I had the privilege to be audience to one of the most talented theatre companies in Vadodara called Applause Vadodara's fantastic production, The Cake Story. Written by Apsara Iyengar, the play depicts feelings and emotions that go through the minds and hearts of women. Both Apsara and her co-actor, Chitra Parmar, were brilliant. On the occasion of World Theatre Day, I was surprised to be called to talk to the audience after the play. Since I am quite a novice at public speaking, I thought of penning down my speech. Here it is:
When Apsara asked me to talk about
theatre, my first reaction was, “But I am not a theatre person. I
don't know much about drama.” She asked me. “So what kind of
person are you? What do you do?” I told her, “The only thing that
comes to my mind when I see a stage is dance. I am more of a dancer
than an actor.” As I finished the sentence, I realised how
ridiculous it sounded. “Isn't dance a form of theatre? Do we not
act?” I asked myself. “And do we not gesticulate, act, play our
parts in real life as well? The world's a stage, as Shakespeare
wrote, and all men must play a part.”
It's amazing how something as basic as
acting has become so niche. A child uses actions before he or she
learns words, art before he or she can read or write and sound before
he or she can speak. And yet, as we grow older and supposedly wiser
in our use of technology and busier at work, we keep dropping them
one by one. First, we let go of drawing and colouring. Who has the
time for that? Then music is left for the commute or leisure. Our
vocabulary of actions gets narrower and narrower with
institutionalised education. We get so caught up in the rat-race
that we forget to appreciate the gifts of the arts.
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| That's me sharing the stage with my former student and prominent social entrepreneur, Rushabh Gandhi Pic credit: Rachit Mankad |
I teach English often to people with
whom I have no other language in common. They come from places such
as Afghanistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. When
they do not understand a word I say, I have to act it out for them.
It's like dumb charade. But it's not a game. Drama is a very
important tool in education. I had the privilege of documenting actor
Swaroop Sampat's workshops on the use of drama in education when I
was working with UNICEF in Gujarat. She enabled girls and teachers
from remote tribal areas to understand the concepts of maths,
science, history and marketing using statues, skits, action-songs and
plays.
India has an oral tradition of
knowledge-transfer. And we like visuals more than words. This is
where theatre becomes a very important tool of communication. I go
back to UNICEF again. In order to propagate awareness about
education, girl-child rights, immunisation campaigns, women's health
and hygiene in villages, we used bhavai. In spite of the
advent of television, radio and cellphones in many villages, hundreds
of people gathered to watch ranglo and rangli. Bhavai
connects with people in their local dialect, using local expressions
and so our messages were customised towards the audience that had
gathered – whether it was the whole village, or majority women,
anganwadi workers or youth. The effectiveness of a medium can be
judged by how much it resonates with the audience and we were very
glad that the audiences across villages in Bhavnagar, Kutch, Baroda,
Rajkot, Valsad and Banaskantha districts had taken home the message
the medium delivered.
Why is theatre
important? It teaches us to explore our bodies, our expressions and
ourselves. It enables us to become people we could only dream of
becoming. It's aspirational. I teach at the Faculty of Journalism and
Communication at MSU and every year the students do a folk media
presentation. I have seen some of the very shy students essay
powerful characters on stage. They overcome their inhibitions and
become prominent team-players. Theatre also helps us to connect with
all kinds of audiences everywhere irrespective of their nationality,
language, age, religion, education, etc.
Why do we need more
of theatre in Baroda? We're living in an increasingly globalised
world. Even Bollywood movies cater more and more to the diaspora.
While we all enjoy cinema, we need media that engage with us at the
local level. We have radio that does a pretty decent job, we have
short films on YouTube, we have art exhibitions and song and dance
festivals. But we need something that tells us stories about people
like us using our words and actions within a real space allowing for
instant feedback. Only theatre can do that.
Thank you!
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