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  The rush on opening day!

The rush on opening day!

Published : Aug 11, 2016, 10:52 pm IST
Updated : Aug 11, 2016, 10:52 pm IST

Wildtrack will to be performed in Prithvi Theatre on August 17 and 18 — Devika Shahani and Jaimini Pathak.

QTP'S WILDTRACK REHEARSAL 01A.jpg
 QTP'S WILDTRACK REHEARSAL 01A.jpg

Wildtrack will to be performed in Prithvi Theatre on August 17 and 18 — Devika Shahani and Jaimini Pathak.

Recently at a workshop in Calcutta, I was asked (not for the first time), why I had chosen theatre. My answer is well-rehearsed now — “I didn’t choose theatre. Theatre chose me.” Even though it sounds like a “cool” line, it is quite close to the truth. I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t a theatre-wallah.

However there are quite a few reasons why a lot of us are part of the second oldest profession. Most of the reasons have to do with the elements of the theatre and how it makes us feel. Actors have been known to be addicted to the elevated applause when they walk out for the curtain call.

Directors have enjoyed the act of creating (and telling people what to do).

Writers have loved seeing their two dimension words take shape in three. And only a handful of producers have done it because the ring of cash registers! Other reasons have included “sense of belonging”, “the lovely ladies”, “the lifestyle”, “the rigorous rehearsals”, and many others.

While all these are valid, the one unifying drug is the excitement of working towards the first night of a new play. Even the most undemonstrative of people have an added spring in their step and song in their heart, if not on their lips — that is everyone except the director, who can often be found cowering in the corner wondering whether the audience would love his or her work.

This is where I find being a producer incredibly liberating. While I love directing, I haven’t in a while. Instead, over the last two years, I have enjoyed watching people I love and respect work on a play — seeing them toil, wrestle, and succeed!

Last year, on the afternoon we were to open The God of Carnage, I bounded at the Tata Theatre. I was chirpy, chatty and excited. People, who had worked with me before, were totally surprised. Producers are supposed to be serious people, with the weight of the world, and instead, I was actually excited.

I felt a similar rush a couple of days ago as I headed to the rehearsal of our new play Wildtrack.

It has been 18 months since the making of this beautiful and fragile two-hander play. It’s a project very close to our heart, and it gives Arghya Lahiri his first full-length play premiere as a writer. We are five days away from its opening and the play is in great shape.

We met the two stalwarts, Devika Shahani and Jaimini Pathak, for the first time in our audition room.

It was uncanny, as despite working in the same industry since years, we did not know each other.

And now, it feels as if we have always known each other. Both the actors are still discovering new things in the text, while Arghya with his director’s ‘hat’ on, presents them new challenges each day.

Underneath the air of festivity, I am sure there lays nerves, nightmares and chewed nails. However, the rehearsal room feels like a space for celebration.

The scene’s survey impromptu brought to my mind the question from Calcutta, compelling me to change my reply to: “This is why I do it: for that tingling feeling the week before the opening night. The excitement that one feels ahead of presenting the audience something for the first time.” What a rush!