and learning something new each day. When we had just started with the workshop sessions, the concept of the play was relatively vague to all of us. We all knew it was different and not much else. But over time, we understood what the play and all of us stood for, collectively. I have never felt anything close to the bond that I share with each one of the individuals involved in this play. It was so strong that during each rehearsal, I felt a sense of comfort and understanding which was lacking outside of the rehearsal space. For us, entering that room every night was akin to stepping into another world, far away from the unimaginative classrooms and rigorous routines that comprise any school. I would anxiously await the rehearsals throughout the day and the suspense of what we were about to do that particular night would keep me on my toes. But it wasn’t always this way. In the beginning, it was awkward being in the same room with the other cast members some of who were seniors, which in a boarding school set-up amounts to a considerable amount of discomfort and insecurity. It was terribly scary, opening up to 29 other strangers, baring out our insecurities, our fears hidden under all those masks that every individual puts on everyday. We were all so skeptical of the others’ presence. What are they going to say? Who else are they going to tell? In time, each of us realized that all the others were going through the same nerve-wrecking feeling. They even reached out with a helping hand. No words, just a shoulder to cry on. The level of understanding that we built
Freedom