The ensemble prepares

The shows at Jagriti start at 8pm each night and the actors go down to the theatre at 4 every day. First a line through, where people pair off and run their scenes. Paul alone has a deluge of monologues that he diligently goes through in his favourite chair.
After this a group warm up happens. The seven member cast form a circle and each day a different person leads the body warm up.

Today it was Paul's turn and the cyclical movement of the suryanamaskaram done in a circle was mesmerising to watch.
Next up is the voice warm up. Aparna lead the group in a new one that doubled up as a group massage.

Each actor by turn gets to lie in the centre while the other six give a synchronised massage while synchronising breath hand movement and voice. The massage looked amazing! I seriously considered abandoning the sketchbook to sneak in there somehow.

Jagriti Season 2014

For a second year in a row, Perch is at Jagriti's season. The second of five plays, we're here for two weeks. One week has flown past in all the frenzy and anxiousness of set up, lights, tech and getting an old play revived with some new actors in the cast. But with 4 shows and a rest day now under our belt, I finally pulled out my sketchbook.

One of the nicest things about performing at Jagriti is the studio apartment where the troupe stays. Its a large two storey apartment on the 7th and 8th floor with all the balconies overlooking the theatre. Today's show starts in 3 hours and the luxury of not having to commute but just take the lift down is indescribably amazing. Anyone who has ever been in Bangalore traffic will know what I mean.

6 more days and 7 more shows to go. 

Off to Sri Lanka

As soon as we returned from Bangalore it was time to pack up and go to Srilanka. And when I say "pack up" I really mean it. Jujubee had been invited by NTT to do 6 shows in Kandy and Colombo and the large and lovely props made by Aarti had to be very carefully packaged to go as check-in baggage.
We were at the airport phenomenally early as requested by Srilankan airlines and they were so helpful that we had a lot of time to spare after check-in.
While doing this sketch, I stood with my sketchbook balanced on the handrail with a double volume space below me overlooking the concourse. Just as I finished and closed my book one of my pens fell down. I looked down and could see it there but no one passed by. I decided to take the escalator down to the boarding gates as it was almost time anyway but once downstairs I couldn't find my way back to the place where my pen was. Instead the labyrinthine corridors kept twisting away from the new building into the depths of the old airport and row upon row of musty handicraft shops! Ultimately I came all the way back and got a passing official to throw up my pen but the new airport remains a bit mysterious.

The flight to Colombo was just one hour with a lovely view of the Palk Strait. On the way down to land we hit some of the worst turbulence I've encountered in my memory. Colombo was covered in low rain clouds and at one point we suddenly dropped - I felt as though my stomach was in my throat but then we were out again and all you could see was blue water and the endless green of coconut trees.

Heading out of Bandaranaike airport we didn't go into Colombo since the first few shows were lined up in Kandy. There was a sleek 20 seater bus and Sam Perera from NTT waiting there for us - we were off to the hills!

The Giraffe moves into Rangashankara

One of the biggest changes to the play in this run of shows was a scene inserted into the middle of the prawn factory. That had to be rehearsed and blocked before the first show on the 22nd. It came out really well and I won't say more - do catch the show whenever you next can and see for yourself.

We did a total of 8 shows from tuesday to Sunday and every morning we would assemble for Rajiv's feedback session. The backdrop for this was invariably the same - the set in the configuration of the last scene from the previous show with Rajiv taking centre stage and enthralling us with the most "outstanding moments"  from the previous day.

John and I usually toss a coin at the start of a run, to decide who lights the first show. Frome there on we alternate shows. This had become a sort of ritual that the group looked forward to as we would fight about it and make it a best of 3 tosses, and then a best of 5 and finally a best of 7. But this time, much to everyones' disappointment we had made our decision on the train!

So I got to sketch Muddanna's light booth on the eve of the first show while J had to prepare.

Touring with Perch

After a quiet 1st half of 2014, these last few weeks have been a lot of travelling and all of it with Perch. There's still more to come in the next few months and so I decided to dedicate a sketchbook/journal just for my travels with Perch. And I'm already half-way through the book!

John and I travelled by the Shatabdi to reach the rest of the cast who were already in Bangalore a few days earlier rehearsing for "How to Skin a Giraffe".

We reached in time for lunch. The cast were rehearsing at Play Practice, a new space near Bangalore university and we were looking forward to catch a run-through to brush up on our lighting cues but when we reached we found them like this :)

Just kidding. That was a short nap after lunch.... as always. But we did catch the run through and there were several small changes and edits to the play making it crisper and helping with the flow of the narrative.

The next morning we would move into Rangashankara for tech and more rehearsal.... sketches of that to follow in the next post.

My special little sketchbook

I have a pocket sketchbook that is so small that it frequently gets lost. I stumbled upon it this morning searching for something else and found that there was an entire series of sketches that I hadn't blogged. It was from a trip to Mumbai last November. As I leafed through the sketches the memories came back clear and detailed and it struck me all over again, how lovely it is to sketch memories in a sketchbook.
I prefer it to taking photos any day. Of course photos bring back memories if and when you go through all 40 GB of them, but with the sketch, even the making of it is a memory in itself.

Our theatre group was travelling by the Mumbai Mail to stage a play "How to Skin a Giraffe" at NCPA and we were a big group scattered across two coaches. As we got in there were some people who recognised Rajiv and they turned out to be teachers from The School, KFI . It's always nice to meet and get to know people on long train journeys.

In fact, we were on the train longer than we stayed in Mumbai. It was incredibly hot and humid for November but the route was quite beautiful. We also spent a lot of time in the stations because the entire set for the play was booked and taken in the brake van. And it was sad to note that the amount of unofficial looting that goes on at the Chennai Railway station when you try to book your parcels in was far far more than at Mumbai.

I couldn't do any sketches at the fabulous Tata Theatre where we performed. Assembling the set, rigging and focussing light in time for the show was too hectic but I did a couple of sketches at the hotel. We stayed at Sea Green Hotel on Marine Drive and in the morning and late evening we walked from the hotel to the auditorium along the sea shore. It was an old hotel with a lot of charm and great big rooms with mosaic flooring. A little run down but two great views from my balcony. Turn to the left and it was Brabourne cricket stadium. And turn to the right.....

This sketchbook is a great one to have. It's really tiny and compact but opens out flat so I can do doublespreads. You can check out some of my previous posts done in this book. Its my go to book when I'm hurried or travelling light or want to sketch unobtrusively and just capture memories. Its called a Brahmabook and I haven't spotted them around in a while. I hope they still make them.

Approaching the Koothambalam

I chanced upon the Koothambalam while walking through Kalakshetra campus from the other side. Approaching from the office and going past the newly built lotus pond area I followed a group of dance students as they walked purposefully towards their practice cottages. So as not to disturb them while they rehearse, I turned away and was suddenly stopped in my tracks by this scene. The majestic structure loomed out from amidst the trees. I had approached it from the back.
With my usual fascination for performance spaces I began sketching, standing up. The Koothambalam is undergoing extensive renovation and the main entrance area is quite un-approachable at the moment. They are planning to air-condition the space and the inside of the  auditorium was covered in scaffolding.

As I sketched I thought of groups and repertories with their own performance spaces. How important it is. As vital as the work itself. I thought of the koothambalam as an inspiration for the young students who would work towards performing there and then, as I stood, in the shadow of the old trees, sketching from "behind the scenes" , I thought of a weekend, a few years ago when we had staged two plays inside the same space. I remembered carrying the set through those large doors and the frenetic activity ahead of the shows. Its funny how the sketch turned into such a nostalgic experience.

Tomba conducts a workshop for Perch

Perch has begun work on a new production and to kick-start the whole process we were lucky to get Heisnam Tomba to come and conduct a ten day workshop. Seven days are now over, and yesterday, just to make it a little more fun and document the process in a whole new way, I had suggested to the PencilJammers group that we meet at the workshop and sketch the actors.

 

There were nine of us "sunday morning sketchers" who assembled and watched the workshop, sketching furiously, trying to keep pace with the fast and smooth movements happening in front of us. There were warm up exercises, body posture and balance exercises, coordination with sticks, and a whole set of breathing and voice exercises.

The actors looked like they were having a lot of fun. It was both intense and at the same time so interesting and playful. At times the sketchers forgot to sketch and became engrossed in the action. And finally at the end all the actors and sketchers met and mingled marvelling aloud at each others skills. 

It was an interesting and enriching collaboration, and hopefully a wide selection of sketches will be posted on Perch's facebook page soon so you can look out for it here.

Kochi trip

Well, here's the coloured sketch of the flight back from Kochi as promised. The trip was courtesy the Metro Plus theare fest and we all stayed at the gateway hotel on Marine Drive. All the actors arrived a day early and on saturday evening we all assembled in Anand's room - 218 for a line reading. Only Karuna and Anish were coming in on later flights that evening and as Meena and Ravi their lines were easily skipped - so the line reading was essentially all the group scenes and songs.

The room had a cosy nook with a sofa around which the actors huddled as they ran through their lines and once again I was trying to improve my quick sketching so these sketches were done in a tiny sketchbook with a fat brush pen. Roughly five minutes a sketch.

Ultimately, though the show was a hit with the audience an uncanny number of lines were forgotten or goofed up. The gaffs were covered up with some quick thinking at times and with sheer fluke at other times making it a really hilarious show for those of us who knew what was going on.

Back from Kochi

Last weekend was spent in Kochi with Perch, where we put up Ms. Meena again. I did a bunch of sketches in a sketchbook but ever since I got back I've been so swamped with work that there's been no time to put the finishing touches to them. On my way out to Kochi I was so pumped up about sketching and determined to do a sketch in the airport even before we took off. I had loaded my hand baggage with sketching material and then I couldn't find a place to sit at our currently terrible Madras airport. On the flight I was at a window looking out at monsoon clouds.

So, feeling that lugging all those books and art material would be a waste I checked it in on the return flight. And then it turns out we're in a cute little dinky aircraft with only two seats per side and I got the aisle but had no sketchbook! Bummer! Some hotel stationery came to my rescue. The paper's really thin so I thought I'd share it with you before I try and put watercolours on it. Never know if the sketch will live thru that.

The show went really well and the Kochi audence gave us rave reviews. Will share the line reading sketches with you soon, I hope!

Old Man

I suddenly unearthed this sketch while going through and sorting out some of my stuff. Its a quick one done during a Perch trip to Calicut in 2007. Fourteen of us had wandered all over Calicut for four days in search of ideas for sets, costumes, characters and genuine flavour for two upcoming productions.

This man was from the Moplah community of Kuttichera and wears the typical head-gear, a large white cotton handkerchief with a thin blue border and it's tied from back to front with a knot on the forehead. Kuttichera is a locality in the Northern part of calicut where we found a lot of what we were looking for. It's an old locality, dominated by a large water-tank with steps leading down from all sides. The water is clean and quite deep and used for bathing. For safety, a parapet wall runs all around the tank and a pavement along it. This old man was sitting on that parapet in the hot sun catching a few winks.

Line reading at Rangashankara

 

These three sketches were done during the first run of shows of Ms Meena at Bangalore in july 2010. Every morning the cast and crew would assemble at Rangashankara after breakfast at ten for a feedback session of the previous day's performance by the director. After this everyone would go up into the audi and the actors would start their line-thru.

Ninasam

Over the last year I've travelled a lot with my theatre group and almost always managed to do at least one sketch on location. This one was done at a theatre institute in a remote village in Karnataka last october. We were staging Ms. Meena as a part of their annual week-long theatre residency programme.

Ms Meena at the Museum

Last weekend, Perch had five shows of its latest production and being in charge of lighting I was there from friday till sunday pretty much from morning till night. The venue was Museum theatre in Egmore. Its a beautiful old-world venue for theatre, built in 1896. Below you can see the view I had from my lighting booth.

The play was "Ms.Meena" which we had already toured with extensively in the last nine months and these shows at the museum completed 23 in all. Compared to all other venues across India the audience turn-out in Madras was the poorest. In a way it is surprising since our group is from Madras and we've only done one single show of Ms. Meena before in our city and that was August 2010. But when you think about it, I guess Madras cannot be called a theatre friendly city. The more we travel with plays, to places like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi or even smaller cities in Kerala and Andhra, the more this gets impressed on us.

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.

New play by Perch

Yesterday evening I dropped in for a rehearsal session of Perch's next play. Its early days yet and they haven't given the new production a name. When I walked in the actors were all sitting around in a circle and discussing the flow of scenes. They said they were planning to do their first run through in half an hour. Since I'm not too great with sketching human figures I thought that this was as good an oppurtunity as any to get all the actors sitting still for me so I started sketching right away.

Remembering the gorilla catcher

This is my first blog. I've been meaning to do this for a while, inspired by many artists and their online sketch journals. I live and work in Madras as an architect and I love to sketch what I see. So this blog is hopefully going to be my way of sharing with you some memorable experiences of mine through my sketches.