Concert halls and curtain calls

Salome Rebello 34 choir conductor and music educator Sujay Saple 35 actor founderartistic director of Shapeshift CollectiveWhatrsquore you eatingrdquo Sujay Saple asks Salome Rebello with a grin logging on for our threeway Zoom chat A natural question between two people whorsquove ldquocooked napped talked travelled togetherrdquo for almost 20 years And keep checking in on each other at least once a weekSalome Rebello and Sujay Saple on home turf in Bandra PicsPradeep DhivarThey shine bright incandescent stars in their spheres Choir conductor and music teacher Salome and actordirector Sujay have collaborated only on a oneoff production in 2018 He choreographed Lullaby Stranger the outstanding choral novelty she brilliantly conducted which audiences reclined on mattresses to watchldquoLullaby Stranger with Sujay is my dearest creation Irsquom proudest of to daterdquo Salome says of the sensorially stellar production embracing the Beatles a cappella ballads Gospel tunes and the lilting ldquoAllah Goorrdquo Sujay says ldquoThe joyful process of devising Lullaby Stranger with Salome remains my favourite work among the finest performance pieces anywhererdquoLullaby Stranger joins a remarkable repertoire involving body fluidity and challenging ensemble exercisesmdashthe hallmark of Shapeshift the group Sujay founded to explore a strong physical theatre vocabulary ldquoIrsquom more tailored to the aural he to movementrdquo observes SalomeThey hit it off the moment a mutual friend theatre practitioner Rachel DrsquoSouza introduced them in 2004 at St Xavierrsquos College Spotting her name on the admissions list Salome caught Sujay in a spontaneous hug A selfconfessed ldquoterrible studentrdquo who thought himself too cool for school he wondered what the fuss was aboutShared home miles meant the Khar boy and Bandra girl hopped aboard the same train to collegemdashor attempted to ldquoI struggled getting out of bed she carried onrdquo They overlapped for sociology and French lit classes ldquoSleeping through lectures Sujay helped himself to my notes and suddenly spouted Baudelairersquos poetry he pretended he knew foreverrdquoHe marvels ldquoSalome was Ms Perfect she always had her shit together Studying with her I scratched my head saying lsquoDamn now where did these seven chapters spring fromrsquordquoFood a big bond they hung out with friends at the sandwich wala outside college at Kayani and Martinrsquos Dhobi Talao was their stamping ground of the campus years Their childhood space is a comfort zone ldquoIndulging our major sweet tooth at Natural Ice Cream and Amore which was on Carter Road we still snack at charming old bakeries like Hearsch Andora and American Express Caferdquo Salome says ldquoRoaming every Bandra lane and promenade wersquove walked the tiniest fishing village paths with amazing historiesrdquoAt 16 Sujayrsquos journey began with his mentor Atul Kumarrsquos Voices for The Company Theatre The experiment wowed viewers staged in foothigh water pools at venues from Prithvi in Juhu to the 1822built Municipal Theatre in Mauritius which he describes as ldquothe utterly gorgeous second oldest colonialstyle opera house in the Southern Hemisphererdquo Just 17 when she taught children singing at the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation Salome never dreamt of emerging an internationally trained conductor She thanks Sujay for first steering her in this direction ldquoOn a rickshaw ride he told me lsquoYou need to get the hell out of herersquo That left me curiousrdquo Sujay explains ldquoTouring with Atul Irsquod enjoyed that sense of expansion With her talent and rigour Salome would be a big fish in a small pond stuck doing sweet local gigs See I gave her more than fashion advicerdquo Indignant Salome says ldquoFinding my clothes plain throughout college he took it upon himself to lsquodressrsquo me so off we went Fashion Street shoppingrdquoThat her sartorial style was ever in doubt is unthinkable watching her wield the baton in impeccably cut suits Her concerts of note include the Jerusalem YMCArsquos Christmas Eve special the only celebration of Christmas in west Jerusalem and the Israeli premiere of Sir Karl Jenkinsrsquo beautifully contemporary Mass for Peace originally a 15thcentury chanson with soloists of three Abrahamic faithsmdasha muezzin a priest a Jewish cantorldquoI discovered my true love is conductingrdquo says Salome earning her a masterrsquos in choral conducting from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance She was also appointed soprano in the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir conducted by maestro Stanley Sperber ldquoThe choir sang a lot with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and conductors Zubin Mehta Krzysztof Penderecki and Kent NaganordquoWhile Salome was halfway into her Israel years Sujay launched Shapeshift in 2012mdashldquoI decided to start realising my kind of vision put myself on the line being prepared to failrdquo Unselfed his directorial debut opened at Adishakti near Auroville and was invited to festivals Milestones following it included the hardhitting Agent Provocateur ldquoFocused on fascist ideologies and political censorship that really resonated with audiences having similar anxieties about the countryrdquoThe friends have stayed invested in each otherrsquos personal relationships from the years of undergrad crushes Teaming up to holiday in Portugal after one has had a breakup or needs getting over some other low they lean close ldquoOver time wersquove let our guard down unlocking and revealing ourselves with absolute lack of judgementrdquo Sujay says Salome adds ldquoHe is so loving No matter how far a situation is in shambles he makes you laugh Therersquos nothing not unique about Sujay With his girlfriend in Bangalore and Rachel and me in Bombay I joke hersquos a man with many wives but romantically connected to only one of themrdquo Salome has shifted base to Germany where her partner is principal violist of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra Both prefer working with community rather than solo art forms What he calls ldquoplain jugaadrdquo she admires as his ldquoawesome resourcefulnessrdquo With the gift of arrowstraight honest feedback they bring each other divergent perspectivesldquoIrsquom a junkie for nuancerdquo she admits Sujay agrees summing upmdashldquoSalome is the most levelheaded person incapable of being anything but genuine These have to be the greatest qualities in a friendrdquo Authorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes monthly on city friendships You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom