The Script, October 2010 - Issue 10

While Delhi frantically prepares for the Common Wealth Games at the last minute, many Bombay theatre directors are also frantically putting the finishing touches on their plays. This month, Sunil Shanbag opens his third play in the last 12 months - 'Walking to the Sun', written by Thespo winning director Vivek V. Narayan. Also opening this month is Manav Kaul's 'Mamtaz Bhai Pataang Wale' and (ibid) Productions' sequel to the successful 'Classic Milds'.

On the QTP front, we're preparing for the all India screening forThespo 12. Last month, all 3 plays from our repertory played at the Prithvi theatre to a wonderful reception. While Some Girl(s) will be taking a break to return soon, Project S.T.R.I.P. which completed 25 shows (YAY!!) will be heading to Calcutta and Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace (my personal favourite) has done us proud by being selected for the prestigious NSD Festival in January 2011.

Also we have started a new quiz section! Every month a new theatre question will be posted - it can be viewed on the right hand side under 'Up Coming QTP shows'. Don't cheat!!!

Last month's question was: What is the preferred term used in theatre for a 'bulb'?
The correct answer is: Lamp
A whopping 76% got it right!!

An overview of this month's edition of The Script:

Trivia Time: Theatre Terms
QTP Workshops: After Hours
Great Text: What are we going to read this month?
Project S.T.R.I.P.: 25 shows and More!
Some Girl(s): Back in 2011!!
Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace: A roundup and a hilarious recount of the 25th show while on tour to Chennai
Thespo 12: Screening begins!
Thespo at Prithvi: A round up of September.
Point of View: Priti Bakalkar reviews Saba Azad's 'Lovepuke'.
4 Corners: Himanshu Sitlani tells us all about watching his first play in Toronto.
AK's Various Thoughts: Akarsh Khurana shares Bombay's theatre scene of September.
Dolly Thakore's 'Life in Theatre': Dolly Thakore recounts her friendship and recent meeting with Zohra Segal.
Q's Countdown: Q counts the 10 backstage badshah's.
Up & Coming: Complete Schedule of what to watch in October.
Theatre Training: Kalari, Chhau, Children's Workshop, Play for Peace Workshop & a Theatre & Arts Appreciation Course.
Theatre Jobs and Casting: Theatre Professionals Hiring, Hartman de Souza and Indigo Kids Auditioning
Other Theatre News: Marathi One Act play Competition, the finalists for Writers Bloc 3 and a free performing arts piece under the stars!
Curtain Call: Something overheard at the Prithvi Box Office!!

Yours Sincerely,
On Behalf of Q Theatre Productions,

Himanshu.
Editor, The Script

Theatre Trivia - 'Theatre Terms'

Ever wonder where these theatre terms came from?

HAM:
Meaning a very bad actor who overplays his part. It is an abbreviation of “hamfat”, 19th century actors’ slang for home-made theatrical make-up, made of pigments mixed with lard (pork fat).

IN THE LIMELIGHT:
Meaning “enjoying attention and fame” – is a reference to a 19th century theatre spotlight that produced an intense, white light by heating a block of calcium carbonate in a flame fueled by mix of oxygen and hydrogen gas.

KNOW THE ROPES:The rigging in a theatre – the rope and pulley system for moving scenery – is modeled on the rigging of a sailing ship. In 17th and 18th century England, stage crews were hired from among the idle sailors of ships in port – people who “knew the ropes”.

BREAK A LEG:If you want to wish an actor good luck, say, “break a leg.” This is not a superstition, but one explanation is that it is an old theatre tradition going back at least to the time of Shakespeare, when “breaking a leg” meant bending one’s knee in a bow to audience applause.

PROP:
In theatre, a “property” or “prop” is any object an actor might pick up and use as part of a performance – such as a book, a sword, a cane, a wine glass, a cup, etc. Stagehands, however, have been known to refer to actors as

“props that eat.”

COSTUME JEWELLERY:
The term comes from the theatre. It refers to specially made “fake” jewellery that is part of a stage costume, there being an old actors’ superstition that it is very bad luck to wear real jewels (or handle real money) on the stage.

GHOST LIGHT:It is bad luck for a theatre to ever be left completely dark. At night, when everyone has gone home, there is always a light – called a “ghost light” – left burning on the stage. Some say it keeps ghosts away; others, that it welcomes them in. Every theatre has its ghosts and it’s an old custom that a theatre must close one night a week to give the ghosts a chance to stage their own plays. This is traditionally a Monday night (which also gives actors a day off after the weekend performances).

QTP Workshops

AFTER HOURS

The current batch of QTP's 'After Hours' workshop kicked off on the 10th of September and has been going on pretty well.

However, no more batches for the rest of the year. Next batch in 2011. Keep watching this space!!!!!

'AFTER HOURS' is our special ice breaker/ explorator/ tester/nothing lost-everything gained, weekend acting course for a quick check to explore & determine latent potential & future career in theatre/films. The program will include voice work, body language, theatre games, role playing, statues, miming, script writing & more.

With emphasis on acting going beyond observing to actual 'doing' the group is treated like a professional theatre troupe and all topics covered as though they were rehearsals and improvisations.The course will culminate in a short play on the final day to be performed for friends, family & public.

Great Text Reading - come read a play with us

On the last Monday of every month people meet in Q's drawing room to read a play they may have heard of but not necessarily have read. Writer's come to see how the greats wrote, actors come to play multiple parts and theatre lovers come because it keeps them in touch with the art form. It is open all and everyone takes turns in playing characters from the play. Discussions ensue after over tea and biscuits.

Last month, we read David Mamet's "Speed-The-Plow" - a satirical dissection of the American movie business. A film producer faces the ultimate dilemma.

His best friend brings him the movie that will make his fortune; a beautiful girl offers him the movie that will save his soul. He only has one choice. In this tale of greed, seduction and power everything he believes in will be put to the test.

Similar to last month, there was a downpour. But this time of people. Anukool was packed with more than 25 people filling Q's drawing room to read the play. Some even came with cakes and cookies for all! Thank you Facebook.

In the month of October, we will be reading Tom Stoppards "Rock 'n' Roll". The plays throws light on the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the democratic movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

The play is, amongst many other things, a hymn to Pan. It starts in a Cambridge garden in 1968 with a piper playing the Syd Barrett song, Golden Hair. It ends in Prague in 1990 with the film of a Rolling Stones concert led by Mick jagger. And, although Stoppard's play deals with Marxism, materialism and Sapphic poetry, it is above all a celebration of the pagan spirit embodied by rock n' roll.

The original production was staged at the Royal Court Theatre and ran from June 3 until July 15 2006. It then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre.

We will be reading it on the 25th of October at 7:30pm at 18 Anukool, Sq. Ldr. Harminder Singh Marg, 7 Bungalows. Next to Daljit Gym. All are welcome. If you need directions call Quasar on 26392688 or 9821087261.

Project S.T.R.I.P. - 25 shows and more!

Project S.T.R.I.P.

Another QTP play, twice for Q in as many months, crossed the 25 shows mark!!!

"Project S.T.R.I.P.", a comic satire written by Ram Ganesh Kamatham and directed by Q did 3 shows at the Prithvi in September, with 2 of them being for the students of Jamnabai School.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who came for the shows in September and thank you once again for the positive feedback.

In a small pond, it’s the big corporations that feed on the little fish! A comic satire about deranged corporations, mercenaries-for-hire, and an armed man called Abu and people who just can't seem to get out of the way.

The play tells the story of the discovery of a native island community and their contribution towards the ‘progress and trade’ of the modern world.

The cast includes Harssh A. Singh, Dilnaz Irani, Tariq Vasudeva, Shruti Sridharan and Neil Bhoopalam.

The play will now be traveling to Calcutta to perform at the Kalamandir on 2nd November. Watch this space for more details!!!

For other details call 26392688 or email: qtheatreproductions@gmail.com

Some Girl(s) - Back in 2011!!!

SOME GIRL(S)

Another show, another great house. We would like to thank all those who came for the show in September at the Prithvi Theatre and who gave it a rapturous applause.

We are taking a bit of a sabbatical for now. We will be back with more shows in 2011.

Watch this space for shows in your area!!!

Some Girl(s) is a sideways look at the typical, somewhat lost young man of today. A man, on the verge of getting married, sets off on a journey across India to meet his ex-girlfriends as a sort of penance. To bring closure to relationships he might have ruined. Is he just visiting ex girlfriends?
Or is he looking for the one that got away? Or is there more than meets the eye?

Written by Neil LaBute.

Adapted by Akarsh Khurana.

Directed by Nadir Khan.
The Cast: Mukul Chadda, Shivani Tanksale, Juhi Pande, Radhika Mital, Tarana Raja Kapoor.

Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace - with A hilarious round up of the tour by Bhagirati Raman

Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace

The last 2 months have been special for Khatijabai. In August, the play crossed the 25 show mark. The show at the Prithvi Theatre in September was well received by all those who came to see the show and Khatijabai got invited to the prestigious NSD Festival in January 2011.

Bhagirathi Raman who was a stage hand when Khatijabai toured Chennai in August, recounts the experience.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Not only does theatre have all the cons of being an unfixed source of income, it has actually managed to pick the worst fixed-source-of-income job characteristics and turn itself into a masochist’s dream. Which all adds up to, amongst so much more - no insurance, no security, horrid pay, shitty hours, exhaustion, back, knee, mindbrain problems, and not a financier in sight. Ever.

And yet, we keep coming back. Or in some cases, have just never left. Survival instinct. Balls.

I’d like nothing more than to spend the next 600 words explaining dreams.

But seeing that it’s been over 110 years and far too many crackpots and couches since Freud, maybe that topic is best tagged ineffable.

However, the “no financier in sight. Ever.” part calls for a rumination on planning shows. This leads us to a sharp intake of breath when talking of a festival with moolah: Thespo.

No, not really. The Hindu Metro Plus Theatre Festival.

This year, QTP’s very own Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace was invited to perform at the MPTF held in Chennai, on August 13^th 2010. When opportunity rat-a-tat-tats, it is extremely prudent to open doors AND make arrangements for cross ventilation. Therefore, consecutive shows were immediately set up at RS in Bangalore for the 14^th and 15^th of August with the moolah generated through MPTF 13^th.

Welcome then, to three back to back days of theatre, in two different cities and four consecutive shows. All planned keeping opportunity in mind. Because everything else just requires a twistnturn to snugly fit in.

Unless it involves the draping of a sari.

Oh, wait.

Event
Backbone Toral left on the 9^th. She would undeservedly be missing the 25^th show of Khatijabai.

Event
Only four people could be carted to Chennai: Actor, Director, Lights, Person Who Helps With Sari and Searches For Furniture. KBKT amongst other things includes a horse shoe table in 4 parts with 8 legs, as part of set furniture.

Event
Another monologue was to follow KBKT. Lights had to be figured out quickly and blocked before a funny man sitting on a chair and getting up only to take a bow, swallowed 5 profiles.

Event
Lights. It’s Chennai. Everyone mostly speaks Tamil. The one person on the crew who was culturally programmed to speak Tamil, couldn’t. Made for morbid humour while rigging and set up till 6am. On the day of the show.

Event
KBKT has one actor on stage wearing a sari. No costume changes.

Draping a sari is not rocket science. Unless you’re culturally programmed to speak Tamil and can’t.

Hahaha.

Event
There are too many confused platforms at Chennai station. And two many similarly named trains. Especially when one has to bolt straight from backstage to the station after hurriedly packing in a mousey quiet environment while funny man on a chair was talking. This includes that horse shoe table in 4 parts with 8 legs.

Event
Bangalore has very nice weather that’s very good for the soul. This is not an unfortunate event.

Event
Another crew member was welcomed on board. Yay.

Interestingly, this person was culturally programmed to speak Kannada, and spoke a bit, but not enough to cut back on the extra cheese the coolie was charging.

Producer was having a mighty laugh amid bouts of existentialist palpitations.

Event
Electricity: on again, off again.

Thespo orientation: where are all those India shining young people anyway?

Event
The last minute of the KBKT monologue. It’s been built up well. It would end on a good note of intense.

Cellphone rings.

And rings.

And rings.

And stops.

Play ends.

Event before the last
Long long long conversation at the end of the rainbow. Like a Lights person said, a trip like this is never complete without such conversations.

Such an end is bland without all the events leading up to it.

This is unfortunate for the back, knee, mindbrain and lack of insurance cause, maybe this is why we keep coming back. Or in some cases, have just never left. Survival instinct. Balls.

Final Event
Excess luggage on the way back for some parties involved. Maybe boobs and a nice smile next time guys.

Thespo 12 - Screening begins!!

Founded in 1999 by Theatre Group Bombay (TG), India’s oldest English language theatre group, Thespo has been created to give young performers (under the age of 25) an opportunity to hone their talents, in the simulated environment of professional theatre. Giving teams the best infrastructure available, so that they can produce the best work possible. Guidance in terms of technical and dramatic knowledge is also provided to the teams.

From the humble beginnings of a one-act play festival, the movement has grown into a round the year activity - with Thespo at Prithvi happening on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of every month and an Annual National Festival organised every December.

This year Thespo 12 will be held in December 2010 at Prithvi & NCPA Theatre.

THESPO 12 SCREENING PROCESS

Registrations for full length play for Thespo 12 closed on September 15th. This year we received over 60 registrations from more than 8 cities which include, Bombay, Bangalore, Delhi, Goa, Kodaikanal, Nagpur, Pilani and Pune.

This year's screening panel consists of Quasar Thakore Padamsee (Actor/Director, Q Theatre Productions) and Kashin Shetty (Director, Actor and Winner of 2 Thespo's).

Over the year, the full length play's that have made to Thespo, have produced some outstanding talent who have gone on to be successful in theatre as well as various fields in film and radio. Some of them include: Anand Tiwari, Namit Das, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Karan Makhija, Amrita Puri, Kshitee Jog, Akarsh Khurana, Nadir Khan, Preetika Chawla and Ali Fazal.

How you can still get involved:
* Short performances in a non-regular space are held before every show. (Includes mime, short plays, poetry reading, monologues, etc.) Last date for registering for platform performances - 20 October 2010

* Play in a band: If you are a musician or part of a band, come play at th festival every evening. Last date for registration - 30 October 2010

* Attend a Workshop: Workshops each month conducted by eminent theatre veterans on a variety of topics.

* Design A Poster: Poster designing competition, where participants design posters for the short listed plays, which will be exhibited at the festival.

* Write an Article: Submitting an article on theatre for the festival magazine.

* Join Team Thespo: Design posters, sets, interior décor, work in PR, marketing, backstage, lighting, interact with theatre professionals, organize performances and a whole lot more.

To watch the video on how you can get involved with Thespo 12, Click Here

Thespo is on the lookout for 3 people, who would be part of the organising team.

For an overview of last year's festival, watch the video here.

For further details: 2639 2688 /Join 'Thespo' group on Facebook/ thespo12@gmail.com

Thespo at Prithvi - Back in 2011

Thespo at Prithvi was started in 2007 to provide a more regular showcasing of the best youth theatre talent in the country. Thus every first Tuesday and Wednesday each month, the next generation of theatre wallahs stride across the hallowed Prithvi stage.

Thespo at Prithvi is also providing an opportunity for young theatre groups to showcase their short plays, as a pre show appetizer before the main show on each Thespo at Prithvi show day.

If you have a play that you think can work in the outdoor areas of Prithvi Theatre, email us at thespo@gmail.com


THESPO AT PRITHVI in September presented Jester Productions 'EQUUS'. Despite playing for the 3rd time this year, the play was well attended and the positive reviews kept coming in.

We would like to thank everyone who came for the shows.

Thespo at Prithvi will be taking a break and will back in 2011 with more shows.

Point of View - Priti Bakalkar reviews Saba Azad's 'Lovepuke'

Lovepuke: Love bites..

I was not very keen on watching Lovepuke; the directorial debut of Saba Azad. But, when a friend of mine called me on the day of the premiere show and asked me if I would join her, I said, “why not!”. When we reached NCPA around 6pm (newspapers had goofed up and wrong show timings were published), we were told that show was sold out completely. This aroused my curiosity about the play. Well, a new production which was hardly advertised except for a few articles in newspapers and Time Out and creation of a Facebook group and the show was sold out on a Thursday evening!! Wow! Now, I had to watch it. I was told that the next day show was also sold out. Hmmm…, I want to watch it more desperately. I tried online booking as suggested by one of my sources and I managed to get the tickets.

The story of this play of Duncan Sarkies revolves around these eight young individuals: three couples and two narrators. The play begins as each couple walks on stage and outlines the major events that shaped their relationship: namely, lots of sex, lots of arguing and, for some, lots of breaking up and getting back together and again lots of sex. The plot then winds back to the beginning of each of their stories: a chance meeting at a bar and proceeds chronologically from there. Their adventures are narrated by a cynical singleton friend (Imaad Shah). Who are these three couples? A low esteemed dorky guy (Karan Pandit) and a “need to look happy in front of my ex-boy friend” gal (Rifq Sarao); an “am I gay” guy and a “Sex is never enough” gal; a “she looks like my ex-girlfriend” guy (Ishaan Nair) and a “wanna have a fairy tale romance” gal (Preetika Chawla). And then there is the second narrator-figure (Saba Azad), a poet who for the most part was in a corner of the stage sitting on a commode (she seemed to be enjoying her constipation a little too much) and punctuating the proceedings with verses comparing love to a bodily function more related to what goes on in the loo than the bedroom. Her character seemed largely superfluous although her nursery rhymes about poo and goo goo were indeed amusing for those who enjoy potty humour.

Much of the laughter in the play, came from the use of swear words, simulated sex acts and while these were cheap shots, there is no denying that they worked tremendously well with most of the audience. A particularly memorable moment was when the cynic narrator, expounding on the joys of singlehood, admitted to masturbating and then pointed to the audience members and accused them with macho bluster, "I bet you masturbate too!" He seemed clearly enjoying himself as he did it.

The performance drew quite a bit of laughter through the different characteristics of the lovers that went through the discovery experience of their partners and themselves. The journey of the couples was shown through a very interesting use of placards. The Couples flashed cards in various sequences surrounding the key words of ‘Sex, Argument, Break-up, Make-up’. At the ending of each scene were displays of cards by the couples showing the key word, ‘First’, ‘Second’, ‘Not Participating’ or ‘Unfinished’ after moans of sexual elation or frustration. A couple flashing cards with ‘First’ and ‘Second’ represented an I-win-you-lose situation, whereas a couple flashing cards with ‘First’ and ‘Unfinished’ represented a bipolarity of satisfying-doubtful situation. A couple flashing ‘Not Participating’ and ‘Unfinished’ cards represented a situation of sexual depression on both sides for reasons like discontentment and disillusion with an uncommitted partner.

The success of a play like this, however, ultimately rests on its cast. They need to be completely at ease with their characters. Unfortunately, except for Imaad Shah, Tariq Vasudeva and Aditi Vasudev, all actors seemed ill at ease with their characters. As a result, though the script had real high octane energy, the performance did not give the buzz that it should have given, almost like a flat beer!!

Imaad and Tariq sizzled on the stage. Aditi was terrific with her caustic reactions to Tariq’s attempts to win a few complements. She looked and behaved a complete tease. Karan and Rifq had a very flat graph. I immensely enjoyed the first introduction scene between Preetika and Ishaan, however, as their relationship progressed and Ishaan lost interest in Preetika, I, too, lost interest in them. There was an overenthusiastic use of music score which sometimes became a little bothersome. Sometimes, even the silence works!

It was not one of the most brilliantly executed performances but one cannot write off the confidence and polish with which it was presented. Full marks to the team for that! And I hope in future we can say “full marks to the team for the performance” too!!

4 Corners - Himanshu Sitlani shares his views on watching 'Love, Loss and What i Wore' in Toronto, Canada

Apparel oft proclaims the (Wo)man

When I shifted to Toronto a couple of months ago, I realised that I’d finally get to see a big, glamour filled theatre evening. So when the chance came to finally see my first play in Canada, and my first in over 3 months, expectations were high. And I picked a play that’s been receiving rapturous applauses in the US and Canada, ‘Love, Loss and What I wore’ – a memoir of over 20 stories about how clothes make a woman.

Yes, I watched a chic flick on stage.

Love, Loss and What I Wore, is a collection of pieces written by the sister duo of Nora Ephron (Screenwriter of films including When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail and Julie & Julia) and Delia Ephron (Co - Screenwriter and producer of the above films) and based on the best selling book of the same name by Ilene Beckerman. The cast consists of 5 women on a rotational basis. Celebrities too have been involved in some of the shows. These include, Mellisa Joan Hart, Fran Drescher, Rosie O’ Donnell and Brooke Shields.

I saw the show at the Panasonic Theatre, built in 1911 and has gone through many transformations since then. The theatre itself is a 500+ seater proscenium space, pretty much like St. Andrew Auditorium in Bombay. An interesting fact, the popular theatres in Toronto are named after electronic companies, Panasonic, Sony and Canon.

The play itself revolved around 5 women playing different characters through a series of short monologues, narrating stories about the clothes they wore at different stages of their lives. The vignettes included stories on bras, leather boots, bathrobes, prom dresses, gang sweaters, the irreplaceable shirt, wardrobe malfunctions, first date outfits, lucky underwear, your mother’s taste in clothes and dressing up as Madonna (“if you haven’t you are either lying or are Amish”).

One track, played by eminent radio personality, Barbara Budd, follows the life story of a woman named ‘Gingy’ through childhood, three marriages, motherhood and the death of a child, each turning point marked by a particular item of clothing. Other recollections of the evening, included the story of a woman who gave up wearing miniskirts in college after being raped, but refused to stop wearing her beloved boots, the anxieties expressed by two lesbians whose families oppose their union and the decision by a cancer survivor to have a tattoo on her newly reconstructed breast.

The staging was pretty much like the Vagina Monologues. 5 chairs, with all of them dressed in black (as one track goes, “Can’t we just stop pretending that anything is ever going to be the new black?”) and a white backdrop with light colours changing the moods based on the piece. The Gingy track involved colourful sketches of the outfits that defined a period in her life, on a clothes rack changed by a production person.

While some of the stories really struck an emotional chord, the others, maybe cause I’m a guy, were just rants about not having anything to wear despite having 2 closets full and never finding the right fitting outfit. The sketches in Gingy track was a pointless affair and at one time taking 8 minutes to draw a woman in an outfit, which was more a doodle actually. The worthwhile track of the evening was the one about how a woman’s bag is more like a garbage disposal and you’ll never know what comes out of there. Reminded me of a one Shivani Tanksale’s bag.

Not much could be commented about the performances as the actresses spent most of their time looking at the script, and still fumbled, and didn’t take much effort in connecting with the audience or even voice modulate while playing children. Only Lisa Horner, a noted Canadian actress, and who is doing only a handful of shows of the play, tried to make the audience part of the evening.

The light design involved 16 lights with 4 colours which kept changing to the mood of the piece. Enough said!

While the 98% female dominated audience lapped up the stories and the performances, the males in the audience were still left to understand what the big deal was. While one would say I’m being a male chauvinist and hence not understanding the woman’s psyche for clothes as the reason for not enjoying the evening, I would like to point out that my Fashion Stylist of a sister hated the play more than I did and didn’t understand the point of the evening.

The guess the only thrill of the theatre evening was having a glass of wine during the performance. Prithvi and NCPA….are you listening?

AK's Various Thoughts - A September to remember

SEPTEMBER HEAT

It took me frightfully long to write this article. I hold Twitter responsible for that. I signed up recently, to promote our plays, but then got hooked, and fell for the ‘streaming of consciousness’. As such, I now think only in terms of 140 characters, and no more. So an article suddenly feels like a novel in comparison.

I first wrote: “Sept – Saw Lpuke, BISK. Tintin closed. Rehearsed SHE. Bro did Guy Thing. 96 guests! Congrats KK, Khat, DOT for NSD Fest. Waiting for WITS”

Then just as I was about to send it in, I did a check for typos and realized that I didn’t understand parts of it myself. So here’s the elaborate, comprehensible version.

Early in September I watched a couple of plays. First up, I saw the Indian adaptation of Duncan Sarkies’ Lovepuke, a quirky play about love, sex and relationships. It played to a packed house at NCPA Experimental, to an audience with a relatively new profile. When I walked into the foyer, I thought I had walked into Blue Frog, with brighter lighting. But seriously, the who’s who of the Todi Mills compound was there, watching. I suppose it had something to do with the cast, led by Imaad Shah, quite popular for his gigs in that pin code. The play featured some strong performances, especially by Karan Pandit and Tariq Vasudeva. And both these boys are somehow, coincidentally, in the next play I’m directing! (The ‘coincidence’ part is being questioned because rumour has it that they were cast by me two days after I watched this play.)

Next, I saw the recent blockbuster of the stage, Bas Itna Sa Khwaab, starring Shefali Shah. Yet another packed house, which one doesn’t see often at Manik Sabhagriha. I had a good, engrossing evening. The play is a very interesting take on Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” but uses that as less of a source and more of a starting point. Very strong performances across the board, including Akvarious regulars Adhir Bhat and Abir Abrar. Some great dramatic moments in the play, but my favourite was when I turned around to look at the audience at one point, and saw transfixed men and copiously weeping women all over. There it is ladies and gentlemen. The strength of the medium.

In other news:

The Adventures of Tintin, our latest (and rather successful children’s play) got shut down by the Herge Foundation in Brussels. Apparently the same fate befell a London Tintin production a few years ago. Some complicated rules about the author’s estate. I don’t see how one can trust a trust.

After some rigorous rehearsal, our first devised piece ever, Second-Hand Emotions opened at Prithvi. (Look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devised_theatre. I did.) There’s a line in the play – “You’re a strange creature. A puzzle, one might say.” This probably best describes the play too. And it is said by a character who is ferociously attracted to a woman, but can’t understand her. Similarly, a large number of people enjoyed the play, used the word ‘mesmerizing’ a lot, but didn’t fully fathom it. That is, as they say, the nature of the beast. The interesting part for me really is the process in this kind of piece. It is always evolving. And I suppose it will continue to do so.

We also had shows of A Guy Thing, with some new cast members, and a new opening act called #309 by Michael Puzzo (the playwright of A Guy Thing), which went down very well, especially with young audiences. A hilarious ten minute piece about two hardcore comic book fans in a comic bookstore, it was performed ably by Divyang Thakkar and Siddharth Kumar (who is one man that needs to do theatre full time, for our sake). One of the replacements in the cast of the main show was my brother, who must have done something good out there, because 96 of his friends came to see the last show. 96! And young, thus the best audience for the play. And he was shattered and apologetic about 3 dropouts. I’m not sure I know 96 people to begin with.

Congratulations to Zero Theatre and the team of Dreams of Taleem, Q Theatre Productions and the team of Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace, Aranya and the team of Park, and T-Pot and the team of Kumbh Katha, for being selected for the NSD theatre festival in January. Mumbai theatre will be pretty well represented, I dare say.

The papers said that last month was one of Mumbai’s hottest Septembers already. And October isn’t looking too friendly. So while the concept of walking in the sun doesn’t seem inviting, I’m bloody excited about Sunil Shanbag’s latest play, Walking to the Sun. I’ve only seen photos, and I’m charged. Coming soon to Prithvi. So brave the heat and book early. I vouch for the Prithvi air-conditioning. And anyone who has any sense would vouch for the quality of Sunil Shanbag’s work.