It’s not my cup of tea!

Flashback mid-2002 and picture this: A hall packed with around 1000 odd people. Lights go dimmer as screens go up and people stop murmuring. The hall is filled with deep silence for a few moments and then I hear a soothing piece of violin. As the light gets bright, narration begins – “A Fiddler on the roof….sounds crazy!! But, here in a village of Anatevka, you might say, everyone is a fiddler on the roof….” and music picks up and reaches a crescendo with chorus singing “Tradition…Tradition…”. Yes, it was the play “Fiddler on the roof” being enacted at Chowdaiah. And there, in the fourth row from the front and at the fifth seat was one person, watching the play awe inspired by those expressions, spellbound by the intonation of the speech and the grandeur of the background music and the stage. Yes, it was me watching a play after a very long time.

As I drove back home, a thought blossomed in my heart. How wonderful would it be to act and make people laugh or cry or just make their day? Can I take a step from that “fourth row fifth seat” to the centre stage? I kept thinking. Few minutes later, I thought may be “It’s not my cup of tea!!” I reached home and left my thoughts where it originated.

Weeks passed and I started watching more plays (If not act, let me at least watch them) and started enjoying them. And whenever the thought of acting came back, I thought may be “It’s not my cup of tea!!” Couple of months later, I started searching on the web for some theatre groups. I thought of attending some theatre workshops to put my thoughts into action.

Although I found many theatre groups, none offered workshops at that time except for one group called “The Script”. And the theatre form was called “Playback theatre”. Hmmm….interesting name!! I mailed them and they replied by asking me to attend a performance to get an idea about this form of theatre. I went through their website and realized that it was not a conventional theatre form. It was different and it excited me. But it requires impromptu skills!!! I doubted whether I can do stuff on the spot!! I attended a playback performance and then I was damn sure that “It’s not my cup of tea!!” Although my perception changed a little when I spoke to the actors, there was this doubt at the back of my mind. Couple of days later I signed up for the workshop.

Playback Theatre is an instinctive form of theatre that uses audience’s real life incidents to be enacted without any prior preparation. This theatre is solely dependant on actor’s creativity and instinctive presentation of a story. Founded by an American couple Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas in 1975 in New York, this theatre form has it's footprint in 25 countries around the globe.

February 2003 – A small cozy room filled with around 40 people. As six actors clad in black tees and blue jeans walked up and took their position, the audience looked curious. The host asked the audience what they expect from this performance today. The actors came one by one and “played back” the emotions shared by the audience. The show went for an hour and as the performance came to an end, there was a roaring applause. And I marked that moment in my life when I crossed the line and took the centre stage.

I had my cup of tea.