Is it the weekend already?

Another weekend has just whizzed by, and needless to say, we girls had our fair share of  fun and frolic this time around too!

In JWB language, weekends roughly translate to:  shutting down our computer screens, getting out of the office, breathing in the fresh air, learning something new, and most importantly, having oodles of fun together as a team!

Last time, we unleashed our creative alter-egos while painting alcohol bottles with Mukta. This time, we wanted to jazz things up a little. We wanted to do something that we might never get to do in our lives.

Act on-stage.                                                

We are writers, after all. We have chosen a life of sitting behind computer screens and merrily clicking away on keyboards! We have always been in the audience, observing everybody and waiting to report it on the blog.

This time, the spotlight was going to be on us.

A sense of excited anticipation frizzled all around us when we met Ms. Sunita Tiwari, an acclaimed theatre director, on a bright and cheery Saturday afternoon at Jawahar Kala Kendra.

We sat on the red brick-stone steps, and started our session.

After 5 minutes or so, it dawned on us that theatre was no joke.

Strong opinions and thoughts on life and what not were getting fired all around me, but isn’t this what theatre is all about? Self-expression and communication.

Ms. Tiwari was getting us all riled up, in the mood for some theatre!

We learnt that the basic essence of theatre is concentration and observation.

Hence, we were made to  play some games that could help us get into a super-alert mode. This helps actors belt out their lines, right on cue!

Each of us counted one by one, and Sunita introduced some variations. This made the games tricky!

She would snap her fingers in between as a cue to count counter-clockwise.

Soon enough, fingers started getting pointed and confusion started creeping in! My mind started throbbing from all the concentration it took to stay on track!

We played several rounds, and Komal won in the end! (She yay-d, as you can see!)

Next, Sunita placed some random objects in a specific order. We had to observe the whole thing and remember it.

Sunita disturbed the order of a few things while we pretended to look at the sky.

Each of us, then tried to restore the picture in the original manner.

This amped-up our power of noticing personal behavior, which could further be adapted in the process of acting.

An actor is essentially a chameleon, after all!

So, we had sufficiently warmed up, and now it was time to put things in motion.

Lights, camera, ACTION!

Sunita: Choose the most favorite character in your life. You’ll be portraying them.

Me: A mother

Apoorva: Mumma

Priya: Mom

Komal: Harry Potter

Needless to say, our heads automatically turned towards Komal, and we started laughing!

We were feeling adventurous that day, and so we decided to do ‘improv’, where we had to come with lines and ideas right there, on the spot. (Later on, we realized what a bad idea it was!)

So, the scene was set: A hormonal, teenage Harry Potter in conversation with his three mothers. (Ironic, isn’t it? HP fans will understand! *wink, wink*)

As soon as the scene started, Priya, Apoorva and I went completely blank, since there was no time to think and write first! The thing we are actually good at.

Komal kicked off the scene by kicking off her shoes in different directions, and one of them flew and hit Apoorva in the bum! (It was hysterical!)

Harry decided to be rather cranky and bratty that day. Hormones, I tell you.

We, as his mothers, were trying  to set him straight in our own ways.

Clearly, we weren’t doing so well, since Sunita had to get up on the stage and set US straight!

 She gave us some pointers, and tried to get our creative juices flowing.

Priya could not help but sneak a laugh, while the scene was still going on!

Our futile attempts cracked up our teacher as well! He-He!

We just did not know what to do!

Yes, we fumbled, we stumbled, we jumbled our words, we got side-tracked, we laughed, we got laughed at, we got scolded, we lost the plot, but we had fun. And that’s the important part.

We accepted our failure whole-heartedly, and vowed to do more things that we just can’t do!

This activity  made us learn how to accept failure, laugh at ourselves, embrace conflicting  opinions, while still sticking together as one unit. As one team.

Photo Courtesy – Nupur Agarwal