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.
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