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.