Wednesday 26 September 2012

26 September, 2012

Khan Market
At inner crossing; 5:30pm
Performers: Shibani, Pali, Shena
Observers: Aditi
Audience No.: Passersby, fluctuating 3 to 10 at a time
GROUP MIRROR followed by IMPROVISED FREEZES


This time we went with the intention of offering an experience that would allow people to join in -- only to discover that no one was interested in joining in!! Except for one person from Jammu, who was getting his shoes shined right next to where we were performing. (Throughout his interaction with us, the cobbler kept vacillating between watching what was going on with interest, and calling out to his 'errant' customer to return his slippers and take his shoes!) We also went with the intention of definitely bowing to our audience when we were done - only to realise that there wasn't really a fixed audience to bow to, AND we went armed with our little slips of paper with this blog address on it to give to people - heh heh to realise that no one really seemed to want them!! Well, except for our one friend from Jammu!

We were clear in our intent - offering something fun and interesting to people where they least expect it, and to allow them to partake in the experiment, if they liked. We started with a group mirror exercise. While the three of us were performing, we noticed a gentleman attempting to imitate us in the background, so invited him to be part of the circle, which he did gamely and with full enjoyment. The mirror exercise elicited some response from passersby, and a scattered circle of people who stopped to watch was created, including some shopkeepers, the cobbler and a policeman or two. Some people were genuinely amazed - one lady did a double take in shock as she came out of the 'galli' and noticed us - while others stopped to point and discuss what they thought was going on. Most of this was at a little distance, and no one decided to interact with us or to stay long enough to ask questions.

Next we did an improv exercise in which two people strike a freeze with narratives in their head, and the third person taps one of them on the shoulder to replace that person in the freeze, with a changed narrative. It was improvised in that we let the moment speak for itself, and moved in freely when and where we felt like.


This section was perhaps less 'dramatic' than the obvious concentration of a mirror exercise. Although this is where we thought people may actually join in - either they were shy, didn't understand that they could, were busy, etc... and that didn't happen. Shibani felt that we definitely should have stayed longer with it - we were done in less than half an hour. Certainly, it would be ideal to have enough time in hand to keep with an exercise/performance in order to truly watch how the action changes the space. One comment while we were doing the freezes: "Arrey dekh dekh... hang ho gaya"! It is also possible that some people passing by thought that we were simply posing for photographs (so the dog DIDN'T know??.... why not?... prefixed ideas, broken concentration, obvious awareness of what we were doing...). Again, people preferred to look on from a bit of a distance - we're not sure if this was due to the nature of the space, or the nature of the exercise/our energy.


At one point Aditi, as photographer, came into the freeze - taking photos from within the freeze, which was interesting, as it broke the subject-object divide. Here's the pic she took when in the freeze:



(p.s. we took ages figuring out where exactly we wanted to perform - as one of us was full of trepidation this time... )





Wednesday 19 September 2012

19 September, 2012

On a Metro
Travelling, Hauz Khas - Qutab Minar - Hauz Khas; 7:30pm
Performers: Pali, Rudy, Arushi, Shena
Observers: Shibani
Audience No.: As per travellers - fluctuating 3 to 20
SYNCHRONIZED ACTIONS - SIMPLE NARRATIVE


We used props of Newspapers and Books (Manto; Hindi). The sequence consisted of a series of timed actions (rehearsed, with counts) first with the Newspapers (take out from under arm, open systematically, sad sigh, read, get shocked, lift paper high, only eyes visible over paper - 'scared' eyes darting from side to side... fold paper and put it away), followed by a series of slow movement sequences with the Books (open, read interestedly, lift overhead but continue transfixed to page, look at cover, look at blurb, open and read with more energy and excitement - synchronized - and then flip pages in tandem with each other, look at book fondly, smell it, clasp it to heart).

Our story was simple - we didn't like what we read in the Newspaper, but certainly did like the Book!

This time, the audience did not have to make a decision to stop and watch - as they were already seated or standing around us with nowhere to go - except to get off at their designated stop! People seemed to be interested. One comment was wondering whether they were witnessing a 'Parody'.

At one point, between cycles of the narrative, the performers decided to slowly extend the books forward to the passengers seated opposite. Each of the 'audience passengers' readily accepted the books, and held them while the performers carried on with their sequence with the Newspapers. When it came time to use the Books again, performers simply had to extend their hands to regain their properties, and a very lovely physical and energy exchange was completed, without words, without explanations or analysis! 

Photos did not come clear, as the 'venue' was moving (!), so Shibani shot some videos instead.

One idea from Rudy - to carry slips of paper with this blog address to give to people.
Also, we're wondering whether to bow or not, after a performance. We feel we should. As acknowledgement both of our actions, and of the audience's participation in the actions. What thoughts? What does 'bowing' really mean?





Monday 10 September 2012

10 September, 2012


PVR Saket Market, 
at a pillar near the Chocolat shop, 7:30pm
Performers: Pali, Rudy, Shena
Observers: none (mistake - should have)
Audience No.: 30 - 40
FREEZE SCENES NARRATIVE, CYCLIC

We chose to do a series of six 'freeze scenes' - with a narrative in our heads - which we decided upon once we saw the location. We planned each scene roughly, and thought we would simply keep repeating the scenes, in sequence, while holding each freeze for at least 15 to 20 seconds
The scenes were: 1. Trying to push the pillar over, 2. Trying to lift the pillar, 3. Exhausted and resting, 4. Pleading with the pillar, 5. Pali gets stuck to the pillar, and R & S trying to pull him away, 6. Collapse and fall on the floor ... begin again.... and then again... etc.
(The narrative in our head was simply that we had lost a coin under the pillar and were trying to move the pillar to get it)

Audience:
Took a while to 'catch'. Heard someone say "Pillar hai, bhai, pillar hai!' when we were in the freeze trying to push it! Since there was no observer from our team, couldn't hear what people were saying during the action - but later we had some amazing interactions with people who had seen it, mentioned below under 'Our Comments' ... (it's becoming increasingly difficult to slot the observations into 'audience' and 'us'). At one point someone threw a coin near us, and then three or four coins.

We don't know what spirit the coins were thrown in. Perhaps it was a sarcastic comment. Perhaps it was a genuine payment for entertainment, 'Nautanki'-style. Maybe, as Pali later said, the performers' intent of finding a coin was simply realised! Hey, if audiences are free to interpret Art according to their inner stories, then performers, too, are free to interpret audiences' reactions! 'Explaining' either does away with all the possibilities.

When we bowed to each other - there was a handful of applause.

As we walked away, first a group of young men approached us asking us what we were doing... we asked them what they thought. They weren't quite sure what to make of it. In terms of the story one thought that we were doing 'puja' to the pillar - but then he wasn't sure because later he saw us trying to push the pillar, and that didn't fit in with his idea of what he thought the story was. We realised that he may have joined in at Scene 4 - so for him the cyclic story would perhaps be coloured by what he witnessed 'first'. (aha!)
Another young man, a model, also stopped us. He, too, was genuinely puzzled and had no real interpretation to give of what he had seen, nor did he seem interested in giving one. He figured it was some kind of theatre exercise, and asked us whether we were in an acting school ("Barry John?"). He also mentioned that it seemed we were doing something that might happen in France or Germany, and that it was rather 'abstract'...

Our comments:
Rudy: Oh my god. I feel I owe more to the people who are stopping to watch us. We are choosing to perform in a public space and we WANT people to stop and watch us - so we owe them something as performers. I don't want to leave them with a feeling of bewilderment, and of not quite 'getting it'. That would just alienate them and make them uncomfortable. Are we just being indulgent?
Pali: No, we're sharing our experiences of theatre. Theatre has meant so much to me, as a person, in my life - for me this is a sharing of something I love.
Shena: Owe more? Matlab? We had a narrative, we performed it quite well I thought (ahem..)
Rudy: But we only planned it ten seconds before show time...
ShenaPali: But we DO have at least 10 years each of theatre experience behind us - so it's ten seconds (and anyway it was more like 3 minutes okay!) backed by some solid experience. We crafted the scenes well, and aesthetically. We worked with some discipline. We weren't just doing random stuff...
Rudy: Ya, but.... OK - i don't care if people follow a clear narrative. That isn't what I'm getting at. But what we do ought to engage and hopefully move people in some way even if they (or we) are unable to articulate WHY.. - its like, sometimes I watch some contemporary stuff (okay, I'll say it... contemporary dance stuff) - and I'm like 'what the f?' 'What WAS that all about anyway?' The performance didn't affect me in any way and its just left me feeling stupid that I didn't 'get it' or that I just wasted my time.  Are we just subjecting people to ... what ARE we subjecting people to????

... good questions all.

What defines a 'good' performance? or Art? How much of the onus of the shared experience of a performance - shared by performers and audience - lies on the performers, and how much on the audience? Shena felt that any Art/Performance is capable of speaking - it just depends on who is ready, at which stage in their life, to listen. Rudy was vehemently opposed to this idea - ('WHAT? DO YOU MEAN AN ARTIST HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER? If the audience does not receive anything from a performance the only person accountable for that is the artist her/himself. We as performers CANNOT place that onus on the audience and say - "Delhi is not ready for this..." OR "They didn't get it because they are not used to watching this kind of stuff !"  )

We very sorely felt the lack of an 'observer' - (which is also why there are no performance pics of this event, also a sad fallout. In future - have an observer/documentation person fersure) - as the only two conversations we had with people certainly did seem to indicate that not only had people not been moved by what they saw, but that they were left feeling in a vague sense 'cheated' or incomplete.

So, feeling a little bewildered and incomplete ourselves, Pali said: "I'm hungry".
And we went to Lebanese Point for Falafel.

Here, we were fortunate to meet Bhagvan Das, owner of Lebanese Point and his staff person at the counter, Divender Singh. Both had seen the performance - and were excited and happy to talk to us about it. Mr. Das had thought that we were making a comment on Asim Trivedi (cartoonist recently charged with sedition) with the freeze in which Pali gets stuck to the pillar. Divender Singh had constructed his own narrative of the public putting someone on a pedestal and worshipping him, and then the System collapsing due to political corruption.

(... er... Rudy... what was that again?... who owes what to whom? who was it who first spoke about internal narratives? heh heh... TRUST!! TRUST in the process and in people and in performance! :) )

Bhagvan Das refused to let us pay for our Falafal roll and Pepsi - so we were Rs. 121/- and, very gratefully, a whole load of experience richer by the end of the evening.

L-R: Rudy, our Model friend, Bhagvan Das, Divendar Singh, Pali at LEBANESE POINT, Saket



Saturday 1 September 2012

1 Sept, 2012


India Gate
Performers: Pali & Shena + Shaan
Observers: Aditi
Audience No: 30-40
MIRROR EXERCISE



Audience:
At first, four Rajasthani bracelet sellers stood right next to us, in a row. Their gaze definitely motivated others to come and watch. Eventually a fairly large circle of people. There was general amazement, wonder, curiosity. Comments: 'kuch jaadoo kar rahein hain', 'hynosis hai', 'KYA kar rahe hain?' ... at the end, when Pali and Shena bowed to eachother in acknowledgement, there were a few people who clapped. As we walked away, one young man and his buddies stopped us and asked us what we were doing, what the trick was. We told him no trick, just focus and concentration, and asked him if he'd like to try. He was happy to. His name is Shaan, and he later shared his email address and facebook page with us.

Shaan with Pali

He and Pali did another short mirror exercise. He was very good, and picked it up almost immediately, and with great focus. It was quite beautiful to watch. One of the Rajasthani sellers caught up with us much later, with the excuse of selling us her bracelets, but quickly asked whether we had done some 'jaadoo' back there - Again, we explained no jaadoo, just connection. Showed her how to for about a second, before she giggled and stopped! The atmosphere was relaxed and easy, as compared to the malls.


Our comments:
shena: for me highlight was watching Shaan experiencing the exercise deeply.