It’s a long time since we had Hindi theatre here…and now it’s in the offing….

Mashaal brings to you Sanchay. Sanchay (meaning ‘Collection’ in Hindi) is a new initiative by Mashaal which aims to showcase on stage, a few short pieces of theatrical performances, different from one another in content & presentation, but united by a common theme.

Theme : Sapne
Language : Hindi
Date & Time : 27th July, 7:30 p.m.
Location : CFD (Centre for Film and Drama)
Duration : 60-70 minutes
Entry : Rs. 75
For bookings contact: +91 9739803104 or mailmashaal@gmail.com

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I went today to watch “The Final Rehearsal” by ACTor Productions, Bangalore , and came away very impressed with a theatre group that seems to have got its…er…act together, with a very talented team, led by Pawan Kumar.

The play is all about competition, winning and losing….acceptance and rejection. An actor describes his experiences, working his way up the ladder (from playing a tree in Macbeth, where he artistically sways to and fro) to finally getting the part of Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, only to lose it because when he trips over Browniel (more about this character later) he drops the actor playing Caesar…and that’s the director’s son!

The dialogue was very well-written, with that touch for the everyday phrase that is so natural when spoken. But Pawan did hurry up the diction a little, and I hope he slows it down for his next show. However, his grasp of (at least the well-known lines of) Shakespeare helped him a lot with his excellent comic timing; the spoof speech on “to act or not to act” brought the house down! And in the one or two places that Pawan did fluff the dialogue a bit, it was as if it was the Actor that was doing it; it didn’t seem out of place.

As the actor faces multiple rejections in each of the reality shows or the productions that he compromises his principles to act in, he breaks down….

One of the most impressive facets of the show was Pawan’s use of props. A chair, Browniel (I hope I have the spelling right!) Funich (”derived from Furniture”) the folding chair, is a character by himself. The Actor has a love-hate relationship with Browniel, and the sequence where the chair and he have an altercation was a great piece of theatre-gymnastics!

Also, I would not have believed earlier that one sheet of white cloth can become: the foliage of a tree,Othello’s cape, Macbeth’s witch’s robes, a soldier’s armour, Banquo’s ghost, Caesar’s shroud, the dead Caesar himself, a trumpet, an actor’s microphone, a plain bed sheet, Gandhi’s spinning mat, a ragpicker’s backpack, and the defendant’s enclosure in a court….truly innovative! Are you not intrigued about how this can be done? Pawan is certainly well-versed in stagecraft and mime.

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Pawan Kumar is staging two of his plays, “The Final Rehearsal”, and “The Woman in Me”, at Ranga Shankara ; the first on July 15 and 16 at 7.30pm, and the second on July 17 and 18, at the same time.

“The Final Rehearsal” is a dark comedy about a reality show, which was written in 2002. “The Woman in Me” is about how men look at women, and touches on women’s issues.

Pawan Kumar is also making his mark in writing the story and screenplay for Bollywood movies, and is preparing to direct a Kannada movie in October.

I live in south Bangalore, and there was a time when Chowdiah was *the* venue for all theatre. But, after having gone yesterday (Friday, 11th July 2008) for a play at Chowdiah, I have resolved not to go there again, if it is a weekday. This, of course, is a purely personal decision, but here are the reasons why:

1. First, and foremost…..if I do what most of my fellow-Bangaloreans do and drive a car…..the traffic. No matter how many flyovers and underpasses and magic boxes have been built, the traffic volumes make sure that the roads are so choked in the evening that the vehicles just inch forward in clouds of smoke and roars of revving engines. I do hate sitting in a car which is at idling speed, guzzling petrol, and releasing fumes into the air, along with all the other vehicles doing the same thing.

Yesterday, we *had* to take the car; we left for Chowdiah at 5.45pm…and got back at 11.40 pm. Six hours for a play that ran an hour and a half…not viable, to my mind.

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I guess I conducted my first two “celebrity” interviews….first, Lillette Dubey and then, yesterday evening, Girish Karnad .

Both of them are very articulate people, and having organized my questions well, I got quite a lot of info about them, and wrote a curtain-raiser to go with this “reminder” post for Metblogs, to follow up for the earlier announcement of Girish Karnad’s new play, which is being staged today and tomorrow.

You can see the curtain raiser….

click here to see it

with my photograph of Girish, too.

Here’s another one I took of him yesterday:

This photo comes with its own funny anecdote. For the first photograph, he didn’t smile, so I said, “Just think of ‘The Wedding Album’ and smile!” At this, he looked very startled and asked, “Have you already seen the play?” “No, I said,”why?” “That’s the first line of the play!” he exclaimed. “It’s ‘Think of the wedding and smile a little!’ ”

So do go and watch the play, which promises to be intriguingly interesting! It’s at 7.30 pm both days, at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA), Bangalore, is holding a 3-day creative writing workshop from
July 25 to 27 (Friday to Sunday, 10 am – 5 pm). Renowned poet, playwright and publisher Keki Daruwalla from New Delhi and poet and novelist Anjum Hasan from Bangalore will conduct the workshop. Those under 35 but over 18 may apply by sending in a maximum of three poems and/or a short story of no more than 3,500 words. Please note that the workshop will cover both poetry and fiction. The last date for submissions is July 15.

The workshop will include discussions on the two genres, discussion of work submitted, as well as on-the-spot assignments.

Venue:  Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, 466, 9^th Cross, Jayanagar  1st Block, Bangalore 560011

Dates and Timing: 25–27 July, 10 am to 5 pm

Fee: Rs 1,400, inclusive of lunch, tea and snacks

Note:  All submissions will be screened by the facilitators before acceptance. A maximum of 10–12 participants will be chosen. Outstation applicants will have to make their own travel and lodging arrangements. For further information please write to tfaindia@yahoo.com or call 09880623357 between 10 am and 5 pm, Monday to Saturday.

I have always appreciated Girish Karnad’s plays, and have watched some of them in many languages…and so it’s a pleasure for me to put up this announcement from IFA about his new play….

Puravankara Presents

Wedding Album

Written by Girish Karnad

Directed by Lillette Dubey

Organised by

and in support of

India Foundation for the Arts

Bangalore – July 10th & 11th, 2008

Time: 7.30 pm, Duration: 90 minutes, Language: English

Venue: Chowdiah Memorial Hall

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With their production of “Art”, Evam, the theatre group from Chennai whom many Bangaloreans have learnt to think of as their own, proved conclusively that they possess tremendous talent.

“Art” is described in their brochure as “serious comedy”. Marc, Yvan and Serge are three friends; Serge buys a work of art… a painting of white stripes and a white diagonal on a white background. This disturbs Marc profoundly, and he is unable to even stomach the thought of Serge wanting to buy it, or the fact of Yvan’s liking it.

Slowly, as their conversations about the paintings develop, layers of thoughts and opinions, and revelations, begin to appear. The serious and the comic march side by side as the plot unfolds

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Yesterday and today, theatregoers at Ranga Shankara are fortunate to see two excellent plays– one, an amalgam of three playlets, Fawn Lilies, Water Lilies, and Black Lilies, written and directed by Gowri Ramnarayan, and staged by JustUs Repertory, and late in the evening, at 9.30pm, a very short play by August Strindberg, which was acted as a monologue by Claire Denieul (There, Aru, I think I have the spelling right!)

The 3-play series (for want of a better word) strings together three very different incidents, happening in the US; first, two people meeting in a park in Columbus, Ohio; second, two people meeting in an exhibition of Monet, at Houston,Texas; and the third, two people meeting in an airport lounge in Dulles airport in Washington.

In the first of the triptych, a dietician from Vijayawada has just been passed over by her boyfriend, who prefers war to love. She comes to the park to do some birdwatching, and gets talking to an unusual and interesting vagabond, who, in his own words, “lived in a tree for six months or so” when he was “down to his last quarter” and found himself espousing green causes.

In the second, an investment banker who is scornful of Monet’s paintings is intrigued by a Sri Lankan woman’s fascination with the painter, and they segue through a conversation about topics which start with art and meander afar.

The third piece has a young school teacher from Tamil Nadu on her first trip abroad for a conference, getting into a conversation with Hungarian novelist who isa Nobel laureate ..and showing him perspectives that he has not thought of before.

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We often bemoan the apathy that rules our city. But sometimes, even when efforts are made to prevent some really bad practices, the determination of the average citizen to spoil his own environs defeats the initiative.

Here, near NIMHANS, is a picture of the symbols of various religions, with an unambiguous message. The hope is that no one would think of urinating over holy symbols:

But our Average Citizen..he wants to GO. Right now, right here. And he converts the message by hiding the “Do not”….

And what’s the rate at which we like to foul up our pavements? Here it is….!

When are our attitudes going to change? As long as we have no sense of pride in our city, don’t think of it as our own home, this will continue to happen….