....all my troubles really seemed so far away.
Am falling in love with my cast and crew for the second time perhaps. In just under two months. May be am arrived old and sentimental. I shed tears during cast bash at MMB after Mouk. Now am getting attached to this MSND bunch of Motley crew. Last night they gave such a good account of themselves in spite of inconsistencies. I was ashamed to admit that this is theatre where the audience have a ball even if it is fulsome and odious to the artist in me. I created it why should I feel ashamed? Well, KK is an ox as well as a moron and hence an oxymoron! Anyway, this cast and crew are such joy and fun and non-rancorous that they are the real Dream. Hope they continue in the same vein for 6 more shows and shape up into something ever-lasting as a company... irrespective of me.
And the audience last night were dolls. A mixed bunch of friends and theatre-lovers as well as some Shakespeare-lovers (no, not the man, but the works!). An ideal audience.
Onwards and upwards!
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Marcel Proust - insight through quotes
"A book is the product of a different self from the one we manifest in our habits, our social life and our vices."
"It seems that the taste for books grows with intelligence, a little below it but on the same stem, as every passion is accomplished by a predilection for that which surrounds its object, which has an affinity for it, which in its absence still speaks of it. So, the great writers, during those hours when they are not in direct communication with their thought, delight in the society of books. Besides, is it not chiefly for them that they have been written; do they not disclose to them a thousand beauties, which remain hidden to the masses?" (Proust in Reading in Bed)
"For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say to myself: "I'm falling asleep. And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would make as if to put away the book which I imagined was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had gone on thinking, while I was asleep, about what I had just been reading, but these thoughts had taken a rather peculiar turn; it seemed to me that I myself was the immediate subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between François I and Charles V."
Proust is generally considered a pioneer of the modern novel. He made a clear distinction between man and work. The writer is a man of intuition. - quoted from Books and Writers.
"It seems that the taste for books grows with intelligence, a little below it but on the same stem, as every passion is accomplished by a predilection for that which surrounds its object, which has an affinity for it, which in its absence still speaks of it. So, the great writers, during those hours when they are not in direct communication with their thought, delight in the society of books. Besides, is it not chiefly for them that they have been written; do they not disclose to them a thousand beauties, which remain hidden to the masses?" (Proust in Reading in Bed)
"For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say to myself: "I'm falling asleep. And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would make as if to put away the book which I imagined was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had gone on thinking, while I was asleep, about what I had just been reading, but these thoughts had taken a rather peculiar turn; it seemed to me that I myself was the immediate subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between François I and Charles V."
Proust is generally considered a pioneer of the modern novel. He made a clear distinction between man and work. The writer is a man of intuition. - quoted from Books and Writers.
Connecting Speech and Iambic
Day before yesterday (1st Sept. 2005) we had an interesting talk. Krishna and I. Was actually glad when he took me aside during the break and told that which I had held holy all my life vis-a-vis theatre speech and had not shared with anyone.
I believe when an actor truly finds the impulse through emphasis on specific syllabic accents than on the entire word and combines it with his emotion, true theatre speech is born. And working on iambic pentameter for Midsummer Night's Dream, I was precisely trying to put it into actors' head. We had a break. Krishna took me aside and highlighted how am striving for that. I had not told him. I have always believed that theatre training should combine music.
Music is not always that which we learn to sing or play instruments. Speech rhythms.
I appreciate the good old Christian practice of sending kids to choir. We used to have it. Send kids to learn vedas and slokas. We have lost that. That instills the feel of music early in one's speech. As a creature of Sama Vedic origin, I can naturally impulse if not music, rhythm in speech... why sometimes even silences or the sounds of nature around us. I pride myself with that.
We value words and learn to value speech. On stage no word should come out if actors don't feel those words. But every word uttered should have belief; for which a realisation of the importance of the words is necessary. I hope Midsummer would highlight that at least partially. At the moment am not at all happy on that front. Porko comes close sometimes. Trupti gets most of the times. Neeta is a bundle of joyful energy and nerve to watch, but she belches out emotions in a squealish way than poetic. Else, Shyam and Srividya and Aditi get that feel for Iamb. But it is either Iamb or Emotion. Never both together. Things either sound poetry rendered or prosody of emotions. God help.
I believe when an actor truly finds the impulse through emphasis on specific syllabic accents than on the entire word and combines it with his emotion, true theatre speech is born. And working on iambic pentameter for Midsummer Night's Dream, I was precisely trying to put it into actors' head. We had a break. Krishna took me aside and highlighted how am striving for that. I had not told him. I have always believed that theatre training should combine music.
Music is not always that which we learn to sing or play instruments. Speech rhythms.
I appreciate the good old Christian practice of sending kids to choir. We used to have it. Send kids to learn vedas and slokas. We have lost that. That instills the feel of music early in one's speech. As a creature of Sama Vedic origin, I can naturally impulse if not music, rhythm in speech... why sometimes even silences or the sounds of nature around us. I pride myself with that.
We value words and learn to value speech. On stage no word should come out if actors don't feel those words. But every word uttered should have belief; for which a realisation of the importance of the words is necessary. I hope Midsummer would highlight that at least partially. At the moment am not at all happy on that front. Porko comes close sometimes. Trupti gets most of the times. Neeta is a bundle of joyful energy and nerve to watch, but she belches out emotions in a squealish way than poetic. Else, Shyam and Srividya and Aditi get that feel for Iamb. But it is either Iamb or Emotion. Never both together. Things either sound poetry rendered or prosody of emotions. God help.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Synopsis Cover Page of my Ph.D Dissertation
The Following is the cover page reproduction of my Ph.D Dissertation. All these days, I hadn't felt like proclaiming my doctoral status to the world, because I had worked so much for it and thanks to the vagaries of the University administation, by the time I got my degree, it was of no use and I had wandered from academic scholastics to theatrical dramatics. I shall post my entire synopsis and thesis as well as my other scholarly (!) writings and publications elsewhere in a website that doesn't hog the blog bytes. Await the link! - KKTHEDOC
‘absurd, but Grotesque...’
An Analytical Study
of
Selected Stage Plays of Friedrich Dürrenmatt
A SYNOPSIS
of the thesis to be
submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
of the
UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
By
KRISHNA KUMAR S
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
MADRAS - 600 005
AUGUST 1996
An Analytical Study
of
Selected Stage Plays of Friedrich Dürrenmatt
A SYNOPSIS
of the thesis to be
submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
of the
UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
By
KRISHNA KUMAR S
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
MADRAS - 600 005
AUGUST 1996
Monday, August 15, 2005
Giving... forgiving...
Ok... this is a question of flux. There are people who give and people who take. And then there are people who take and take and at some point you expect them to give and yet no sign. So do you stop giving? I thought and thought... and here goes: if you are a giving person, there is no way you are going to stop giving. Because giving is a voluntary thing. It does not give with a sense of returns. And forgiveness! What of it? No idea. I am the sort of person who gives a long rope and puts up with the elastic idea that the world is bad but not without hope. And there comes a point when you decide enough is enough. Then there is the point of no comebacks. There is no forgiveness beyond that. Just give-uppance. My thoughts for this weekend completed.
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