My third semester was not fun. Not by any stretch of the imagination. On an academic level, it was difficult, demanding and mostly unrewarding. On a personal level, it was disappointing, frustrating and had me doing things I needn't have. There were a few bright sparks in this mostly gloomy semester, though. Art history classes in our course, a powerful poet going by the name of John Donne, and various others. And then, in the most unlikely of circumstances, acting.
Very frank confession: I had never, ever been a comfortable actor before this. Or maybe I have. I have a theory on this which I might need to flesh out. But till then, let's agree that I had never been a very comfortable actor.
My acting 'career' was one that I might have missed by seconds. It needed a lot of things happening at the same time for all the gears to click. And indeed, looking back in March from the chain of events that started as early as August in the third semester, I think about chaos theory and wonder.
JUST made it. Great success.
There needed to be this big-ass intervention over an issue blown way out of proportion that made irrevocable changes in the personal dynamics of my immediate peers. There needed to be personal problems coming in like a bolt from the blue leading me to question myself more critically than I am wont to do. There needed to be me walking down the stairs of the department to (over)hear an offer being made for parts in a rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, as far as I could tell. It had to have me, against all rhyme or reason or stage fright fears, to want in. With no experience in drama beyond a couple of bit-part roles I had been forced into at school, I had to see myself as something like...
...this.
Otherwise, all of this might never have happened...
It scares me a little to think about that.
But it did. My first wrangle with drama was an interesting breakdown and rendition of a couple of Tennessee Williams plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.
AND IT WAS SO VERY AMAZING.
This group just gelled together very well. It had three of my peers in it, three people in my year but not in my circle and two seniors who I had never interacted very much with.
It was all so very odd at first, compounded by the fact that we had to do the play at San Javier's Carcel. It entailed going over to the place on multiple occasions under many less-than-ideal circumstances (including on short notice one afternoon in the driving rain), but thanks to it, we bonded like crazy. It was sprawling and disorganized and terrible under the two "resource people" (as we will forever know them now) and within it, ours was such a tight microcosmic performance. Our director Trisha made sure we were on our toes at all times. She could swear like a sailor who missed out on the tobacco ration when we were being unprofessional and had the very useful ability of making us feel...
...THIS small...
... when we would fuck up. But she is one of the most amazing and talented women I have ever met and probably will ever meet. She makes everything so very funny but will then admonish you for laughing at it. And don't get me started on her ability in theatre as either actor or director. We all owe her one for 8 months of a learning curve like no other.
It was so very rebellious of the whole Jadavpur contingent in that seminar-as-performance. There were at least four other colleges there, but we were the only ones who refused to knuckle down under the ridiculous demands of the resource people (I will not forgive them for traumatizing me into my first whole cigarette, though), and bloody 'ell, did it get oppressive.
Even before we'd met the resource people, the first few weeks were pretty difficult to get used to. She runs a tight ship, does our Director. Highlights included an Italian accent, waving an umbrella around, a marching scene which no one could quite perfect, the famous "STE-LLLLAAAAAAAAAAAHH!", and the now-famous insider's quote of "Tui ki manush na parabola?!" ("Are you human or a parabola?!"), a very loud and very real slap, a trance-like Blanche soliloquy and the self having to run around the University begging people to teach me the proper way to mime smoking a cigarette.
But on the day of the performance, it all just came together and how. It was just bang, bang, bang. Everything went without a hitch. All rivalries forgotten, all creases smoothed over, each pray'r accepted and each wish resign'd. And this not before the resource people still tried to throw a spanner in our works by politely commandeering all the men in the group to act out extra parts because there allegedly "weren't enough men." But we managed. And all the scholars of the Jadavpur University Society for American Studies reserved their loudest round of applause for us. That appreciation. So much satisfaction was had right then.
And that right there, with new friends made and new sides to older friends seen, was curtain call for my first ever performance in the dramatic pursuit.
And we ran out, triumphant and umbrella-less into the August rain, ran all the way down Park Street with clothes and bags soaked and into that fine old establishment, Golden Dragon. And we talked and laughed and chatted and ate. And we felt like we were worth every second of the time we were savouring.
[Exeunt]
