American Theater Lecture 7: Just Breathe!

SOUNDS. 

That is the word that echoed my mind once I left the American Theater class on Wednesday. 

The class began with some warm up and breathing exercises with Prof. Boyd Branch and Dr. Erika Hughes. Dr. Hughes made us pay attention towards how we breathe. She told us to stand straight and notice the parts of our body that are involved in the breathing process. We learned that the correct body posture changes the way we breathe and that our breathing process gives us breath control. Breath control is an important element for a theatrical performance as it helps us to master control over our bodies.

Using tongue twisters was really helpful in learning the breath control during speech. We all did those seemingly odd exercises that made sober people like us look silly and out of our minds. But that very sense of loosing ourselves and letting our bodies free always comes as quite a relaxing and fun thing to do.

Next, we listened to the audio compilation of all the Sounds of Lahore that we sent to Ms. Asma Riaz. Listening to those sounds was a pleasurable experience. Each one of us could relate to most of those sounds and could understand their representative quality for Lahore.

Lahore is a city that has a very rich cultural and social heritage. It has its own character. Its music, art, streets, geography and a lot more things were represented in those sounds. Those sounds ranged from individual to collective, just as the city has an individual and a collective perception. It was fascinating to discover at the end that how we all connected to those sounds. For instance, the song by the famous folk singer , late Reeshma reminded us of the rawness and beauty of dessert. The voice of Tariq Aziz in Neelaam Ghar had a great nostalgic quality to it that reminded me of the sweet old days of my childhood, when our lives were free of internet, dish antenna and of the breaking-news culture. 

Tariq Aziz

The sound of traffic in Lahore, I guess, is the idea that crossed through everybody's mind while thinking of Lahore. Somehow, my city has developed that new character in which all we can think of is the chaotic python of traffic on the roads. The presence of this noise makes us more conscious and aware of what is absent. The sweet rhythmic sound of Tonga hitting the Lahore roads is that what is missing and is being missed. It also reminds me of the high pitched sounds of eagles during the long summer noons. The koo of Quail that ruled the gardens of the city is now a rear occurrence.

Tonga on Lahore roads near Badshahi Mosque

This fact makes me realize that how cities change in nature with time. They evolve. They grow and in that growing they shed some of their old parts. However, those parts remain somewhere inside us.