American Theater: More and More Rehearsal!!!

The count down had already begun. We were not much afar from our final performance. All we needed at that time was to rehearse and rehearse as much as we could. The previous day, we got a rough draft for our "Mirza Sahiban" performance and we were really happy about that, though it still needed a neat execution. Our stories required refinement too. So there was a lot of stress on our minds that how the things will work out, how will we turn out as performers.

I had concerns regarding my own story particularly. What I thought was that the element of "drama" was somehow missing in it. Though my friends seem to disagree and liked the way it was. Dr. Erika Hughes did a special favour to our "visual group". She took out her time and exclusively watched our stories being performed and particularly guided us as to how to go about the moments of transition during our performance. That was indeed of great help in polishing our work.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the days that were fully dedicated to our practices and no doubt, all of us tried our best. We practiced, we laughed, we sang, we danced, we took selfies, group photos and what not. Those days were a perfect blend of exhaustion and amusement, which actually was not quite a toll. When you have such wonderful teachers and mentors around you, all you do is that you learn and you enjoy. And that is what we did! 

The highlight of the day was a huge iridescent dupatta revealed by Miss Asma Niaz. that big dupatta was made up of all the lustrous dupattas contributed by us. It was simply AWESOME and the way it had  to be utilized for the exit of our honourable guests was truly a unique idea. 

 

At the end of the day, we were all ready to set every corner of the stage on fire. 

American Theater Lecture 13: More Rehearsals!!!

Now this was hilarious! All of us standing outside Haladia Hall, waiting for it to be unlocked. There came Ms. Asma Niaz , instructing us to start the breathing exercise right there and then. While we were shouting out "Eleven Benevolent Elephants" and "Toy Boat" with all our might, people started gathering around and seemed quite amused. Well! we didn't bother much about it and continued. 

Not many days are left for the final performance and we have to be really vigilant and efficient in our rehearsals. Though today's session didn't seem to be so long, it came out to be quite successful and fruitful. Finally, we gave a form to our "Mirza Sahiban" and it was a great relief to at last see our ideas materializing into stage performances. 

We started off by discussing our performances with Prof. Boyd Branch. Further, Dr. Erika Hughes improvised our part in "Heer Ranjha". The way "the visual group" has to come down the stage while singing the song "layian layian main tere naal" to become a part of "Heer Ranjha" performance, was enchanting. We all are playing the part of Ranjha's family whose blessings he seeks before going to marry Heer. I really like the idea, the way narration of different versions of "Heer Ranjha" is being done through historians in the play. 

The highlight of the day is that our group, i.e. the visual group, eventually succeeded in staging "Mirza Sahiban" for the very first time.  Our narration of the story is in poetic form that Sanaa Mahmooda has written quite well. It is just the beginning of rehearsals and  we have to work really hard to produce something presentable.

As the days are passing by, we are getting a better understanding of what Experimental Theater is. We are planning and practising a lot of unconventional things on the stage. The settings, the flow of stories, the division of the audience; all this is going to be really exciting and hopefully a unique and entertaining experience for the audience. 

American Theater Lecture 12: Rehearsals!!

I never thought of Lahore the way I have started thinking about it now. Only when we sit together and think of the visuals that are special to Our Lahore, we realize that how these small scenes from everyday life of Lahore serve as the interlocking pieces without which the picture of Lahore is incomplete. We all relate to it differently, yet with the same feel. 

Today in our visual presentation of Lahore, we took a stride. We rehearsed for it on the stage. Yes! Though all lot of improvisation requires, hopefully we will do it. 

All nook and corners of Haladia Hall were occupied today with Actors. Well, at the end, being a part of Ranjha's family felt good. We were all cool about his marriage with Heer. We support love! 

American Theater Lecture 11: Contemplation!

Today was a day more of contemplation and discussion. In order to shake our slumbers, we did our usual warm up exercises with Dr. Erika Hughes. After that we sat in the same groups as we were divided yesterday. As a group, we are working on presenting Mirza Sahiba on the stage and rendering visual depiction of Lahore. Prof. Boyd Branch listened to the different narrations of Mirza Sahiba folktale that we wrote. One of our friends came up with a beautiful poetic narration of the story. We discussed the ways we can depict this folklore on stage. 

Soon we were joined by the M. Phil students of Media Studies of Kinnaird College. We shared different visuals that we associate Lahore with. Everybody had her own unique way of connecting and associating with this wonderful city. Lemonade vendor under a huge shady tree, golla dandaa, shades of seasons in Lahore, rangeela rickshaw, shrines are a few images to mention. Together we worked on the images and the ways to illustrate them on stage. Exploring the technical aspect of our performance, Prof. Boyd Branch demonstrated our group that how different images can be projected on screen to get the required effect. That sight was really heartening, as we were now getting a clearer picture of what our presentation may look like. With this we called it a day. A day that started with contemplation, ended with contemplation!

American Theater Lecture 10: Sounds, Smells and Pictures!!

Things have started making sense and I feel myself able to connect to all the activities that we have been doing from the last two weeks. Sounds of Lahore, Smells of Lahore and Pictures of Lahore is what we have been exploring. And now it is time for us to stage the sounds, smells and pictures of Lahore. Today's American Theater class was all about this.

After our usual warming up and breathing exercises, Dr. Erika Hughes and Ms. Asma  Niaz divided us into three groups. One group had to think of sounds of Lahore, second group had to think of portraying Lahore through its smells, and our group (the third one), had to brainstorm our favourite images of Lahore. Our group came up with many interesting images that we associate with life in Lahore, which illustrate what it is to live in Lahore.

Well, talking about myself, along with other things I mostly picture Lahore through its seasons. The fascinating thing about Lahore is that it changes its colour with the changing seasons. Each season in this city of mine has its own aura and mood. The long summer in Lahore is bright yellow, it harbingers the arrival of long vacation, it is the season of fruits, water and pools. It marks the time when we usually take solace in our houses or people decide to go and explore the mountains.

Bright summer in Lahore

No beaches for Lahoris...just pools and canals

The monsoon is grey and green at the same time. It brings with it fun family time. People come out of their air-conditioned rooms and feel the pleasure of natural cool breeze against their face. The weather comes up with delicacies of its own kind. 

Gray Monsoon in Lahore

Then follows pale yellow autumn and white winter. Though we don't have snow fall in Lahore during winter,  yet it is piercing cold. For Lahoris, even winter is not a season of hibernation and they prefer to come out and warm themselves up with soup and fish. 

White winter of Lahore

Spring in Lahore is like nowhere else in the world. No one colour can justify the beauty of spring in Lahore. It is cozy, it is bright, it is life-giving. Hence, all these kaleidoscopic images are Lahore to me!

Spring in Lahore

Spring in Lahore

The same canal changes its colour and form in spring in Lahore.

American Theater Lecture 9: Twine Twine!!!!

Voice is the most important tool that an actor possesses to emulate emotions and to communicate with the audience. Its importance is further emphasized when the performance is theatrical. It is with the element of voice that an actor develops different characters and produces variety in his speech. So, in order for us to acquire control over our voice and speech, Dr. Erika Hughes made us do certain exercises with her. She stressed upon the breath control for proper voice projection on stage. We practised this. While all of us were on the stage, Dr. Erika Hughes was in the last row of the seats in the auditorium. We all employed voice projection in order for us to be clearly heard by her. This helped us to gauge how much successful we will be in gaining the attention of the audience once we will be on the stage. Our professors want us to tame our voices so that they are properly projected while using the flow of air from the diaphragm of our body rather than just the lungs. Later on in the day, we further practised this. This time half of us were on the stage, while the rest were in the last row of the auditorium. We had to throw our greetings to each other. The whole idea of the voice projection here was to be loud without shouting.

Art has a strange quality to it. It breaks the barriers and connects. The students of Arizona State university designed a twine game for us. Twine game is described as a tool for making interactive fiction in the form of web pages. This game contained textual commands that we had to follow. The early part of the game greatly comprised questions related to the personal information about the person playing the game. We not only shared our personal choices but also wrote about our dreams in this game. We piled up those paper strips that carried our dreams for Ms. Asma Niaz to keep with her. This is how the pile looked like:

The later part of the game demanded us to be in two groups and to make a tableau that presented Pakistani culture first and then to present a tableau on the American culture. It was enthralling to watch the colourful graphic presentation of the Pakistani and American culture on the stage. 

Pakistan Tableau (Group A)

Pakistan Tableau (Group B)

American Tableau (Group A)

American Tableau (Group B

I think this game serves as a bridge that will ultimately help the students on the both sides to have a better understanding of the two cultures. It was fascinating that how people whom we never met were in a way controlling us and that also through technology. Moreover, I conceived the twine game to be all about exploration. It was just like a treasure hunt, where the clues lead you and take you towards an end. You never know what is going to unfold. At the end of the presentations, we brainstormed in groups to think of employing the concept of twine game and technology in theater and discussed it with our professors.

Eventually, we presented the dialogues written by us in pairs and with this our four hour American theater class of Friday came to an end. 

American Theater Lecture 8: Rituals

In our previous class, Ms. Asma Niaz told us to capture some pictures that represent Lahore or stand as a symbol of Lahore. Since, she didn't ask for them in today's class, I thought to put them here after all the trouble that I took to capture them. Here they go:

Quaid-e-Azam Library, Lahore

Quaid-e-Azam Library, Lahore
A Closer look

Jinnah Garden

Talking about today's class, it began with the usual reinforcement of our  muscles and breath exercises that we have been doing for a week now. This was followed by using the space of the room for moving in random patterns and using our sounds in a direct and strong manner in order to convey who we are and what we want. It was a continuation of the previous day's exercise, making us learn to project our voice while being on a theatrical space.

We formed all sorts of patterns through our random movements, movements on imaginary grids and in circular motion.  By introducing the concept of soft focus and narrow focus, Prof. Boyd Branch showed us that how we should be aware of our surroundings without our eyes coming in direct contact with them. Prof. Boyd Branch wanted us to work and operate like one organism and one body using our soft focus and narrow focus. To further practice on it, he told us to present Lahore Tableau on the stage by imagining it from the audience's point of view that how it would look. 

One interesting thing happened and that it was actually today I understood the purpose of "make your partner look good" exercise that we did almost a week ago. According to Prof. Boyd, when you are confused on the stage, just choose between the options that you have in mind and go ahead with them. In this, the other performers should try to make him look good by adding to the choice that he made. Once I understood the idea, I liked it.

After a short break of five minutes, Dr. Erika Hughes divided us into groups and gave us almost five minutes to prepare a small enactment of "rituals". The first group enacted the Mehndi ceremony in Lahori/Pakistani weddings. Our group was the second and we also presented a wedding ritual. Group three and four enacted rituals that presented the religious aspect of our people. Group five enacted a pure domestic scene with a fussy mom and a bossy dad. The last group was just awesome. They presented the ritual of how proposals for arranged marriages are being initiated and then finalized in our society. All these enactments largely brought to the ground that most of the rituals in our society are embedded in our social and religious consciousness.

It was for the first time that we were being assigned three homeworks by our three worthy professors. On reaching home, we had to update our blog entries, we had to bring with us an object of some importance and we had to write a dialogue. Finally, Ms. Asma Niaz greeted a good afternoon to us and I left the Staff House wondering what was good about that afternoon.