A Balancing Act
by Ashwin Kumar Indra
Kaadhalin Shakti is the second drama production I have done with Uncle Ket at the Temple of Fine Arts. It was a significantly different experience from the first (The Merchant, The Moneylender, The Mistress, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice), for various reasons; the first being because they were much bigger roles than the role of Selvam in the “Merchant”, and thus carried more weight in the story.
The roles of Hari in “Hariomeo and Manjuliet” , and Baptista in “How to Get a Rich Shrew for a Wife”, an excerpt from Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”, turned out to be rather challenging as the rehearsals went on from week to week.
Playing the role of Hari, being someone who exists in real life, and at the same time, adding a comic touch to it really did not come easily. I think somehow I couldn’t connect my mind and soul like Uncle Ket always said, and was ‘acting’ the part instead of feeling it.
For the character of Hari I think it was difficult initially because I had to strike a balance between being in love with the character of Manju and at the same time despising her, and also making sure neither of these two opposing feelings overcame each other all at once.
In my honest opinion, I don’t think I managed to execute it as well as I hoped to, especially the second time we did it. The first show at the Ashoka Hall was better, maybe because of the excitement of finally doing the pieces. And I think I did a lot better on that day compared to many rehearsals. It could also have been due to the pressure of living up to the audience’s expectations then, and making it a memorable wedding reception for the newlyweds.
On the second performance I felt differently while in front of the audience, for starters, probably because I could see all their faces clearly staring back at me. I do not think it was nervousness though, at least not in my conscious mind. Maybe it was in my subconscious, and I think that feeling didnt really heal because the audience didn’t really respond to my antics as Hari as much as I wanted them to. The parts we changed also did not come across as well as I intended them to. And yet, I liked singing as Hari on that second show.
It would be nice to take on such roles, especially in full-blown musicals. I think I could still work on Hari a little more, maybe ‘feel’ the character more and not lose the character just because it’s a comedy. It’s of course not a piece of cake to play a character who is acting as someone else in the play itself (a play within a play, come to think of it), but yet it’s far from impossible.
Playing Baptista on the other hand was a tad simpler in the sense it didn’t require the same kind of effort. It was not effortless of course.
At the beginning Baptista was a bigger headache for me, one of the reasons being that somehow the idea of being parents to Muthu and Mathan as girls did not click in my mind. But I think, as we did it more and more, I succeeded in gaining comfort acting with both of them, which helped tremendously.
Something that I would like to think of as being special about my character was the fact that Baptista stayed serious and calm whilst full-blown comedy erupted around him.
I guess one thing I learnt from this is that we as actors have to stay in character even though distracting situations occur in the play, be they hilariously funny, deeply emotional or the like.
When Baptista meets Petruchio later on, balance was needed once again, that is balancing my love for Katherina and my desire to get rid of her. I think the character was written with only one of these feelings in mind, or maybe neither. Yet I chose to go with Uncle Ket’s reasoning that Baptista was an opportunist who wanted to push his shrew daughter to Petruchio.
But I still felt that Baptista as a father would certainly have love for his daughter, no matter how shrewd she was, and thus I tried to make sure I kept that thought in mind when I played the character. I guess when that delicate balance is achieved, the beauty of the character shines through.
Kaadhalin Shakti, and the rehearsals leading up to both shows taught me various priceless lessons; improvisation, connecting mind and soul, trying not to be stiff while acting, being in the moment and not getting distracted, not ‘acting’ the character but rather being it, among others.
Nigella Lawson, that chef on TV, once said on her show that it was beautiful how balance was important in food, just like it was in life. To me I reckon that balance is just as important in drama, to your character, to the lines and the entire production.
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The Beauty of Drama
by Hariraam
What is drama? To me, drama means learning to bring out your feelings through an act. It is about learning many things like improvisation, response and getting into the core of a character. By learning and exploring these aspects and applying them into our lives, we can or will become better people. To me, i think this is because we eventually learn to control or show certain feelings.... i have also learnt that when we our mind, heart and soul come together as one, we form the CHARACTER... the true or the real person... the one who is not 'me' but 'I'...
Throughout these past few years, i have been keeping so much inside of me that i did not know how to show or tell people that i was 'being torn between life and understanding'... i was a loner, a boy who did not understand many aspects of life and yet i helped those who were feeling the same as me... i had only a 'mask' which i would use in front of those close to me... a fake me at that point of time....until today am i the same.... ask any of my friends, and they'll tell you that "the Hari i knew was never like this".... i think, although i don't want such things to happen.
Only through drama was i able to let go of my fears, my anger, my sorrow, my pain. When i wanted to bring my heart, mind and soul together did i let go. Improvisation, playing the character differently and not the correct way... Appa had given us this task so that we could discover or explore new ways to play that particular character... it struck me that it was time i should play my character the way i had always been living.... a Person who was stuck in the corner, who wanted to come out but did not know how.... a person who would worry about other people and not himself, who would worry about what people would say... When i had done it, i was still in my 'character' ......it took me awhile to get out...and then BOOM....i broke out...that was bad i was feeling inside.......i could not hold it any longer............i wanted to fly away into the night, to get away from everything, to be free..........just like my dreams...
Well, in a nutshell, i am grateful to my parents, who have showed me many interesting things, who have taught me to be strong and confident, to my friends who have heard me out... and of course to Swamiji...
'Deep in the heart's core, there was a boy who was being torn between life, understanding and love. Why?, he asked himself and to all those listening to him. And then it struck him that, he was going through LIFE, UNDERSTANDING and LOVE'.....
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Playing SideShow Bob
by Kamalesh Thurairajah
Kaadhalin Shakti was a 3 piece drama presentation that was slated to be performed at a wedding reception. The first 2 plays were comedy while the last one had a more serious story. Here, I featured in the last piece which was given the name Savitri and Satyavaan. I am unsure if this is a correct name for the play, as the story was about Savitri and the many men that she came across in her life and not just Satyavaan. Here, I played the narrator, and all other male characters involved in the story, while my co-actor played the role of Savitri and the narrator. Among the roles I played in this short 15 minute drama was the narrator, Aswapati (Ruler of Madra/ Savitri’s father), Dyumatsena (Satyavaan’s blind father), Satyavaan, Yama (Lord of Death), and a few other smaller roles such as the Aswapati’s minister, and Dyumatsena’s minister.
To me, acting various roles in one play was a very difficult task. As a novice actor, I feel that I don’t have the strength as an actor YET to pull this off. At first, looking at the script it seemed to be a very interesting play to me, but when I slowly started to get into it, I realized that it was rather difficult. The most difficult task for me was to develop each character's emotions. Taking Dyumatsena regaining his sight for an example, I had to develop the emotional outburst of a blind person regaining his sight within a few seconds, and mind you, this had to be done a few seconds after I played Satyavaan regaining his life. In all my previous work*, I have played single characters thus having a build up in emotions. But in this case, I was changing characters so quickly that I feel I did not strike the right notes at the right time. The only character I felt had some flow was Yama as I was allowed to try to become Yama over a few minutes. To say the truth, my mind was always preoccupied on stage thinking about things like “Who am I going to be next”, “Don’t forget to change the tone of your voice, Kamalesh”, "Don’t forget to change your posture”, “Are you speaking with the right tone right now?”. All these thoughts did definitely have an effect on me and I feel like I was not able to explore all the characters properly.
Maybe, I am not ready for this or I am too comfortable with the previous (one role) plays I have done. Or maybe I just need more time and practice. I do enjoy doing single roles where I can build up emotions within me and have climaxes and anti climaxes with my own emotions. Back to the example of Dyumatsena, the blind King; had I played the role of Dyumatsena throughout the play, on stage, I would have been able to explore the feelings and emotions of a blind person and regaining my sight would have been an ecstatic feeling for me.
However, I also wish to explain that playing multiple roles does have many interesting facets to it. The actor gets a chance to feel the story from various emotional points of view. And it really can be very challenging in an interesting way for the actor to have conversations with himself (between 2 characters). In this play, I actually did enjoy the short conversation between Dyumatsena and Aswapati. On a deeper more philosophical note, playing many characters, can be taken as a metaphor depicting the essential oneness of all existence. It is a portrayal of the same (me the actor) taking various forms in the body, mind and soul of different characters. However, this discussion is not in the scope of the report and I will not bore you further.
As an actor, it is also very important to capture and keep the audience attention during presentation, moreover when it’s a serious story. This would actually help the actor absorb energy from the audience and project it back to them through his acting. To me, there is nothing better than performing to an appreciative audience. To do so, the actor has to know the story thoroughly and be as intense as possible even at the least intense moments. As an actor I don’t know if I have achieved that, but I know I did try.
In a nutshell, I would say Savitri/ Satyavaan was a very interesting experience for me. I did not only learn many new things as an actor but the play also did teach me many new things as a person. However, I feel I did not achieve the climax or the feeling ( I cannot describe in words) when acting in this play. I believe I need more practice and experience as an actor before I can pursue such a task of playing many roles again. Maybe a more apt name for the drama would have been Savitri and Sideshow Bob.
*Kamalesh played multiple roles in Pancatantra's first project of William Buck's Ramayana in November 2003 presented to Swamiji. He essayed Dasaratha, Viswakarma, Vishnu and others in the highly exciting ensemble work of dramatising Buck's text.
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