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.

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.