Be Poetic!

16^th September, 2015.

Being poetic does not necessarily mean that you break into song and dance, as the popular saying goes, it also means that you give your hundred percent to your arts. Theater is no different than art.

Today was the first day that we got to practice in the theater space where we will get to perform (some days down the line).  Performing when you do it in an informal setting (which will not come in handy other than for rehearsal and practice purposes) is very different from performing in the space which would be sacred ground for your final performance.

Well, today I got to experience that sensation exactly. Though my stage fright and insecurities of performing are still there, I by no means feel threatened at the prospect of even trying to do something like it. Through this experience of theater I have grown as a person. When people used to say that theater is one of those experiences that change you forever, I was always the skeptic because, how can it? In our previous session, Dr. Erika became our personal mentor, guiding my group (the group dealing primarily with smells of Lahore), she instead of choosing a script herself let us vote on it.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer (or a teacher) but, I’ve never had the guts to share something I write since, for me it is extremely personal. However, when I finally managed the courage to go through with the ordeal of reading out my version of Heer Ranjha I kept thinking that no one would like it but, I was somewhat surprised when my group members said that it was a nicely written dialogue between two historians. Ultimately we chose two of the well written versions (as my group members put it, making me feel pleased and satisfied) and discussed them further with Dr. Erika.

She seemed to like the scripts we chose as well. She went as far enough to say that the poem we selected was very concise, exactly what we were looking for, and the dialogue also has that dramaturgy to it which makes it very well written. This comment made my day! Having shown something so personal to me and receiving praise for it not just from my colleagues but also form my instructor made the experience even more special.

The way Dr. Erika conducted our discussions after that point onwards, was much focused. With every decision she made us take, she got us closer and closer to our goal and that is to create good ethnotheater with themes that are an integral part of our culture.

Coming back to my earlier point, ethnotheater is basically like living through an extraordinary experience clothing itself as an ordinary one. That according to Dr. Hughes is our mission. Creating an extraordinary experience with ordinary, every day Lahori smells. 

Smell… Script…Go!

15^th September, 2015.

What is non-traditional theater? What makes it different from traditional theater? Or rather, why have more and more artists started to go with the option of non-traditional than traditional? According to the critic behind “Non-traditional Theater: What Works?” non-traditional is basically a form of theater that has strayed away from the normal, the conventional. In many ways it is that form of theater which is outside the Aristotelian form of drama. In The Heretic’s Mirror, it further states ‘The need to identify with and to feel for the protagonist is a requirement for both standard story-telling and non-traditional forms… when you’re using non-linear techniques or you’re not providing a dramatic narrative, you need something else to keep the audience engaged.’ In my opinion that is what non-traditional theater does, it keeps the audience engaged. That is what we as a class have to accomplish in a week worth of rehearsals before the big day – the performance.

In today’s class we further deliberated on what could or could not be used with our preferable stage – non-traditional. Since we had already been divided into groups, each group had to come up with a script that could be used for their individual performances. In our previous session, we were set the task of creating a piece of fiction that could concisely convey the message behind the folktale Heer Ranjha, in today’s class our instructors asked us to choose two of our most potential stories. Since Heer Ranjha is a folktale, it works like a myth or legend, too many possibilities and outcomes so, every member of each group had to come up with their version of the most beautifully concise adaptation of the tragedy of lost love.

The group which had ton smells of Lahore, came up with two scripts that we mashed together to make one beautiful script. Two historians talking amongst themselves about Heer and Ranjha as the two lovers would have moments where they would describe their emotions and feelings in poetic verse and so on. Engaging the prose with the poetic… making art! 

Let the Games Begin!

14^th September, 2015.

Today as we entered out class room environment it somehow felt different. Why? Well, because of the anticipation of what was to come. In our previous session together, Dr. Hughes and Prof. Branch had informed us that we would start rehearsals for our final performance from today so, every one of us as an individual and as a class were greatly excited at the prospect of the relatively unknown. Like always Dr. Erika Hughes helped us warm up before we could discuss the performance further.

Having worked more on the movements of our mouth and the breathing exercises the instructors set us the task of forming into (preferably) three equal groups: the sounds, the smells, and the visuals. The three groups would then have to work as individual groups as well as a collective group. Once the groups were made we were set the task of having to brainstorm ideas that were relevant to the group we were in. The sounds people had to come up with sounds that we could associate with the three chosen folktales of the subcontinent: Heer Ranjha, Soni Mahiwal and Mirza Sahiban. Similarly, the smells had to come up with distinctly Pakistani smells which can help the audience relate not just with a particular smell but, also relate the smell with their personal experiences.

For instance, the smell of rain could remind the audience of the rain when they had to face heavy downpour for a week but would also help the audience in relating it to their primary (personal) experience. Such as, the rainy day when A (suppose A is the person concerned) was sick.

This is what ethnotheater basically does. As Dr. Hughes and Prof. Branch discussed in the lecture on “Embodied Historiography” today. Ethnotheater is a form of literature where you can mold together the individual experience with the communal experience.

In the morning session we were showed a video from the first ever session Dr. Erika Hughes and Prof. Branch conducted for their Veteran’s Project, and the purpose of this video that I understood was, to help the audience make a connection with not just the individual experience but, also the collective, communal and/or universal experience, especially with regards to The Veteran’s Project. Similarly, the purpose of dividing the class into three groups I thought was to better help the audience in focusing on the three major aspects of theater but also to remind them to focus their effort on the universal as a parallel to the individual. To take all aspects as short units of a larger unit (but to take them as singles and one plural body) as per the analogy of the human body it could mean the individual hands and feet as well as the collective human body.

Since we are focusing on three folktales inspired by the universal theme of love – romantic love rather, let us not forget that love indeed is universal. Every person either yearns to love or be loved, but everyone also yearns for that love with which comes immense pain, the immortal love. Love like that of Romeo and Juliet, Elizabeth and Darcy, Helen and Paris, Adam and Eve, Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal, Laila Majnu, Mirza Sahiban and so on. These are all tales of love gained and love lost. All painful reminders of the universal theme of the desire to love, be loved and the inevitable loss of that so desired love.

The performance is all about this theme. How one yearns for something so badly only to lose it after being attacked by external forces. This raises the question of why? Why yearn for love like these immortalized lovers when you only get hurt? Why isn’t love fickle? Because you cannot lose when you have nothing to lose. Why did these lovers give up there everything for love? Because for them, their everything was their love. This is the essential idea that Lahore in Miniature is going to be about. 

Did you say To-Whine or Twine?

11^th September, 2015.

When Dr. Erika and Prof. Boyd told us that we would be playing a game developed by their students from ASU I had no idea what to expect, however, for whatever unknown reason I understood the website to be to-Whine and I thought, ‘what kind of a name is that for a website?’ it was sometime later when we actually played the game that I understood it to be twine games. It was through discussions with my Professors (and further research conducted on the internet) that I understood the purpose of the twine games. The purpose of the twine is to engage the audience actively like the breaking away of the fourth wall in theater, as well as giving the audience a chance to interact with the creator of the game.

The twine game we participated in was one created by the students of our own visiting Professors (Dr. Hughes and Prof. Branch) from ASU, to introduce the idea of breaking the fourth wall with a little help from technology.

We initially answered questions like what is your name, your age and so on. They asked us what shows we liked, what we wanted to be and then they made us divide into groups and form tableaus that represented the culture of Pakistan and the culture of America through the eyes of Pakistan et cetera. The tableaus were recorded by our Professors so they could later be shared with the ASU students.

In our previous session with Dr. Hughes and Prof. Branch we were instructed to write a dialogue between two persons (by choosing one category such as: living and dead, dead and dead, two generations, between genders and so on). The idea was to transcend barriers. Though the written word is important, actions do speak louder. The purpose of the dialogue was to immortalize or as one of my colleagues has mentioned in her blog, ‘concretize’ the concept, the picture.

Every dialogue, every action, every performance brings more to theater than ever before. Like Prof. Boyd Branch said, ‘more to it than mere appearances’. 

Harmonizing the body!

10^th September, 2015

Every movement, every gesture matters in theater. How you move your lips, what angle you smile at, how you speak (do you project or shout) all of it is an integral part of good theater.

Why do actors always stress about their movements? about their actions before, during and after a performance? That is because when the actions of a group of actors performing in theater or even on Broadway, are in sync with the actions of the actors surrounding them, when the actions are in harmony, it is then that the actors in their movements are like a living organism (various parts of the body moving together) or like one unit, one body – the living body or even the body of harmony within one family (in this case it is the theater family).

Theater like the military is all about discipline and balance. When one moves the other should move too, like they are all perfectly in-tuned. This is similar to the concept of kinetics in physics. Kinetics is concerned with ‘the relationship between the motion of bodies and its causes, namely forces and torques’. Basically it concerns the relationship between ‘the motion of bodies’ this is similar in theater. In class today, Prof. Boyd made us walk in grid and then follow imaginary circular patterns all over our theater space. This activity was conducted to (a) make us more aware of our theater space (b) make us aware of the harmony that can be acquired in the theater space (c) to help us in forming a connection with our fellow colleagues to better our movements as a group, as military (going along with the idea of how military and theater are similar).

Though at first going around in circles was complex and mind-boggling, towards the end of the exercise it was easier to connect as one unit. The practice of forming a frozen tableau where you freeze instantly, one moment you’re walking while the other you have stopped. The exercise of walking in circles was to better hone our balance as a team. It was to help us with our co-ordination. If one stops, all stop. If one moves, all move and so on.

Once we had improved the act of moving as one organism, one body, the instructors set us the task of performing a thirty seconds to one minute skit on any ritual close to us (it could be a ritual observed by one’s family or a ritual generally followed by the people of Pakistan). Initially I thought nothing could be better than a wedding scene or a funeral but, through deliberation with my team mates we were able to come up with a different ritual, one that involved everyday table manners. It was fun and it was quite unique since it involved a family sitting around the table communication, even if it was one child getting scolded by the parents and the other getting her ear pulled as an expression of the mother’s anger. As one of my colleagues has referred to the JSTOR article “Theater and Culture”, ‘theater’s objective is not to jell that masses’ it is to ‘present maximal aims, of great complexity’. In my opinion this statement furthers the importance of rituals and societal festivals. In theater these rituals and festivals play a vital role in engaging the audience and in presenting the ‘maximal aims, of great complexity’.  

Essence of Lahore!

9th September, 2015.

One day we were asked by our instructors about what it is that makes Lahore. I could not come up with an answer because for me there is no absolute answer, there are so many small things that give it the essence that is Lahore – from its tall and classical buildings to its food, its streets to its smell, and even its people.

Quaid-e-Azam Library located in the Jinnah Gardens. Also known as Lawrence Gardens.

People waving the Pakistani Flag above their car.

When it rains, Lahore takes the shape of a majestic landscape, a beautiful girl (which reminds me of another image which can be associated with Lahore – the city of Gardens – Shalimar Gardens, Jinnah Gardens or Lawrence Gardens and others) and so on. Lahore with everything that makes it Lahore is simply beatified, adorned with jewels and everything that gives it the image of a beautiful blushing bride – a bride so beautiful that everyone envies her.  The people of Lahore and the tourists are like the little kids enamored by the presence of the blushing bride. They are so taken in and captivated by it that they are often heard saying ‘jinne Lahore nai wekha unne kuch nai wekha’ (Whoever has not seen Lahore, has seen nothing), or ‘Lahore, Lahore ae’ (Lahore is, Lahore); and though Lahore today has changed drastically through the years (since the conception of Pakistan in fact) that it does not seem the same yet somehow despite losing most of its charm it has been able to retain some still.

That brings me to the point where we can discuss the sound of Lahore. Is there any particular sound that defines Lahore? In my opinion, there is NOT. Lahore is not Lahore without the various sounds that can be heard in the everyday life of a Lahori. For instance, the random noise on the streets – from traffic, street vendors, beggars to the sirens; the music – folk music to desert music to classical and pop music; the sound of the call of Azan (five times a day).

Take away even one of these sounds and Lahore will cease to encompass the magic within it.

Like Dr. Hughes in one of American Theater’s classes said, ‘Lahore is like the New York of Pakistan’. Take away one of these elements and Lahore will cease to be the Desi New York.

Lahore is also known for its food. The most important food hub is the food street Anarkali (the name of Prince Saleem’s wife) Bazar near Shahi Qila (The Lahore Fort). The Taka-Tak (it’s a meat dish), Biryani (can be chicken, mutton, or even vegetable), Nihari, Haleem, Halwa Poori, Gajar ka Halwa, Siri Paye (it is basically a dish made with the head and legs of a goat or cow) are just but some of the most famous food dishes appreciated by the people of Lahore. If there ever is a foodie in Pakistan, they can be found in Lahore, most specially in the food street. These foods are not only known for their incredible taste and great presentation but, also for their (often) intoxicating aroma.

Chicken Biryani

Siri Paye (Stew of Goat's Head and Legs)

All that we learnt in this session as well as in the previous sessions, together reminded me why theater (as we discussed in the second or third session), is important for our daily lives, it also reminded me of my love for Lahore. Like one of my fellow colleagues has mentioned in her blog, ‘It (theater) communicates through sounds. People who are familiar with the sounds can relate to them which in turn evokes certain emotions in us.’ I completely agree with this viewpoint. Like Lahore is not Lahore without its sights and sounds et cetera, similarly, theater is not theater without its element of sounds. The essence of Lahore is therefore, very similar to the essence of the theater. 

Inside of the Quaid-e-Azam Library

I am... me?

8th September, 2015.

What happens when you go to a random stranger and say hello to them? You give them your hand and they shake it if your greeting is welcome. What happens next? You give them your business card perhaps? Or you make small talk. If this goes well then what happens?

Nothing much except, you have extended your hand in friendship (or perhaps a purely professional relationship) with a random stranger. You have made someone happy so, you have done a good deed because you have for that moment made the world a better place. What happens if the act of giving the business card or making small talk is not welcome? What if the person you attempted to greet and shake hands with refuses to acknowledge your efforts? No matter! Keep trying because that is what life in general and theater endorse. There is no absolute right or wrong, no black or white. There is a relative, a gray area, a liminal space perhaps? Life and theater are dependent on those little decisions one has to take every step of the way. You can have a third, a fourth, a fifth and so on chances to improve upon your performance in theater as every wrong decision and every failure in life is a new chance.

This is a major part of what ethnotheater is.

Similarly, Dr. Hughes basically tested the class by making us take a similar test where you greet someone you (preferably) do not know, give them your business card or shake their hand and so on. If one option doesn’t work you can try another so long as you keep striving. So long as you keep attempting to grow like theater preaches. This simple exercise is an answer to the oft asked question of theaters’ role in one’s daily life. These simple acts are what connect human beings as one web. In theater the act of forming a circle, of putting on a new character everyday – and doing that character justice, is the act of performing under the umbrella term of ethnotheater. Where you constantly have room to grow and be more natural in your efforts with every laboring attempt.

Basically then, the branch of experimental theater is a part of ethnotheater. For instance, the videos shown to the class (by the ASU Team) of the 100% Melbourne or Calcutta in a Box, are examples where real people (common people) get to share their stories in a theater space, and take on the role of a performer. This act of making the ordinary or simple a form of art is fundamentally, what ethnotheater is all about.  

This is where the ‘I am’ and ‘I want’ play a new role. Since the Professors had shared the above mentioned videos with us, they now made us take two papers each (one of I am and the other of I want) so, we could perform with the papers serving the purpose of our primary script. The idea being that you take on a character that may be entirely different from the person you are and despite your hesitations you do it justice. It was to teach the class that the characters you choose take on become a part of your being and you connect to them in a way that only you can understand because you have been through the ordeal of putting yourself in their shoes, as the age old saying goes, ‘you can’t truly know a person till you out yourself in their shoes’. 

When Magic Happens!

7th September, 2015.

In today’s session we only interacted with Ms. Niaz. She critically analyzed our previous blog postings for us reminding us that she was indeed reading them. However, the most important part of this session was that we somewhat brushed upon what we had covered so far in the course. She guided us on how to improve our blogs and conducted an interesting exercise of ‘I am…’ and ‘I want…’ she made us jot down three points in each category and then fold them up into little chits.

The reason why we wrote ‘I am’ and ‘I want’ on the papers was because it was meant to be an act of exploring the deepest (and in some cases darkest) recesses of one’s mind. Theater does that precisely! As I said in one of my earlier postings (or so I believe), theater makes individuals grow in ways nothing else can. It enlightens you, brightens your horizons in ways that surprise even the performers at times. For instance, as I’ve always had an unexplainable fear of performing in front of people in any capacity, I felt completely out of my comfort zone when I was asked to perform a thirty second play in front of my instructors and colleagues in the previous session.

However, I went through this growth like the others around me (I’m sure). As a woman, a student, a performer – all the different faces that make me who I am – I learnt that fear of performing can also be thrilling (it can make one feel like they are on top of the world for just that moment in time when they are being appreciated for their part). In fact, it is not just physically performing that is rewarding but, the art of writing. As I write this I feel like I’ve developed a more fluent and articulate manner than I had in all my earlier posts. Somehow this feels more natural, so is the case with the performing arts. It is very similar to learning a new language (or in most cases, acquiring a first language – as is with toddlers and kids).

As I said before, the ‘I am’ and ‘I want’ activity was an eye opener for me (at least) because it made me feel like perhaps I was a character in a book trying to philosophize my life and make it something special when it is just the small moments of happiness or triumph that make life appreciable. Also, it acted as a mirror for me, a mirror that reflected for me what I either forgot or chose to forget (as we tend to do – it is just one of those human things, wanting to forget what is disagreeable or not-so-interesting to or for us). In a similar fashion does theater also flourish, it acts as that mirror most needed in, by and for society to thrive. For it is with theater that most interesting and often overlooked issues are debated upon. 

The overall experience made me think that if I would have to be found somewhere, where would that be? Where could someone turn to, to find me? Through the I wants and I am’s,  I realized that if I could not be found as a physical being, I could at least be found where magic really happens, in the performing arts – whether they be through the written word or through actually performing something, because at the end of the day that is a part of who I am and to find me, the looker would have to look into all my different faces, even the cowardly performer waiting to be unleashed. 

Thank you Five!

4^th September, 2015.

This proved to be not only beneficial but, a truly fun experience. Despite my fear of performing in front of an audience (aka my teachers and unknown colleagues), I was able to pull my socks up and do exactly that. Like always we gathered together with our instructors in an informal environment to learn. Yet again they did so without any straight forward manner of following the rule book, for instance, "You do this and so and so happens" instead, they started off by asking us what we had understood so far from our previous sessions together and what we hoped to learn in the future sessions to come. This started a round of debate on whether or not theater has any significance in our daily lives with references to Plato’s The Republic. The students engaged in the discussion came to a mutual consensus that nothing can be purely black/white. There are gray areas in everything.

 

This is precisely what theater does; it makes you aware of the presence of those gray areas so often pushed into the background. It highlights them by satirizing them, making them humorous, or just simply out rightly mocking the audience for their flaws, and this is exactly why theater is in fact important for our daily lives.

Having concluded the above mentioned, a list of who to perform theater for, and who not to perform theater for, was jotted down, along with a list of techniques that could be used to enhance a certain theatrical production classified as experimental theater. The examples shared were awe inspiring and generally speaking greatly experimental, however, they were also an eye opener to the many ways that theater could in fact be fun (because before this session I was strictly against theater, taking it to be in layman terms, boring).

Since we were eager to learn how ethnotheater and experimental theater are linked together in real life (without knowing it – in some cases – at the time), and the instructors were similarly hungry to teach through practical experience, the students were set the task of performing approximately thirty second performances having chosen any of the “who to perform for” or “who not to perform for” along with a technique or more to enhance our stories. Every group (since Prof. Boyd had divided us into the groups through the ‘huggie bear’ exercise) performed to the best of their abilities since we were given approximately twenty minutes to come up with an amazing skit.

At the end of this experience what I realized was, was that the simple fact of choosing a story close to your heart or your personal experience (as was the case with my group), can make a great difference in one’s understanding, not just of theater and its space but, also of how theater is important for a person in their daily struggle to survive the everyday obstacles thrown their way. It also reminded of what Shakespeare in his play As You Like It said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages” (Shakespeare n.pag.). What stood out to me about the experience of performing a thirty second skit though was that I learned to use a term commonly employed by theater artists and that was to say thank you before the number of minutes left before the show, for example, “thank you five”.  

Where Theater Begins!

3rd September, 2015.

This was the second session we had with our instructors Ms. Niaz and the ASU Team which included Dr. Hughes and Dr. Branch. For this session we met in the staff house (informal setting) where Dr. Hughes made us walk around the room randomly choosing friends that we would walk closer to, or enemies that we had to distance ourselves from. Though at the time it seemed a bit silly to be doing so, by the end of the activity it had become somewhat clear as to why she had made us take part in that activity. As a fellow student in a later session also asked Dr. Hughes, and the main idea they agreed upon was to make the students more aware of their respective theater space as performers of that particular theater space. 

Dr. Branch then made us take part in an unusual game of 'hug a bear' which also furthered the idea of getting more comfortable with ones fellow actors in the theater space. He would randomly say 'huggie bear one' and everyone had to hug themselves, or 'huggie bear two' (any number basically till 10). Whoever was not hugging would get disqualified. 

Before the end of the lesson, The instructors discussed the importance of improvisation through a fun activity of giving and receiving a gift from one's fellow actor(s). The purpose of this activity was to teach us how to improvise as per a given situation. A good gift would mean a positive reply while a rotten gift could result in a negative reply and so on. For this activity too, the students had to form a circle so everyone could be an active part in every gift exchange.