Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Actor.... Theater... Life

..... In 1993 a few months after people were awarded the best in their categories for their exemplary work in the year 1992 at the "Oscar Academy Awards" a strange incident took place. As heard, A man met his co actor in a gathering and found that the co actor, although not awarded but was still appreciated for his characterized performance and said something to him. Here it is what he said "I heard that you were fantastic son, I am sorry I couldnt congratulate you since I never saw your performance, remember I played a Blind Man". The man who said this was Al Pacino and who heard was Chris O'Donell . The movie in context was "Scent of a Woman". Now that is what I call performance. Al Pacino played Col. Frank Slade in the movie who is a blind man and Chris O'Donell plays Charlie Simms. That is the commitment of an actor as i perceive. Apparently Al Pacino used prosthetic contact lenses so that he could fake his performance.
Well I knew who Al Pacino was from quite sometime, but little did i know about him. Hence I went ahead googling on Al after I heard this anecdote. Lo Behold! what I found was the dearest to my heart. I gathered that Al used to perform in the theater before he moved to the big screen.
Theater is something I believe can produce the finest actors on Terra Firma. I can stand up and vouch for my statement "Actors are from the Theater, Others are mere stars". I regret that I am not a part of that world now. I was though belonging to it in my past. I have been a witness to umpteen number of plays. I cherish every moment of the time that i have been associated with the theater directly or indirectly.
Those movements, the stage occupation, the histrionics, the music, the presence of mind exhibited by the performers, in short every aspect of the theater holds me captive till date. When I started off being close to the theater I had converged my thoughts only towards the point of enacting the roles that were designated to the actors. Little did I know that theater was much beyond the acting as well. Theater has probably been an integral part of every society from aeons probably much before than man could even count leave alone scripting. The local moral stories may have been performed as plays. This kind of an art form is practised in the Management Institutes to an extent till today. Then the theater refined itself to be an incomparable art form. As my quest for knowledge as aligned to theater grew, i can relate that state of mind more to an earthworm. The more you chop the more it grows. Hence I started to be a little more educated on this front. Along with the acting comes a lot more other things. The costume designs, the stage settings , the music that goes with the play, the art direction, lastly the most important aspect of a play, the concept or the plot of the play. Art direction was something that inherited as a learning from a dear friend of mine who had worked for umpteen number of years for "Rangayana" in Mysore. The concept of a play is what keeps the audience ticking.
Has anybody in India ever thought that Seeta may have been thinking about one of the most handsome man she has encountered in her life, Ravana, although she had just caught a glimpse of Ravana in the disguise as an ascetic. Infact, her thoughts about Ravana are instigated by Shoorpanaki in disguise well after the Kind and the Queen started living happily ever after. I just fell off my chair at the end of this play when Seeta actually draws the painting of Ravana impeccably accurate and the painting comes alive. That was the play "Chitrapata" directed by the one of the most brilliant actresses that India has seen "B.Jayashree". I admit that this concept is very radical when the target audience are Indians. So be it. "The Blue Coffee Mug". How does that sound? inane, abstruse, abstract, irrelevant....?? I would advocate it to be a revelation. It was the actors of new genre who came up to put up a play with a phenomenal message that can keep the audience awestruck with their fingers on the nose point. What started of as a comical histrionics by a man who suffered from amnesia, a man who is not grown up to his age and a man who seemed to sensible sent a message to the audience that the riots in 1992 was unwanted, the child abuse around the world and in India is uncalled for. A few of them around me were moved to tears. I have a lot more to say though about the concepts but will stop right here
I very well know that every one in this world knows that there is a difference between the big screen and the world of theater. Ofcourse this includes the fact the there are no retakes in the theater and other mundane stuff. There is more to it. An actor on the stage is actually interacting with the audience unlike the the tinsel town figure. A play like "Maya Seeta Prasanga" which was directed by the most revered entity of the Indian Theater M.S.Sathyu for Rangayana which is corroborated by bringing in the element of "Kathakali" into the play which is a little obscure although not obsolete. The postures in the play enforce that the actors are meant to be statues for the entire duration of the play. Having an audience right in front of you who may not like this kind of adaptation who may even consider it to be some kind of adulteration can always be a taunting one. An actor on the stage has to bear all the tantrums that the audience exhibit and yet come out as a winner.
Oh! I can just keep scribling around her about what i love for ever. So shall abruptly end here. Work is an excuse that I have to get back to....some other time

Phaedrus

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