The stage is theirs: Drama School of Mumbai students set to perform two plays

A moment from a Kannada adaptation of Girish Karnad’s play by Abhinav Grover; Gurleen Judge (on chair) watches over students prepare a scene; Actors rehearse a scene from the play Agni ur Barkha

The stage can be a challenging space. It can also be a platform to bigger discoveries. For students of the Drama School of Mumbai, this week will mark a culmination of their learnings, assimilations and understanding of what Bertolt Brecht famously called the ‘representation of life'. The batch of 18 students will join theatre makers Gurleen Judge and Sapan Saran to take on two iconic works in Indian literature, Girish Karnad's Agni aur Barkha (Fire and The Rain) and Shudraka's play Mitti Ki Gaadi AKA Mricchakatika (The Little Clay Cart).

Writer and playwright Irawati Karnik, also academic head of the Drama School of Mumbai, shares, "The plays are an opportunity for students to explore and perform everything they have learned, and also to find parallels between what they have learned and the world around them. This will colour and shape their practice as they go forward."

Girish Karnad. Pic Courtesy/Instagram; Wikimedia Commons

Judge and Saran have been working with the two batches for the last six weeks trying to coax and gain an understanding of the 12th batch's objectives. Judge shares, "Especially because they are young actors and theatre makers, I thought it would be interesting to work with the beautiful powerful text by Girish Karnad. In trying to arrive together, take it apart, and put it back together."

Judge will be setting Karnad's play in a modern context, ‘an undetermined future'. "Like any good play, it is complex and has so many themes and motifs that are as relevant and urgent as anything you could write today. At least the first week was about reading the text, exploring and improvising about it. There were huge debates and contradictions," she reveals.

Irawati Karnik; Aa rehearsal of Mitti Ki Gaadi; Sapan Saran (in pink) directs students

Saran, who will be taking on Shudraka's text, remarks, "A classic comes with its set of challenges and excitement. Mricchakatika is a text that is ancient, distant and removed from our present reality yet so close to the bone in its politics and social consciousness. How does a contemporary artiste converse with such a text without changing its context? This was my single most important entry point for this production for the students."

The choice of the plays by the directors is also a happy accident, Karnik remarks. She says, "They are both classics. There is a kind of coherence that we do not always push the directors on; but when it happens, it can be fun."

While the productions are an opportunity for students to put their craft into practice, it is also a chance for the directors to explore their own understanding of the text. Judge notes, "I have learned everything I know by making plays. It is the environment in which you can apply your complete self." Saran adds, "Working with young actors offers a huge learning curve to directors. In training them one gets trained."

For Karnik, the exercise of working with directors outside the faculty is a key part of shaping the students' stagecraft. "The directors' responsibility is not to train the students as much as challenge them and arrive at a competent place of fulfillment," she points out. A task easily accomplished considering the layered motifs and themes of the complex plays. As the students set about applying the final touches, Judge remarks, "I am more interested in the rehearsal, and the process of rehearsal. Shows become something when the audience comes in. I am excited because the audience is a huge part of what we do, and I am looking forward to that shift."

Agni Aur Barkha
ON Today; 6 pm and 9 pm
Mitti Ki Gaadi
ON April 16, 19; 6 pm and 9 pm
AT Drama School of Mumbai, Girgaon.
ENTRY FREE

Agni Aur Barkha
ON April 17; 6 pm and 9 pm
Mitti Ki Gaadi
ON April 18; 6 pm and 9 pm
AT Veda Kunba Theatre, Andheri West. LOG ON TO insider.in
COST Rs 200 onwards