Behind the scenes

A national workshop on Innovative Techniques of Modern Indian Drama saw an overwhelming response

February 08, 2015 05:36 pm | Updated 05:36 pm IST - Coimbatore:

Students of Tiruppur Kumaran College for women in action at the theatre workshop organised by CATS Photos: Parshathy J.Nath

Students of Tiruppur Kumaran College for women in action at the theatre workshop organised by CATS Photos: Parshathy J.Nath

It sounds like aeroplanes! The teachers and students hear them. So do the canteen workers, peons and the librarian. They rush to the corridors in time to watch three aeroplanes take off. Titanic is the first to fly. It is designed by J. Annamma, a second year M.A. Literature student. “Hey, where is the tail?” she shouts out. Her friend, in pig tails, comes up from behind, fiddles around and voila, the tail is in place. Titanic, with twenty hands and feet in constant motion vroooms across the auditorium.

We are at a theatre workshop organised by CATS (Coimbatore and Art and Theatrical Society) in Tiruppur Kumaran College for Women, where three hundred students are building a human aeroplane! It is a part of their theatre exercise. The trainers, along with Chanda Khaturia and K.V.Siddhartha of CATS begin the workshop with these basic theatre exercises that helps the students be more creative. Students are handed over props such as dupattas and they are asked to use them imaginatively. Some use them to depict animals while a few others pretend the dupattas are hot samosas and chocolates!

Students are handed stories which they then have to dramatise and enact in the evening. Our team gets the tale of Chhatrapathi Shivaji, who escapes death by tricking Aurangzeb, who imprisons him. Once they finish reading the piece, the story has to be presented as an illustration. The facilitators of each group select the best drawings. The chosen artists form the art team that will design posters for the final play.

When it is time to dramatise the story, there are suggestions a plenty. “Let’s do half of it like a mime with just two narrators telling the story!” offers Annamma. Her suggestion receives unanimous approval. Annamma and fellow student Reshma Raju assign roles to their team members, write dialogues and block the scenes. The art team also does the make up. They draw moustaches and beards on the faces of the actors. The students create turbans and curtains out of their dupattas. They splash chart papers with colours and cut them into crowns and swords. Meanwhile, a few others choreograph steps for the dance sequence while the singers comb through their mobile playlists for an apt song for the final coronation scene of Shivaji. Finally, it is show time. Each team begins by first displaying its posters. Some of the plays reflect strong social messages such as the adverse effects garbage menace and rash driving. Then there are the light hearted ones such as “Gorumbha- the somnambulist”, a Panchatantra story about foolish kings and vain queens. Our team’s production is a musical tribute to Shivaji. The audience cheers when the actors dance to the title song from a Rajnikanth starrer with the same name.

For many of the students, this is an overwhelming experience. “I never thought I could talk in front of so many people,” confesses Reshma. The workshop was a part of national workshop on Innovative Techniques of Modern Indian Drama.

Meanwhile, outside the college, a discussion is in progress among the facilitators. Language was a barrier for many students, observes Ashwin Sundar. “I wish we had allowed them the choice of using Tamil.” “But that defeats the purpose, doesn’t it, especially since they are all English students?” asks Kaavya Varshini. “Theatre also helps them improve their command over English. Even if they spoke broken English today, that’s okay. This is a big boost to their confidence.”

“Our main intention was to let them know the pain behind a live art production”, says K.V. Siddhartha. “And, hopefully, the next time these girls see a play they will be aware of the work that goes into it. If they do, then we are successful.”

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