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A blog about drama /  theatre and my experiences in the same.

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Discovering sub-text

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 04:56 PM on August 04, 2009 Comments comments (0)

It's always such a thrill when an actor discovers sub-text.


I've experienced tons of actors who are so focused on showing off [look Mama, I'm on stage!] that exhortations to discover sub-text are lost.


But once in a while comes an actor who listens... who tries it out... and then, there's magic on stage.


Leon found it. Ruchi did. The Khanna sisters were born with it! Sandeep found it. Ananda is another who was born with it. Niloufer found it. Namrata found it. Dalip found it. Naina's a natural at it. So is Gayatri.


In the dark hours, when I think, "Why do I even try?"


Knowing that you guys got it, makes it worthwhile.


Thank you.

Should we mollycoddle English language theatre?

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 10:36 AM on March 28, 2009 Comments comments (0)

People hate it when I point out flaws in productions. They say that I should encourage fledgling - or even experienced - directors, rather than critique their efforts.


Allow me to digress a bit. The advertising legend, David Ogilvy, reportedly sent a doll and a memo to every new employee who was likely to have a hand in recruiting someone new. The doll was one of those Russian dolls that have a doll inside them, which has another doll inside it, and so on. The memo reportedly read, "If we recruit someone smaller than us, we'll become a company of dwarfs. If we recruit someone bigger than us, we'll become a company of giants."


That's what I'm aiming for in English language theatre in Pune. Unless we critique honestly, how can we learn and grow? I have no problem being critiqued. I've learned a lot from the critiques. My productions have improved as a result. True, there are certain things I disagree with, like people telling me that the director should interpret the character's role, but even naiive critiques like the one for "Who Let The Dogs Out", where the critic just didn't get the reference to Snoop Doggy Dog's popular song, tell the playwright / director that there may be some sections of the audience that don't get it. It's then up to the playwright or the director to do what is best. But unless someone speaks up, how will we know?


I'm all for encouragement but encouraging someone to go off in the wrong direction will do her more harm than good, in my opinion. Hence, I state my honest opinion in my critiques and welcome similarly honest opinions.


We have to decide if we want soothed egos or the development of English language theatre in Pune. I vote for development.


Deepak

What is this animal called Theatre?

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 02:48 PM on March 20, 2009 Comments comments (0)
Minutes before show time...

The announcement has been made that the show will begin in two minutes...

There's a hush and a palpable energy from the audience. Someone coughs and immediately holds his breath... the show is about to begin...

Backstage, actors wonder if they'll get on stage at just the right moment. No one looks at the script. It's too late, anyway. One goes on or one does not. The cue triggers the action or it does not. The tech rehearsal was awful. The dress rehearsal was worse. Oh God! It's show time! Will we forget whole sections of the script like we did in the dress rehearsal?

And then, magic!

We are no longer actors in the wings, waiting for cues.

We are there, telling the story. There's no question of needing a prompter. The story flows. I forget a line, my co-actor covers and moves the story forward. The antagonist cues up and takes over from my momentary lapse. She hates me in the play but, like me, she wants the story to go forward. It's all about the play. It's all about completing the arc of interest in that scene, then the arc in the act and finally, good triumphs over evil. Or it doesn't. We send the audience home with a nagging question.

But no one can say anything about the acting because there was no acting. We were THERE! We lived the conflict! We laughed, we cried, we were cruel, we were soft. We didn't act it, we were it.

THAT is theatre.

Whether we like it or not, we're all going to die. Why not enrich every moment of our brief existence with the exhilaration that comes from telling the story?

Deepak

Whither Theatre in a FREE world?

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 05:11 PM on March 14, 2009 Comments comments (0)

Free websites, free blogs, free entertainment, even! The net is a "free-empowering" phenomenon.


You can even download movies for free.


If someone requests a script and I send it to him, there's nothing to prevent him from sending it on to all his friends. I'd go crazy trying to find out who's performed which play and where.


Is this the end of theatre?


I think it's the beginning of a new era in theatre.


The more we get online, the more we feel a need to connect for real. No entertainment can be more real than a theatrical performance. Live actors, on stage, right in front of us. No two performances ever alike! You can even meet the actors, for real, after the performance!


I think the net empowers live theatre even more than patrons did in Shakespearean times.


Deepak

What Performance Means

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 01:10 PM on August 13, 2008 Comments comments (1)
I came across this very excited post by Tom Peters on a Bruce Springsteen concert he attended. He put in a nutshell what every true performer knows - it's all in the energy.

A performer has to deliver energy to the audience in order to get energy back. Bruce does it better than most.

Read Tom's exuberant accolade to Bruce Springsteen.

Then decide if you really, really have the kind of energy Tom is talking about. Remember, Bruce is 58! It takes passion and dedication to have that kind of energy.

THEN think about becoming an actor.

Deepak

Theatre and Bollywood

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 01:25 PM on June 28, 2008 Comments comments (0)
I have ended the last three workshop series less than a quarter into each series.

I had to.

Participants signed up, PAID and then stopped coming because I wanted them to actually WORK.

I could read their expressions. "What's this stuff about text, subtext and stuff?" their expressions said, "I thought this guy would take a gazillion bucks, introduce me to a Bollywood director and I'd get famous overnight."

This, in spite of conducting a free seminar before the series started that I would not introduce them to anyone until they were ready. I realise in retrospect that they took "ready" to mean, "ready to pay cash."

Permit me to digress a bit here.

Naseeruddin Shah is a fantastically successful actor in Bollywood. He plays roles that are memorable and he's able to get "into the skin" of any character he plays. He is rooted in theatre and still appears live on stage, for the pure thrill of playing before a live audience. Of course, he charges tons of money even for those live appearances but I think that's in order to avoid the freebie celebrity seeking directors. What he gets for stage appearances is minuscule compared to what he gets for movies.

Be that as it may, Naseeruddin Shah, talented as he is, is by no means an overnight success.

He spent years in amateur productions in order to build the portfolio required just to get into FTII (The Film and Television Institute of India). Then he proved to the selection board of FTII that he has what it takes to be an actor.

Then he spent a few years going through the process of becoming a professional actor.

Then he spent decades in Bollywood doing Art Movies and other forgettable movies. Sure, he won critical acclaim for those movies, and won government awards, but the man on the street wasn't really impressed.

THEN he was recognised for the gem he is and given roles in mainstream movies like Jalwa, Karma, and others. Personally, I think his greatest role was in "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron" but that's just a personal opinion. I just saw some things in there that convinced me that this man was destined for greatness, that's all. Easy to say in retrospect, I know.

He then became the legend he was destined to be. He even played opposite worldwide legends like Sean Connery in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", playing Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.

He is definitely NOT an overnight success. He worked long and hard to be who he is today.

I am amazed at the number of youngsters who think they can achieve Naseeruddin's greatness without going through the struggles. Who think being introduced to a Bollywood director automatically puts them one day away from success.

I am saddened that they are looking for shortcuts. The path to shoddy, underground films and outright prostitution is littered with shortcuts.

That is not something I want to promote.

Hence, no more workshops.

Deepak

Eliminate the Director!

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 04:15 PM on August 20, 2007 Comments comments (0)

When I say "eliminate the director," I mean it on the lines of "If You See the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!"

This means, once the seeker has reached a particular point of development, a teacher is more likely to lead him astray than to guide him. After that point, the seeker must create his own road and, if he sees a teacher on that road, must eliminate him.

What I also mean by "Director" is the "Auteur Director." This is the kind of director most people are used to, someone who carves every bit of the play, telling actors what they must do, how they must do it and how they must say their lines. This is how film directors (at least, 99% of them) still direct movies.

On stage, however, that is stifling for the actor. Granted, in school productions, actors are too young to be able to interpret roles on their own. The Teacher Director must tell them exactly how each line is to be said, the actions they must perform while saying the lines, how they must move from point A to point B, etc.

If this form of direction continues later in life, however, the actor isn't allowed to grow. True development of the personality occurs when the actor learns to look at the role in the context of the scene and the scene in the context of the play and thus, the character in the context of the whole cast. It occurs when the actor gains the confidence to be able to "play with" the character, trying out different interpretations, inserting intellectual input into a creative endeavour.

There is, of course, a kind of director who cannot be eliminated, try as we might. This is the director who forms the "eye of the audience" during rehearsals. This director has a vision of the play and ensures that the actors portray that vision. If an actor misinterprets a role, this director must step in and guide him. However, he cannot do this UNTIL the actor interprets the role, however wrongly.

"Eliminating the Director" is like the quest for perfection; it can never be attained. Similarly, the director cannot actually be eliminated. However, I think it is necessary to work towards that elimination.

Deepak

Ruchi and the NDA

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 01:27 PM on July 24, 2007 Comments comments (0)
Ruchi (no name change here, she needs to know that she is one I respect) found me by googling me. She asked a friend about theatre in Pune and he mentioned my name so she googled me and found me.

That's no big  deal.

What's big is what happened after that.

While still in a workshop series, I got a request to stage Business Is War at the National Defence Academy (NDA) and I cast Ruchi as Mrs. Daga.

Sure, she had performed before a hundred or two while in college.

Suddenly, she was performing before 2,000 cadets, arranged in three rows before the stage.

She did it in style.

Later she confessed that her knees were figuratively knocking. But she performed, and in style.

Thank you, Ruchi.

Deepak

Frederick and burnout

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 03:39 PM on July 17, 2007 Comments comments (0)
As usual, name changed to save embarrassment.

Frederick came to me when I announced a series of workshops. "I don't really want to be on stage," he confided, "I'd just like to participate, maybe interact with people.... is that okay?"

I assured him it was.

"Maybe interact with people" was the clue I got. Frederick had been hit with burnout. Successful in the corporate field, he was nevertheless dissatisfied and wanted a break. He decided to join the workshop series.

Halfway into the series we got a deal for a closed show. Stage a skit of around 20 mins, leave the team leader to build on it to uncover the real problem.

We needed a sound man. Not someone to set up the microphones and the speakers, just someone to tell the guy who did when to shut which microphone and what track to play.

Frederick volunteered.

In all the workshops hitherto, he had been content to be dumped into groups and do what he was asked.

Suddenly he was volunteering.

The show went off without a hitch. Frederick stopped attending the workshops soon after. But what he wrote to me subsequently in an email I shall never forget. I can't post it here because I respect his privacy.

Suffice to say, Frederick, a man trained in HR, saw more teamwork in operation in a 20 minute skit than he ever had before. And the experience of just being in a production spurred him to go back to the corporate world, revitalised and refreshed.

Deepak

The Story of Tucker

deepakmorris Posted by deepakmorris at 02:24 PM on July 09, 2007 Comments comments (0)
Tucker (name changed to protect him from embarrassment) walked into one of our rehearsals, having been told that we are a local group that welcomes anyone. He waited patiently until I announced a break, then introduced himself and said that he was interested in acting.

There was a problem.

With his first few words it was evident that Tucker had a speech impediment. He had an impressive physique but a baby voice. Hoping that a script would help him overcome the impediment, I asked him to read a small part. He botched it as badly as anyone ever can.

But Tucker had determination. I told him that he was welcome to attend rehearsals if he'd like to learn something about acting. He eagerly accepted the invitation and was there, faithfully, at every rehearsal thereafter. He began helping out by prompting. A rich person in monetary terms, he never felt it below his dignity to run errands for the group, putting his time and resources into things as simple as fetching mosquito repellent for members of the cast.

As a test, and to give him experience on stage, I gave him a non-speaking part in a production. He never complained. He did his bit. What's more, he added small gestures and actions that said that he was totally in character.

I took a chance in the next production. Baby voice be damned, I gave him a really meaty role. Tucker performed with aplomb. Over the next 3-4 plays, Tucker grew into the type of role that only he could play.

But Tucker wanted more.

At the casting of his second-last play with me, Tucker took me aside and said, "Boss, I need more. If you tell me to play the same type of role again I will, but I want to do more."

So I worked greater depth into his character. And Tucker discovered subtext. I can never forget how excited he was, as he bounded up to me during rehearsal and exclaimed, "Subtext! I got it! Subtext!" He never tired of telling cast member about subtext too.

But members of the cast, especially the more experienced, were worried. Tucker had subtext nailed but he hadn't learned the text! In other words, Tucker hadn't learned the dialogue.

Come show date, experienced members worked with him non-stop as the rest of us set up the stage. One of them came up to me half-an-hour before the show and begged me to cancel it. "Refund the money," she said, "or you'll lose whatever standing you have in the field of theatre. He's not ready."

But I saw the fire in his eye and decided to press on, nevertheless.

Tucker delivered a performance to beat all performances.

Later on, the actor who had asked me to cancel the show came up to me. "He HAS it!," she exclaimed, "He was completely transformed as soon as the curtain went up. How did you know?"

"I didn't," I replied, "I just saw the fire and decided to run with it."

Tucker is now in Dubai and I hope he joins the Dubai Drama Group, to be able to scale heights he would never be able to in Pune. All it took was enthusiasm and "stick-to-itiveness".

Deepak

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