Photos of First Performance

Rachael here, with apologies for taking so long to get photos up of the first on-campus performance. Information for anyone reading this blog who is not here with us, a brief description: These photos were taken at a first work-in-progress performance on December 21st, on site here at Christ College campus on the last day of classes for students. The first performance reportedly had over a thousand students as audience. You will see photos of a street play performed by our CSA friends, dealing with issues of local relevance such as harassment. Then you will see photos of two different pieces put together collaboratively by both Indian and Canadian students, with instruction from Yasmine. These two pieces departed from the story of Adam and Eve to deal with some relevant women's issues.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,
Rachael

A moment

I just want to remember:

Finding ourselves at an after-party of sorts. Running to our rooms to snazzy up a little, after eight hours of intense physical work, coming down ten minutes later, looking spectacular. Eating the food, watching the colours, the clothing, the smiles, a bright night.

Excluding ourselves, eating on the stairs, plates on our laps and hushed giggles. One of thosemoments you don't foresee for yourself, what is a rector, anyway?

As the guests leave, their shiny red plastic chairs in lonely circles, the staff gets a bit rowdy, speakers are pushed together, music is played. Dancing begins, the men are moving, laughing, playing. At the first opportunity, three girls and a boy hop into the fray, dancing and laughing. The song is over. The dancing is over, as abruptly as it began.

There is mention that it is because women were dancing with men. Whoops.

- M

Polina's thoughts on YASMINE

Yasmine: she is tall and beautiful, intoxicatingly feminine and overpoweringly strong. She starts each session with a five-minute meditation around a small flickering flame, “to summon the divine creative energy with in you.” She says just enough to know you do not breathe, smile, fidget, or mumble unless it is inexcusably justified and intersplices her poignant dialogue with small Spanish phrases such as “Mas or menus” and “chelo.” She works us hard. Crunches and legs kicks, half splits and standing tree poses. “Your body is your tool, sculpt it, nurture it, take care of it, otherwise, how will you be able to communicate anything at all?” “We are dealing with the topic of women,” she softly explains, “so we will tell the story of Adam and Eve, wordlessly. Sculpt your bodies and transform your voices.” She teaches us acrobatics on a concrete floor, no mats, no spotters. “You must stand on his shoulders,” she commands. She hands us a large cloth to be maneuvered, woven and reinterpreted through out, splits us into two groups and leaves us to work collectively. If she doesn’t like something, she chimes in unapologetically. She is constantly asking for more; one step further, one layer deeper, one dance step more complicated. And then I watched the other group’s piece; I was so moved, re-reminded of the power of images, collective creation, our bodies as abodes for spiritual energy and the ingenuity of an incredible teacher.

I have committed to major social faux phas in the last week:
1. In the middle of reciting my poem for Mr. Ashouk, I stumbled over my words and accidentally burst out with, “Fuck!” Mr. Ashouk slowly and gently put his arm around my shoulder, and softly said, “Madame, please remember that you are in India and that you are at an Indian college.”

2. Loudly cheering “Woooooo!” after a performance from the back row of the auditorium, prompting all of the rows in front to turn around and stare.

Meghan thinks... some ramblings on group work

I had forgotten how hard it is to work in a group, with no one leader. Creating collectively is a challenge, always, everyone must have space for their ideas, and their ideas must be respected. We keep saying "the Canadians work like this and the Indians work like that". I don't think that is necessarily the case.

Most of the Canadians participating are trained in theatre and development and have been working with the same groups of people for a few years now. We develop systems of working together, of building ideas onto the ideas of others and quickly giving it all a shot to be thrown onto its feet.

From what I understand, the Indians participating are used to very efficiently creating through scripts, through getting all the ideas out and agreeing on some sort of path before they get it on their feet. (Correct me if I'm wrong, CSA!).

Both are efficient methods.

I realize during this that I hate to talk talk talk. It needs to be done, of course, a path needs to be chosen. When no one was listening properly, no one was hearing properly (Stephanie pointed out the difference between entendre and ecouter, and I feel that), no one was happy and that never really got fixed, despite a product that I feel we should be quite proud of. I found myself acting unprofessionally, needing to walk over to my bag to grab my water, to take a few deep breaths and just be removed.

I had forgotten about this challenge. I don't have a solution, I know the best things happened when we stopped talking and tried something, whether it worked or not, whether we expected it to work or not. We were the most alive in this project when we were moving and creating, not putting up our hands and waiting for our turn to throw an idea into an unsafe pot of ideas.

A new challenge. A good one. A hard one.

The products were beautiful, by the way.

All Shook Up

I find myself here on the twelfth day, craving something or anything familiar. Even as I was sitting in a mall drinking coffee and watching Elvis sing "Jail House Rock", I still wasn't satisfied. In fact, I wasn't even close to being satisfied. In the same breath, I can't imagine being anywhere but here. I can't place myself back home in Montreal because I know that when I do in fact fly 'home' to Montreal I will be an entirely new person. This experience in India has shifted things in me. There have been the obvious changes, like global and political awareness, but what has thrown me off the most, is the shifting of things deep to my core. Who would have thought that at 25 I could have already been set in my ways? I'm learning more about how to work with large groups of people and negotiate boundaries than I am about dealing with 'culture shock' because to be honest, there has been very little 'shock'. For every cultural difference that I've noticed, there have been 20 similarities. I knew that coming here I would probably return home a slightly different version of who I was, but I never would have guessed where these profound changes would take place.

The whole world in the palm of your hands...

We will cross the seas
and we will come to you

and when we come
do not make soft beds for us
do not raise monuments for us
do not worry about our comforts
for we have come to be one with you

just allow us to walk a little with you
let us learn, just a little
so we may take a sapling
from you
and plant it in our distant land

tomorrow may there be bright red fruits
from that tree
tomorrow may new voices sing under their branches
tomorrow may we rest our wearied limbs under it's shade
tomorrow...

When I look at this project what strikes me most is not the fact that this is a theatre project or that it is even about street theatre...all that pales in comparison to the fact that this is a project guided by a vision. It is about the inherent goodness in mankind. Ted and his team and all the people who worked in Canada to make this a reality need to be commended for this vision. It is ultimately about doing good to the community. And that thought makes me feel good about playing a role in their vision.

I admire the courage, dedication, passion and sincerity that have brought them to my land.

At the end of the day, our lives are but a collection of stories. Years later when I look back at my stories, this is one story I want to place right on top of the heap.

- Rajesh.P.I, Theatre Trainer and traveller

Tuesday, December 19th... Noush... What Exactly is Poverty?

The Indian slums are not what you'd think they'd be.
I'm not sure what I expected but they weren't what I thought they'd be.
All the joy and celebration actually, didn't surprise me- I'd been forewarned.
But my surprise came at my own feeling of envy.
Nowhere in the whole world had I ever seen something so ironically close to paradise,
this little lane off the main street in the city...

The pumping well
The sewage ditch
The tiny chickens and tinier chicks
The sleepy dogs,
The check-to-make-sure-if-they're-still-breathing dogs,
Where are all the cats?
The goats
The tiniest staircase in the world:

Take off your shoes before you come in.