Theatre Jam: Theatre Workshop in Cubbon Park - Warming Up
Director: Christopher Burchell
Duration: 00:12:40; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 158.933; Saturation: 0.071; Lightness: 0.427; Volume: 0.303; Cuts per Minute: 2.445; Words per Minute: 101.992
Summary: Theatre Jam was a public spaces initiative initiated by Maraa (
http://maraa.in) in 2009 with the hope of getting urban performers of all kinds to meet in public places to share skills and perform. In our times, when access and skill sharing within the arts is getting limited and commercialised, we felt creativity was also getting compromised. Theatre Jam arose out of one such need - to create a space that would foster collaborations and a spirit that nurtured creativity. We see Theatre Jam as something collaborative, for visual artists, theatre artists, musicians, poets and photographers.
Theatre Jam turned a year old in October 2009 and to mark this, we conceptualised diverse activities that comprised a 31-day marathon. Maraa also worked on getting travelling artists and local artists' groups to collaborate, propose or execute activities, and perform at various sites in the city! Our approach was community friendly and inclusive. The larger plan was to create a culture of expression and exchange between artists in the city and make public spaces more culture friendly, thus reclaiming them and initiating dialogue.
This video documents a theatre workshop led by the students of Department of Performing arts, Pondicherry University.
Cubbon Park, Bangalore
The workshop techniques were a mix of physical theatre exercises followed by improvisations. The students from the university seemed to be "Leftist" and philosophical in their art, expression and interpretation. Yet, their Leftist space didn't allow them to comprehend the political nature of art and expression in public spaces. It seemed like they tended to think that the content of expression alone could make it political. Thus, the workshop itself was interesting as it allowed for dialogue on nature of Theatre Jam and art in public spaces - with public participation and in public view. The workshop was also interesting due to our bodily contortions and the unusual nature of such abstract, non-conformist expressions in a public park. This was not jogging, walking, or sitting, but movement, contact, drama and energy.
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back home, i'm from the north, punjab, every diwali.. i don't like crackers, i'm very scared of them. but i really like to light diyas and putting them around the house.so i spend a lot of time putting the mustard oil and cotton batti and lighting it and then i make rangoli. i do it just because i like to do.
its not a cultural religious of me, its just something i like to do.
so we got a beautiful image. imagine, in punjab there is a lot of colour, there is one house, its all dark, there are a lot of divas. the full house is visible only with divas. how do u see it? its beautiful no?… fine we got one image… next.. deepak…
deepak: i got like four things. i just saw this lying around.. i thought in a park, i have to have a relationship with something thats about the park. so i was looking for natural things and this seemed like something very non prop like because it needed to be handle so i picked it up. and then as soon as i picked it up, i saw this yellow so it stood in contrast to this so i had to pick it up. and then i was looking for colours and this thing sort of just stood out so it again added to the contrast. and then i found this plastic which is again colour but its unnatural. so thats three natural things and one un-natural.
ay, i've got a bhutta, very significant part of my life. i'm totally into street food. bhutta has always been the things we used to eat during the monsoon, and when we were in school we could never afford it because it was 2 rupees and it was tough to gather that much of money. and now its 10 rupees, ya its 10 rupees now and i have a huge and interesting arguments with people who sell bhutta because like half piece is sometimes 8 bucks on MG Road. so there's been close relationship with and corn and thats it i just love eating it.
f: can your remind us of any….
ekta: any incident, story…not really…
ok sukhmani and deepak, talked about colour, i'm talking about something that looks better in black and white than in colour and that is the Mughal-e-Azam film. so this reminds me of the ostrich feather. i don't know how many of u have seen the fim. there is this dilip kumar- madhu ball scene. madhu ball is lying there and dilip kumar has an ostrich feather going over her face and bade Gualm Ali khan's Darbari Raag is in the background. so this reminded me of that ostrich feather.
so this is alcohol… old monk… i love old monk.
from back: this is the first time i have seen this small bottle of old monk. its the most important size. we get 1000ml. bottle.
thomas: so when i was 17 years old i drank this first time. but i'm not drunkard. sometimes it needed no… so i l got this.
ok i guess ours was separated at birth.. what's it called… bhutta.. ok.. so in my past, in maryland which is very boring and i don't recommend any of u visit. there are fields of bhutta. and u just sit in the field and pretend that anything would happen but nothing ever happens. and there is a story about a man who can heal people by killing nature. like if he touches flowers and if he touches someone who's sick at the same time, the flowers will die and the man will come alive. and one of the stories is that he destroys a whole farmer's crop of corn just to save this little girl. so everytime i would just sit there i would imagine all of the corn just dying and i would see the healer but he never came and i was mostly bored… so.. i saw it and said ok..
i'm sawmya, i just came in. i picked up this stick because any time i'm out doors, and i think its fascinating for most of us to pick up something and draw on the sand. and its just amazing for me that anything u pick up is so interesting, it can be this or this, i picked this up and i find it amazing… i always want to take stuff like this home. but its amazing because overtime u come out doors, there's so much of it, but everything is unique. i just like it.
when i picked up this newspaper, i suddenly thought of my friend. two months back he died in an accident. that time i was in pondicherry. he was my best friend. then one month back, i went to kerala and when i entered my home i saw a newspaper just lying and when i saw it, i saw his photo and the news there. so first things i thought of this when i saw the newspaper.
this is a cigarette and this reminds me of a knife… smoking that kills man. i hate people smoking.
i got this simple piece and i found the shape of it. the line like that… it is something related to theatre. all that what we were doing in the morning session, we trying to find body movement.how to get my body flexible, so nature is teaching us. it has its own rhythm, its own life.
you put me on a picking up trip, i'll keep picking up stuff. i picked up a few things. these seeds remind me of my grandma. when i was a kid, we'd go for walks in parks and we'll pick up these things and come back and play puzhanguni (a traditional board game) i'm not saying it right. we'd play these games with her. this.. i'm extremely superstitious, and this reminds me of the crows, so its like one for sorrow, two for joy and it really … my day is really judged by this.
and this for marsh… i'll keep going.. u should cut… thus is for coffee and all the conversations i've had with all my friends and everything has happened because of that and this.. because of the colour, its just amazing… ok next
i picked up this bamboo… a part of the stock. it reminds of like… this particular plant, its so lean but its so strong and basically, strength is internal. and its not about appearance and more over i have a fascination of bamboo. i have a roof-top on a bamboo tree…
f: so i have collected two props. first this and second this. first one reminds me of my early childhood. my elder brother-uncle's son. he used to come out house with his friends. so one day he came and at that time there was no one at home. my house was very 'restricted' in my childhood, now it is not. they would keep me locked. so my brother used to jump the wall and entered and took all food and i'm trying to save the food because when my parents would come.. they have to eat food. before they took the food, they tied me with the supari tree and every time i see the tree i'm reminded of that story.
second. when i saw this one, one image came of a time when i was studying at shantiniketan. in spring time, during the droll utsav, u can see the whole road full of red. you don't see mud or any other colour, its all red. so when i saw this here, i was reminded of the whole picture of the road full red and yellow.
p: what is the name of the flower?
f: flower is shimul polish. its different but same color.
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