Tuesday 10 May 2011

Of puppets and shadowy characters


On sunday evening, all members of Perch were invited to see Rajiv's new play - a work-in-progress. The show started at seven at Skills and it was a near impossible task finding parking at Elliiot's Beach. After an animated fight with an agressive security guard and a docile policeman we squeezed our car in somewhere and arrived at skills to meet the gang.

This time around there were nine of us in the audience and I hadn't seen the play since the make-shift set-up at Rajiv's house. The screen was larger and fixed on a sturdy looking stand. Lots more props and puppets peeked out at me from behind it but I wasn't allowed back there.

There are only five actors in the play, Anand Sami, Rashmi, Karuna, Samyuktha and Sudarshan. It ran for an hour this time and had the five of them continuously switching from being actors on stage, to masked charactors, foley artists and shadow puppeteers. The day had been terribly hot and even in the evening I felt for the actors as they dripped with perspiration during their animated performance.

There were several new songs which I hadn't heard the last time around and lots of smaller details woven into the narration. The props and puppets were fantastic. Aarti and the others must have worked really hard to produce so many new masks and characters in such quick time. 

After the performance we sat around for an informal feedback session. They are looking to take the show to schools and other public places in June. Though the play is mainly aimed at younger children we discussed how the stagecraft is sure to appeal to adults as well. 

6 comments:

  1. hey, super i'm so kicked that you're putting up your sketches! Are you planning to also put up the older ones too??

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  2. that's what's got me wondering. so many older sketches... can't decide whether to keep the blog current only or intersperse with older ones once in a while since i'm not likely to sketch every day. but the write-up is easier for current sketches. what do u think?

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  3. I think you should try and post very regularly - look who is talking :) - and if that means using some of your older sketches, you should do that.

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  4. Definitely think you can use some of your older work, need not be only current... some reflection or nostalgia could be interesting! :)

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  5. Very interesting to see the sketch and how the play has evolved since :) :D
    KA

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  6. So true KA! I havent read this post in 3 years myself and the king doesn't even sleep like that anymore

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