A note from Team Thespo Thespo 18 is here! The office is a mess. Nothing is where it should be. Scissors on the floor, cut up pieces of paper everywhere, people fighting over the last few drops of fevicol, phones ringing non-stop, details being checked, confirmed, and then proof read for the fifth time. In a word: it is brilliant. In the midst of all this mess, comes our final Ink issue for 2016.
This edition we are in dialogue with the bright and talented writerdirector Raghav Dutt, speaking about his experiences as a young artist making original work. For this edition’s Quick 8 we chat with Himashu Talreja, who Thespo regulars might remember as Kallu from Lassanwala at Thespo 17. All the way from America, Chloe Xtina writes for Budding Artist, about her experience as a teenager starting a theatre company. Finally, Thespoan Saatvika Kantamneni Chronicles her experiences as a stage manager. And at last: we have the Thespo 18 line up! With the festival upon us, we’re excited and charged up and we hope you are too! We hope to see as many of you as possible at our festival, come the 12th of December!
If you have any comments, or would like to contribute to the magazine, email us at ink@thespo.org
DIALOGUE with RAGHAV DUTT Budding artists The new age of theatre Chloe xtina
QUICK 8 Himanshu talreja Chronicles Make it work Saatvika kantamneni
THESPO RECOMMENDS WHAT’S ON AT THESPO
बातचीत with Raghav Dutt Raghav Dutt is a young, upcoming writer, director and actor. He has written and directed plays like Baawla, Parey, Ishq Aaha, and Dattu Ki Premkatha. He has acted in a number of plays including Aaj Rang Hai, Char Small, and Laal Pencil, 1. You are known for your writing and your direction. Of the two, which is more mazedar? Writing mein zyaada maza aata hai, kyunki mera instinct zyaada writing ki taraf jaata hai. Mere thoughts kaafi seamlessly flow hote hai. Direction mein kuch hurdles aate hai, kyunki jaisa socha tha, vaisa nahi hota. Par abhi, dheere dheere, usme bhi maza aane laga hai. 2. When you’re married to your script, how hard is to accept changes while directing it? Shurvat mai aasan nahi tha , Baawla mein kyunki maine hamesha wohi kiya jo maine socha tha. But during Parey mai thoda sa aage badha kyunki mujhe laga ki changes toh hote hi hai aur hone bhi chahiye. Hum sabhi change ho rahe hai, sabhi jaise jaise bade hote ja rahe hai changes aa rahe hai aur hum unhe accept kar rahe hai. Usko bhi accept karna chahiye, aur achha bhi hai.
3. Directorial debut se aaj tak, what differences do you see in your style of working? Farak toh of course hai, but the main change is the tools jo main istemal karta hoon. Doosron ke saath kaam karke jo maine seekha hai, pehle main wahi use karta hai. Ab main thoda bahut apne instincts par bhi dhyaan rakhta hoon. Tools shayad wahi hai, par andaaz alag hai. It’s brought more originality to my work, aur aise lagta hai ki main bhi apne aap ko explore kar raha hoon
4. Baawla kaafi autobiographical hai. What was it like exposing your personal story to an audience of strangers? Shuru mein darr lagta tha, zyada apne gharwaalon se, ki maine personal experiences toh bech nahi diye hai na. Toh main chhipata tha logon se, ki yeh meri kahani hai. But ab shayad who darr chala gaya hai.
5. Aaj kal kya kar rahe ho? Tell us about it! Ab main mera agla natak likhna shuru karoonga. It’s called Vicchaar. Who ek ladke ke baare mein hai, jo apne-aap ko talaash raha hai. Usko lagta hai ki usme bahut dusre logon ka influence hai, par apni khud ki personhood bhi dhundna chahta hai
Interviewed by Prachi Bhagwat
Chloe Xtina is the co-founder and resident Artistic Director at Bay Area Zeta
Players (BAZP). She writes about her experience as the founder of a teenage theatre group.
BAZP’s Heathers: the Musical July 2016. Photo taken by Bridey Caramagno.
Summertime is when I most feel like a teenager. Each adolescent summer of my own has included: love, journey, music, friendship, sensitivity, power, body exploration, heartbreak, and unworldly experiences. It was magic during the summer of 2014, when my house was transformed into a theatre company. The backyard suddenly became a dance studio, the living room became an actor’s workshop, the dining room became the break room, the kitchen itself, the bedroom a consulting and counselling office, and of course, the attic – the headquarters. This theatre company is Bay Area Zeta Players — a company I originally conceived and co-founded at the age of fourteen. We began as “Nerdology Musical Theatre”, a company that produced one summer musical that followed a geeky theme. Our first show was a great accomplishment: full sets, thrift chic costumes, a live band, and a family-bound cast and crew. But as I
and my badass, power-blazing team members grew, the company grew too. Geeky adolescence did not define us. We enjoyed comic books, zombies, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer the same, but now we had passed through our most youthful phases and discovered what we truly loved so much about making homemade theatre — the impact it had on us and our community. Creating dynamic theatre seasons and influential programs presented itself in the foreground. We were ready to expand and become more accessible to any theatre-loving teenager. Now we are a fully rebranded company with three exciting Programs. The first program is our original, Nerdology. We continue to put on summer musicals with a popculture theme rather than a solely geeky theme. BAZP still thrives to put on shows rarely seen before, so as to maintain and build up the energy that comes from a crew and audience who have been waiting to participate in such a show. The second program
is our 10 Minute Play Festival. The majority of our leadership team has found this our proudest accomplishment. It is the thrill of cultivating new, unknown, and vulnerable ideas ourselves rather than interpreting the work of adults. Our third program is to be implemented in our next season: a Straight Play. It has been something we have wanted to try for a while but were not sure we´d be ready for until we pulled off our 10 Minute Play Festival. Our foundation is to create theatre by the next generation for the next generation. There are many platforms that provide performance training and opportunities for teens but there don’t seem to be a lot that let those teens take complete control. Why do we want that control at BAZP? We want to share our own stories. We want to be present in our community. We want to learn the hard way. We want to break barriers. At BAZP’s core is our Board of Directors, our leadership team. With these ten hard-working theatre
champions, we all take on different roles to split the power, work, and focus. This has proven very successful. We don’t want our company to die out once our current Board has graduated so we’ve designed a mentorship program to have younger teens and tweens learn the ropes by attending board meetings and meeting one on one with their designated mentors. It’s a lot of work. I can tell you that. But it’s magical work. Super magical. This summer, I directed Heathers: the Musical, our third musical, — a show so perfect for us because it embodied the pressure and weight that teenage-hood carries. The actors were so in tune with one another and found jaw-dropping chemistry through many physical and emotional exercises but sometimes just even the fact that they had grown to love one another. As a crew, we decided to speak to our own audience. We made sure our cast was diverse by all meanings to represent that anyone and everyone goes through
BAZP’s cast and crew of the First Annual Ten Minute Play Festival Photo credit: Bridey Carmagno
experiences like the one Heathers takes you on. We sold out four performances and had to add another because it was so popular (that sold out within two days). We had actual fan girls and received fan art. Audiences gave standing ovations to musical numbers alone, wept, and cheered when the excitement was too overwhelming. This was our company’s proudest moment. We worked harder than ever these past years to make a difference and here it was tangible. This was my proudest moment.
I’ve told everyone we began in an attic. Every theatre has a creation story, typically something small or endearing. We’ve got that story in the bag. But there’s something else that holds the magic of our creation and our continuing existence all together: we started this company for teenagers, by teenagers.
Every aspect of our theatre seasons – the performance, the direction, the design, and my personal favorite [sic], the management – is done by teens. As we prepare to graduate, we will not adapt the company into the typical theatre company. The company will stay led by hell raising, rock n’ roll blasting, lazy, untrustworthy, rebellious teenagers. And with rebellion comes revolution. Chloe’s article was originally published in Margins magazine. You can read the full version here.
Himanshu Talreja is a graduate from Flame School of Performing Arts in Acting, Pune. He has been doing theatre for many years. He has acted in several plays in Delhi, Pune and Mumbai. He has worked with Nisha Trivedi, Lokendra Trivedi, Vidyanidhee Vanarase and Chittranjan Giri. He is associated with theatre groups like IAPAR, and Abhigyan Natya Association. He performed in Thespo 17’s play, Lassanwala.
Himanshu Talreja’s
QUICK 8 An unforgettable incident on stage? 2004, New Delhi. When I was acting in a Ramleela, the director slapped me because I was laughing on stage. The most exhilarating moment as an actor? When the third bell rings. One life lesson that theatre taught you? How to survive. An art form apart from acting that you would like to pursue? Singing
What other aspects of theatre interests you? Direction, Music composing, Set designing
A production you would love to be a part of? Tuglaq and Jaat Hi Poocho Sadhu
Ki
Favourite stage to perform on? Why? Globe Theatre, London. Because I haven't been there. A message from Kallu (Lassanwala) to fellow Theatrewallas?
Dekho bhaiyya zindagi jeena aur natak karna katai aasan naaye aur hume mushqilon ko aasan karte huye chalne main bohot maja aato hai. Poori imandaari ke sath kaam karte jaao dheere dheere sab samajh main aa jayego. “Mat kar kaaya ko ahnkar, Mat kar maaya ko abhiman.”
Saatvika is a production and stage manager for theatre and live events from India, currently based in London. She writes about the challenges and tricks to working behind the scenes to bring a play to the stage.
Operating tech for Playtime at Centre de Creation, France
I still struggle to succinctly describe my work to non-theatre folk because being a stage manager is basically being a miracle worker. You have to do anything and everything to organise a theatrical production and are the only voice of reason and rationality in the mad house. I was not always a stage manager, but I now realise it is the best summation of all my natural abilities and learnt skills. First job of a stage manager, in my opinion, is to be prepared. Everyone’s practice of preparation is different, but having one is important. – showing up early, setting up the room, ensuring your script and kit are on hand to take notes. My kit usually includes items like pencils, sticky notes, spike tape, measuring tape and scissors.
An item all Stage Managers swear by is “the Book” or as we referred to it at QTP, the Bible. It includes your play script with cues and blocking notes, rehearsal and production schedules, contact sheets, tech rider, prop lists, set and costume lists etc.
The preparedness carries on to performances – planning and running the schedule including setting up props, set, lights and sound in unconventional venues like reception areas, terraces and art galleries. This aspect of my job was most tested as Company Stage Manager for QTP’s A Peasant of El Salvador, as it went on tour to Coonoor and Kochi in 2014 with four performances. The work started from coordinating schedules, arranging accommodation and food, arranging transport of set and the company to the venues and coordinating with local vendors andcrew about technical requirements. Coonoor is a small town atop a hill – it was therefore critical that I ensured everything was planned properly because we did not have the option to have left a prop behind or not have a light bulb working. Then, because all the venues were not conventional modern theatre spaces, determining how best to adapt our show and set it up in the limited time was a big challenge. Of course, another big
challenge is controlling an OCD director’s urge to rearrange a thousand chairs because they’re not appropriately colour-coordinated but that’s another world of successful stage management skills. On tour, I had an added Tour Bible – which included venue contacts, copies of travel tickets, accommodation bookings, addresses, even weather forecasts. Valuable advice I got early on, when starting to build my Bible was to make it not just for my reference, but more importantly for someone else to run the show in my absence. Moreover, the practice of writing everything down means that the stage manager does not need to use already thinned wits in trying to remember everything – you have an extension of your mind palace all on paper. As much as one can be prepared, another important job is to be prepared to “make it work”. At the school venue, we decided to control the stadium halogen lights for our show, so part of setting up was me
Source: Q2Q Comics (March 8, 2014)
attempting to time how long a halogen took to heat up completely so I could turn them on during the performance. Even though I had shared weather forecasts with the company and advised them to carry warm clothing to Coonoor, I did not realise that it would be too cold for them to perform barefoot until we arrived on site! Luckily, we could
purchase appropriate footwear nearby and since then I have added footwear requirements to my checklist. Although now two years later, it is a small show that was on a small tour – it gave me the opportunity to take a big step and hone my skills and confidence. Successful delivery of that tour enabled me to take on more responsibilities in the future and also held me in good stead in another country. I recently worked as production and stage manager with Nabokov Ltd and coordinated the tour of their new show, Slug, to four cities in The UK. Automatically, the night before I leave, I pack my backpack with the Book, my kit, sound and video adaptors, laptop and charger, even earplugs and plastic cups. As I continue my practice, I increasingly become comfortable, yet not complacent, about finding the balance between being thoroughly planned while being prepared to change all those plans and make it work.
Saatvika at work. Photo credit: Carlos Lopez-Real
Saatvika is a production and stage manager for theatre and live events from India, currently based in London and a recent graduate of the MA in Collaborative Theatre Production and Design from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has been Festival Director of Thespo for two years.
Thespo Recommends Plays to read
Gopal Datt Tiwari wears
many hats. He has been a part of numerous plays like Tunni Ki Kahani, Aaj Rang Hai, and the recent hit Ladies Sangeet. He’s recognised for his work in TVF Pitchers, Official Chukyagiri, and his recent short film Daughter.
Aadhey Adhurey by Rakesh Mohan It is a milestone in modern theatre, and although the issue may seem a bit dated today, the theatrical elements of it are important for young theatre artists today
Mrichchhakatika by Sudraka A play set in 5 BC, which is a wonderful text to better understand the socio-political setting of that time. We can also see how art mirrors society.
What’s on at Thespo: The festival line up is out! Here’s what’s in store for you:
Plays BHanwar
A quirky night-watchman stands guard outside an empty factory, waiting for the end of his last shift on duty.
Te Kay Asta
A Marathi comedy set in rural Maharashtra, taking on the sorry state of sex education in Indian schools
The Show
This is the show of what I do not show. It might be what you do not show. It is raw. It is real.
Syaahi
An amalgamation of plays by Vijay Tendulkar, this is the story of a writer who must escape the hand of fate his own writing has dealt him.
Lihaaf
Revisit Ismat Chugtai’s controversial story with this devised piece, created with an inter-disciplinary approach to performance.
fringe live music
platform
Creating Compelling Stage Pictures -the art of blocking on stage Harmony on Stage -music for the scene
Expressing with Movement -communicating with your body on stage
Clowning Around
Workshops
- Fooling around on stage
The Therapy in Theatre
-get to know the character you play better
Meeting the Audience -breaking the fourth wall
The Rhythm of Shakespeare -get to know the beat of the Bard
The Suzuki Method -an introduction to this alternate style of acting/directing
All of this will be possible only if you guys support us! You can fund us on Wishberry, and help us build a better theatre being! Watch our video here
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Since 1999, Thespo has been a platform for everyone under the age of 25 interested in any and all aspects of theatre. Thespo firmly believes in including youth from all parts of the world, all fields, all language groups and all art forms who share a love for theatre. Over the last seventeen years it has grown from a oneevening event to a year round movement comprising of an annual Festival, monthly shows at Prithvi Theatre, theatre training, workshops, site-specific performances and much more for young theatre enthusiasts.
Established in 1944, it is one of India’s oldest English language theatre groups whose members (Alyque Padamsee, Sabira Merchant, Gerson Da Cunha, Ebrahim Alkazi, among others) have gone on to become legends in theatre, radio and television.
QTP (based in Mumbai) is a theatre and arts management company, dedicated to create unique theatre experiences for audiences at home and abroad
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A note on the cover
“With the festival around the corner the crew is busy getting ready for it and with ‘preparedness’ being the key-word for this edition of Ink, I found inspiration lying all around the office which I have sketched across splattered paint ” – Sahithya Iyer
INK TEAM
Cover page: Sahithya Iyer Editors: Meghana Telang & Sahithya Iyer Designed by: Sahithya Iyer, Meghana Telang & Spriha Nakhare
A YOUTH THEATRE MOVEMENT
2016