BITS Pilani’s 47^th Oasis, to be held from 31^st October to 4^th November, is set to be one of India’s largest annual cultural festivals. With over 1000 participants from all over the country coming together to compete, the fest has developed into a platform for showcasing budding talent.

The Department of Theatre works around the clock for 96 hours to organize eight events – Street Dance, Choreo, Street and Stage Play, FashP, Tarang, Pitch Perfect and Mime. The diversity of events and work required to scale them up for hundreds of participants requires extensive planning.

The department is responsible for inviting distinguished individuals with knowledge in performing arts and prior experience in judging for the events. DoT has maintained a large database of such contacts over the past decade, from which it carefully chooses the best fit in the fields of drama, fashion, dance and music.  Due to limited accommodation and a large number of applicants, they select a pool of participants after consulting the judges.

An official rulebook with event guidelines is drafted and shared with participants and members. Disputes between contestants, discrepancies in rules and other event related issues are handled by department members.

Divyansh Saini, the DoT coordinator, understands the subtleties of a position of responsibility in a large fest. Coordinating work between other departments like PCr and Controls, and ensuring that preparation for the fest is on schedule is a demanding task. As the face of communication with the judges, it is his role to ensure timely correspondence for travel, lodging and event related details with both the judges and the StuCCA.

“Internally, I think it’s important for me to set structure within the department”, mused Divyansh as he spoke of the hectic four days during Oasis. With multiple events occurring simultaneously, a batch-wise division of work is essential for smooth execution of the event plan. Work pressure under a time crunch is unavoidable at ground zero, but it is best dealt with as a team.

On a lighter note, he mentioned that all the department members enjoy the experience and festivity and that he was looking forward to a successful Oasis 2017.