William Shakespeare. I had read about this writer during college days, tried to get through some of his text every once in a while (never successfully completing more than 5 pages), and often gone off to sleep after being fed up of not understanding what was written (or why???). I always felt Shakespeare was the territory of geeks, or English scholars or those who pretend to understand his writing just so that they can come off as a class above the rest. My biggest Shakespeare experience was when I was handling production work for Mr. Neeraj Kabi back in 2005. The play I worked on was the most famous play ever written – HAMLET. Neeraj Sir’s version of Hamlet was the finest play I had seen with an integration of the Indian art forms Yakshagana and Dhrupad to bring to life this amazing piece of text on stage!
After that, I did not do anything related to Shakespeare. Of course, I kept hearing lame uses of his famous quotes by people who had no clue what they mean; the most frequent one being – “To be or not to be, that is the question”. I used to wonder how almost every man on earth knows just this one line written by Shakespeare and flaunts this knowledge by using the line in any damn context of life just for the heck of it. For instance, in a recent movie, a guy jokes about a bra saying – 2 B or 32 B, that is the question! Nevertheless, the thought of Shakespeare always made me curious and I wanted to know why this man is supposed to be so great!
And now – 7 years later, my friend, director and co-actor Nidhi Bisht has given me an opportunity to be a part of a Shakespeare play as an actor. It all began a couple of months ago when she introduced me and our whole theatre group NBTV (New Brain Theatre Volks) to a man who was crazy about Shakespeare, a brilliant actor and an amazing teacher – Dehshat Vansadia (his name is Deshik but I have stuck to Dehshat since the day I met him). Dehshat is an alumnus of the Stella Adler School of acting and has also been part of the Shakespeare theatre company. He had come back to India a few months ago and was aiming to bring to life Shakespeare’s plays in their raw form. He felt that almost all the Shakespeare work being done here is in adapted versions. He wanted to perform Shakespeare plays just the way they are. So Nidhi and Dehshat got together and we were all called for a meeting about this project.
It started with Dehshat conducting workshops for the first few days. We sat and chatted about who we are, what we do, what our association with Shakespeare has been (if any). This was followed by physical exercises, voice exercises, acting exercises. Once Dehshat felt that we had warmed up enough, we began working with text. The emphasis was always on being true to oneself and speaking from where we are rather than forcing the performance. Dehshat made us see what the text really implies and how we can find a connection with what was written. He made us close our eyes and narrated stories or situations that invoked different emotions in us. The detailing he did while narrating these imaginative plots was just terrific. It would really get to our inner self and by the end of the exercise, each actor felt lighter and a bit more opened up than before. He said the essence of what we went through during such exercises should be used in our performance. We then started working on speeches and scenes for which Dehshat made us put to use all the work we did during the exercises. This was (and still is) the most challenging part of the process. While Shakespeare’s language is rich and does most of the work when you are performing something from his text, you need to have your foundations as an actor in place to make sure you do a good job. It was during the scenes and speeches that I really started questioning my acting methods and skills as a performer.
After a few days of performing scenes and speeches, we started putting the play on its feet. The lines were memorized and the moves were choreographed. Later during the process, a stick fight was to be introduced into the piece. We decided to go with the martial art form of Silumbum for which rehearsals and training began in full flow. Our dear Nidhi Singh who plays the Joan of Arc in the fight suffered some brutal blows while rehearsing but the strong girl that she is, she just cast them off casually with no pain.
What was also noteworthy during our rehearsals was the coming together of the two Nidhis as Roma and Juliet. No matter what time of the day it was, or what the mood of the group was – there was always a romantic chemistry going on between these two.
The biggest nautankis of the group – Bisht and Singham always painted the rehearsals red with their love and affection for each other! Their histrionics kept me alive and ticking whenever I was exhausted. Prashant and Pallavi, the couple of our group, worked really hard to manage their busy schedules to get to rehearsals every day. I feel it was due to this hard work that towards the end of the rehearsal process, the two of them showed maximum growth as performers. They were a part of all the fun and frolic during the long rehearsals that brought us closer as a bunch of actors. And at the center of all this was our director Deshik (enough with the Dehshat joke I guess :P). It was great to be listening to his anecdotes and discussions about acting and several other topics ranging over all fields of life. His accent was the talk of the town and the subject of many jokes or a long time (and still is). However, it is commendable how well Deshik handled this group. He was a sport during lighter moments and a firm director during the more serious ones. He molded each one of us right from day 1 and such was his impact on us that as of today, I (and I guess most actors in the group) feel that he is one of the most amazing actors I have come across and the most terrific teacher I have been trained by. Such is his talent and determination that it seems fairly obvious that this guy is going to go places. It was great to see how well, under Deshik’s guidance, the group bonded and how each one grew as the days went by.
Speaking of myself – while working on this play, I realized how bad and unworthy I am as an actor. It made me feel that in so many years that have passed by, in all the talk about making it big in the industry, in all the talk about passion for acting and chasing my dream, I haven’t really worked enough on my art. Yes, I have done a few workshops here and there. Yes, I have performed in a few plays and short films. However, being an actor needs much more than that. One needs to practise and implement things done in the workshops on a daily basis. Acting is an art which needs discipline. It needs rehearsal. It needs a lot of hard work, research, sincerity and bravery – bravery to visit corners of your mind and heart that you tread to, bravery to put yourself through situations you would hate to, to make yourself think about things that you hesitate to. I had been working as an actor just on the surface without really getting into the internal fundamentals. Therefore, I am grateful that at this stage I was introduced to Shakespeare. Grateful because I realized that if you are willing to open up as an actor and explore what’s inside you – there can be nobody better than Shakespeare to help you with it. What is great about Shakespeare is – if you give a go at him with all your heart, you will find yourself on a journey ranging through every human emotion there is. It may seem as an actor’s nightmare but in reality – it is an actor’s paradise!
I have learnt a lot from this project. The whole process right from warm-ups to speech and scene work to full run-throughs has been exceptional. As an actor, it has been the richest experience for me so far! Although I don’t think I can call myself a very good actor yet, I know that I have found a path to work towards it. I am going to try and incorporate stuff learnt from this project in my daily routine. I am also going to try and be, in whatever capacity possible, a part of every Shakespeare play that Deshik and NBTV work on in the future.
To start this new ride with Shakespeare, we perform a piece named Shakespeare, Who? this Sunday, the 10th of Feb at Andheri. Can’t wait to be on stage again! 🙂
