This weekend when World Theatre Day is being celebrated across the glone, an online performance that highlights tales of hope, courage and triumph of the human spirit will be staged online. Titled I Found My Wings, the playback theatre performance by The Actors Collective will be performed virtually on Zoom.
Featuring nine women performers, the show is a tribute to women. “Most of our performances usually include both men and women artistes, but this time, our founder Rajesh PI who usually conducts the playback show wanted a woman to conduct it. This idea further narrowed down to getting only women in the team to perform the final show,” explains Nisha Bhimaiah, who will debut as the conductor for this edition. Nisha will helm the show, and stories that will be shared by the audience for the playback performance will be narrated by her in a simplified manner for the actors to perform. “There are different forms that actors can choose to play back the story. The conductor needs to paraphrase the story in the form that’s apt for the actor to perform,” explains Nisha. The different forms she is referring to have been developed by The Actors Collective for their playback theatre practice.
Finding semblance
I Found My Wings, focuses on women’s empowerment, the oppression they face and how they have overcome difficulties. “We are also hoping to discover the dualities of our being — discovering both masculinity and femininity that exists within us. The Actors Collective has always been gender neutral, and even our rehearsals are done with both men and women, but the show will be driven by women,” says the debut conductor. The performers are from six different cities — Bengaluru, Udaipur, Varanasi, Chennai, Delhi and Pittsburgh (USA), and the show features Ashvarya Sinha as the technical host, and actors Anshul Jhambani, Honey Raza, Anumeha Fatehpuria, Deepika Murthy, Ayushi Aggarwal, Poonam Joshy and Shivangi.
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Redefining roles
Anshul who has been with the group as a playback actor for the last four years says this show has brought her closer to understanding the idea of feminity and masculinity that’s inherent within us. Echoing what Nisha explained, the actor says, “We will explore the ideas of how masculinity is associated with being the provider while feminity is linked to being the nourisher. But there needs to be a balanced identity and we are hoping to look at that.” During the rehearsals, the actor says, her male counterparts shared their stories of struggles and this has offered newer perspectives.
Rs 199. Sunday, 6.30 pm
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