An Indo-US dramaturgical collaboration presents intimate vignettes as a window into the lives of the queer
(From left) Hardik Shah, Pratik Karyakarte, Lauren Robinson, Anmol Oberoi, Dipika Pandey, Tanvi Lehr Sonigra and Akshaykumar Mande
One of the exercises involved going through 50 Indian productions that have queer representation to understand what worked and what didn't," says Vikram Phukan, critic and dramaturgist who also composed the open script for the play Even Mists Have Silver Linings. "When talking about the LGBTHQIA+ community there is still only a trickle of meaningful expression. We have to evolve," he adds.
Thus, an Indo-US collaborative project by directors Jeffrey Pufahl and Will Weigler of the University of Florida and Hardik Shah of Five Senses Theatre will address identity and stigma in the Indian context through vignettes, starting today. Supported by the US Consulate General Mumbai and the G5A Foundation of Contemporary Culture, it was developed following a series of processes and techniques that began in November last year.
One such was Weigler's The Alchemy of Astonishment, now a book that has established a pattern of unforgettable moments in performance and developed a strategy of a staging vocabulary using 55 teaching cards.
"We began with sensitisation exercises for the ensemble of queer and non-queer persons. This was followed by an open script with scenarios of queer realities and expression, allowing actors to interpret them," says Phukan, adding that actors did their own research, too. They were also involved in a physical process that included exercises, which Phukan describes as 'sport-like'.
The result, thus, is a series of 15-16 intimate vignettes, some non-verbal, that are a window to queer realities. Spanning 90 minutes, they intend to raise important questions with the audience and provide some resolutions. "In some cases, the actors who are also authors here, pose them directly," says Phukan. The making of the play has also been documented by filmmaker Malati Rao for an independent film. "I had half-hour-long sensitisation sessions with each actor. The discussions we had were meaningful, even if they didn't make it to stage," he says about the film.
ON March 7, 8, 11, 12 and 14, 8.30 pm
AT G5A, Laxmi Mills Estate, Mahalaxmi.
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