoming tiatr includes ‘Hanv Goencho Saiba’.
As a stage manager, Pascoal also assisted Irineu Gonsalves with his first tiatr ‘Goy
Fluency in regional languages also helped Pascoal to scale higher and act in three Marathi village ‘nattak’ (dramas), two of which were social-based and two historical. He has also contributed in Konkani film ‘Connection’ by Silvester Vaz and Hindi film ‘Do Pal’, featuring Paresh Rawal and Atul Agnihotri.
Apart from scripting suspense tiatrs, Pascoal’s forte lies in acting than in singing. And he enjoys character roles on stage, thus giving the best of his performances. “When it comes to character roles,” he explains, “it is mostly suspense roles on stage, whereby a different character is projected at a later stage in the tiatr by the same artiste. That enactment helps tiatr to scale at a greater height, thus giving a new and different dimension to the entire production.”
“There’s a lot of jealousy among the tiatrists today,” Pascoal admits, which does not help in the growth of tiatr. “It needs to be shunned and encouragement of new, amateur artistes will only help for the survival of tiatrs on the Konkani stage as the future of tiatr lies on the raw material.”
“Vulgarity in comedy is another aspect that’s ruining tiatrs today,” Pascoal states categorically, “and it has kept many viewers away from live entertainment.” If the trend continues in the near future,” he adds, “it could reduce the viewership drastically, thus hampering the progress and growth of tiatrs.”
Due to his job commitment at the MPT, Pascoal is unable to come out with many productions annually. So he prefers to concentrate only one production each year and run the show for two seasons. “Unlike other directors, who come out with two, three productions in different seasons,” he bluntly says, he prefers to focus on one tiatr, but work on it with hard work and commitment, with the sole aim of giving the best of entertainment to the tiatr audience.