20 actors full of energy, 1 determined director, 4 passionate backstage co ordinators. What did this result to? A SMASHIING HIT. 'NO PROBLEM'!!!
The Prelude:
Early Feb'07
Severe brain storming sessions. O'er a coffee,o'er lunch,o'er dinner. This resulted into a play which was already 20 minutes long leading no where. Time flew. It was March. Euphoria 07 was arriving. We had promised some quality. Finally Mrinal and I decided to take help of a professional.
The Auditions
Mr. Yogesh Pagare (Yogi), our commander in chief walked in at sharp 7 pm. Auditions started. Most of the people were selected.
Day 1
Mr Yogi was on time again. I humbly asked him for a script. He replied that he doesnt need one. He remembers all dialouges.
Days flew. So did time. every day some one would be late and Pallavi would pay. People started getting into the groove. Acting improved. Co ordination did and so did ENERGY. Some blood spilled. Some jaws were broken. Some tears rolled. Some voices started fading. Sometimes fun sometimes a hell used to be our sessions.
I definately remember the way Yogi made us remember the order of scene. He would ask us to speak out the order. Any fumble or a mistake would be fined by Rs 5. I aslo remember the poll dance jig we all enjoyed. Another memorable moments were when Yogi was not there for 3 sessions and Ashwani was supervizing our practices. The way we would fight like kids and the way he'd fume up if the word 'buffer' was mentioned. Some people still owe me Rs100 for costume arrangement
Finally ther dress rehersales. The fatigue of the nightouts started seeping. Fever, low energy,high tempers, it was all happening till the 11th hour.
On the D day some ppl were on time, some were not but now was the time to pull up the socks and give it the best shot. The nervous bodies started shaking, Some ppl made sure they had the scene order right by carrying a list on their palms.
Finally we banged in from the rear entrance of Juhu Jagruti Hall. For the next 25 minutes, non knows what happened. Then started the claps and cheer. This time it was not the sarcastic one. Yipee we did it. No Problem was a big hit.
Happy and content and voiceless we left for green room again. Enter Mr Dennis that there was enough crowd for a repeat performance!!!
5 comments:
really well written articles...
good work prateek..cheers!!!
My blood had spilled!!! My blood had spilled!!!
Yay!!
I got special mention!!
Whoa! That was the moment. I'd sneaked into the play, you know. No auditions, just walked in and said, "Yo dudes, I can act!" Pratik told Yogi that I'm good. He surprisingly added me. Gave me my first part.
Some part of me felt guilty of having not given the audition. So I put my everything into it. I was supposed to fall. And I really fell, on my chin. Everyone was alarmed. I just felt a dull pain. "No problem (pun intended), I'll continue", I said. "KHOON!", yells Yogi. I look down...
WTF!!! I'm seeing my BLOOD spill onto my hands and on the floor!!! Bapu came to my rescue with a hankie. Others followed suit. Someone got the first-aid kit, I don't know who. I was just looking up, with Bapu's hankie on my chin. I felt so "YO!" Yogi was beaming. Such dedication. "Isne sach mein 'khoon' pasina bahaya!"
Pratik and Ajitesh accompanied me to the hospital. 2 stitches.
The whole following week, I was with a bandage. It came off on the day of the performance. Which was amazing!!!
Sorry if this comment feels more like an article...
There's this one time when Pratik became a chicken.
He had a line, "Tumhara sar kahan hai?" (right after my chin incident portion of the play). In one of the rehearsals (b4 my chin...), he went about saying that line like a chicken.
Yogi was like, "say it fast, don't bring a gap..."
And Pratik, in a ditch attempt went into complete chicken mode.
And we couldn't stop laughing.
So I had to do something about it. I cut my chin...
It was post ur chin incident dude. Remember ashwani supervizing those rehersales! Yogi was out of town. We gav Ashwani a tough time dude
Post a Comment