Theatre Jam: Storytelling with Pritham Chakravarty - Warming Up
Director: Sukhmani
Duration: 00:10:39; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 133.836; Saturation: 0.026; Lightness: 0.445; Volume: 0.313; Cuts per Minute: 1.219; Words per Minute: 138.248
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.
Pritham Chakravarthy, theatre performer, activist and a professor at the Ramanaidu Film Institute, Hyderabad, participated in Theatre Jam, to do what she does best: storytelling. Pritham also performed in the course of her short stay, both at Jaaga and Cubbon Park. This video shows her conducting a story telling workshop, which was free and open to the public. She talks, among other things, about the interdependence between the storyteller and the listener.
Cubbon Park, Bangalore
October Jam
Theatre Jam
personal stories
public spaces
storytelling
theatre
There was a good response to this workshop, and about 25 people showed up. It was a diverse mix of people, from corporates types to mothers, performers, activists, scientists and so on.
The workshop essentially provided the participants with the tools to tell a story and do it well. Pritham located the listener, the teller and the story as three inter-dependent elements in the process of storytelling. She reiterated that unlike a theatre performer, a storyteller need not exaggerate or act to convey the point of the story. You need not change your voice, carry out dramatic movements or keep changing your expressions.
The process was enriching because most people in the group were strangers and Pritham's first exercise had us all share our first stories of love with each other. This made us feel closer and willing to trust each other.
We understood better the storyteller and the listener as well as building storries using nursery rhymes, telling stories from different points of view, and giving one story different endings.
Finally, there were four improvisations which were performed at Cubbon Park where passers by witnessed and enjoyed these performances.
Pritham: Travel into the story and live within the story. Identification becomes easier when it's a story. When I throw a character on you, it's easier to get 'This is how I feel, this is how I cry.' I can transport those emotions easily onto the character because I know how I look. If there's one thing you're very very clear about it's what makes you laugh and what makes you cry. Those two extremes are only possible if you can identify with your character. This is a story which kind of encompasses all the value systems I believe in.
{pritham tells a story...}
(some story missing)… he became the sun. He was travelling the world, giving it heat and there he was watching all the greenery growing underneath of him. Suddenly, there was one white blanket under him and he couldn't penetrate through it. So he asked "Who's this? I cannot penetrate through this." "Oh don't you know that's the cloud." "Oh! The cloud is more powerful than me! I wish…I wish I was the cloud!" And so he became the cloud. And there he was a cloud, taking all kinds of shapes, travelling across the space, and creating all kinds of magic for the people down there. And suddenly he came to a stop, and he couldn't go any further. "What's this? I'm not able to go past this!" Tiny fluffs of clouds around him. "Don't you know that, big cloud? Once you come to the mountain you have to bang against it, and rain, and you disappear." "Oh…the mountain is more powerful than me. I wish…I wish I was the mountain!" He became the mountain. He was a tall mountain, mounting over everyone who came there, and casting shadows. Suddenly he felt a tiny litt le tickle under his foot. It took a great trouble to bend down and look down there. And there was a stone chipper going chip chip chip chip chip at his toes. "Who is that?" "Oh, that is the stone chipper. He can turn you into gravel. "Oh he is more powerful than me! I wish…I wish I become a stone chipper!" And there he was again.
So that's what story is. It's a whole lot of magic you create for yourself. Unlike books, unlike a film, unlike even theatre , story is an absent without a listener. Cause I can't tell a story to myself, I need an audience. I need a listener. The etiquette for the story teller and the listener is equally important. Unless you can draw the listener into it, the story becomes non-existent. It doesn't exist at all. And it can be a joke, it can be a story, it can be a parable that you're sharing, anything…just a life experience. Everything is a story. Because unless a story is real, it has to have a certain amount of certitude, credibility in it, real person human value in it, people will not believe a story. It can be imagined, it can be fantastic, it can be fancy, but ingrained in it is the human value. So that's why when you create characters which are animals, which are just things around you, inanimate objects around you, you tend to put some kind of human attitude into it.
Man in the yellow shirt: I dared and I went to her and I said to her "Would you mind if I offered myself to be your friend?" And she said "Yes" And I said "Oh my goodness, yes yes yes, I got it," and we took some coffee and went to the corner, and there we talked for around two hours or so. And suddenly yaar, I realised I am here with my parents, right, and they must be looking around. Being a person of a middle class I am very worried about those things. So finally we promised to meet again, again and again, and we departed. And fortunately this story lasts for four years. And that's it. No more till then. (laughs)
i forget your name.... Sanjota
Girl in green: I loved him because, because he was a doctor. All that I wanted to be in my life was to be a doctor, so Doctor Rajkumar for my knowledge and sense was that ok he has done his MBBS and that made me love him. And there was one uncle who was staying with us and he said… he was a great fan of Doctor Rajkumar, and had been exaggerating about him every now and then which made me dream about him. And he already had five children but I didn't know that then. I was young, only watching his movies and listening to only his songs and the days passed, maybe a couple of months, I'm not sure…
Pritham: And the dogs, once they came down to earth, they didn't know what to do with the tails. Well they watched the cows swatting off flies. Cats were wagging it for a specific emotion. But they didn't know what to do with it. And if you are saying that dogs only wag their tails when they are happy, then what about the dogs which didn't have tails, which only had a butt . So they didn't know what to do with it. So they decided to hold a convention and find out what can we do with this.
Now of course, even in this small group when we say "lets hold a storytelling workshop in Cubbon park," there's a huge discussion about where we should hold it - until we come to a decision. Do you want a grassy patch? Do you want a sandy patch? Should it be dirty? Should it be clean? Should we bring water? Will we get water? All this has to go on. There are logistics about holding a seminar.
So now of course the dogs have to have a huge discussion about it. Finally, they decide where they want it. Once this park was decided then all the dogs gathered together and they had a huge cacophony discussion about what do we do with the tails, what do we do with the tails. So the convener of the seminar said "This is getting too noisy. And there is no space. There are so many dogs here. So lets take all the tails and put them in the tail house and then we will discuss." So dogs unclipped their tails and hang them in the tail-house and then they come back. There they are again and the discussion starts. A huge discussion. Finally, the decision was that the decision is too big, we can't resolve it in one meeting. So let us postpone, we will go back. Take your tails and we'll go back, and then we'll decide what to do over a period of time. Some want it, some don't want it. They don't know what to do. At that time, there is a burning smell that is coming to the seminar. They all rush out and they see the tail house burning. So the convener comes out and says "No! Rush out! Save the tails! We haven't come to a decision yet!" So all the dogs prance out and they grab any tail which they can find and they run out again. Now the convention is being held in the mountain, very tall mountain. They have to come running down. But when they come down they realise that holding the tail in the mouth is too cumbersome. They are not able to talk, they are not able to do anything with this tail in their mouth. So they now decide to keep it. But in their speed they had not realised that they had not have their own tail, just some tail, it did not actually match with the body. That is why the dogs in London go about sniffing the other dogs' tails to figure out if it is their own tail. They still haven't found out.
Now in groups of four, please come up with the kind of tails, the place where they hold the convention which would be most convenient for them, for dogs to assemble in. What do they discuss? What are the uses for the tail that they come up with? And what are the kinds of tails, what are the kinds of noises they are making? Is it a bark, is it a whine, is it angry, is it sad, is it happy? Put in all the emotions there. And how did the fire start? Did they have a pee break? Because dogs need to pee…constantly. What did they do during the pee break? Did they come back in time? Were there mobiles? Were they answering the mobile while the seminar was going on? Put everything together. This is all for you to figure out. Go.
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