Little did I know that the next 2 hours would give me so many stunners. I had seen a couple of theater performances in Kala-Mandir in Kolkata during my college days. Never did any of those performance had a lasting impact on me. No wonder I do not even remember the theme of those performances. Thus, I was expectation-less.
To my amazement the hall was soon filled to its full capacity. Honestly, I was not expecting such a good response from the students. Not all were art lovers, in fact some turned up just to have a glance at the chicks / hunks around. Though, I did not conduct a survey but I can very well conclude since my decision of being a part of it was mainly led by this objective.
The show started with a nice, sweet, fat lady trying to tell us what they had in store for us. She mentioned that its not a normal theater performance wherein the actors act as per the script and the audience have no other option but to doze off. That is when she introduced the term "Interactive Theater". It caught my attention and I was curious to know what service differentiation is she talking about. Soon she threw a question at the Audience which said "What comes to your mind when I say CAMPUS? ". The question looked terribly foolish but since the excitement was too much, it overpowered the ability to tag the question as foolish and the audience happily responded including me. Some of the answers were "Sutta", "Horrible food", "Washing Clothes", "Case-Studies", "Friendships", "Chicks", "girlfriends" etc etc. The anchor was satisfied to the core and she left the stage for the actors. Let me first discuss the look and feel of the stage and the actors. The actors were dressed in a white kurta and denims. All of them looked the same except their faces being different. Once the anchor left, one by one the artists started enacting the opinion/views/perceptions of the audience of the word CAMPUS. The most innovative thing about this entire concept was that the actors did not discuss anything before enacting as they were all their on the stage when the question was asked by the anchor. They just did not interact with the audience but among themselves too. The most incredible thing about the entire act was that it looked like someone has planned it to the minutest detail and that the actors have been rehearsing since birth.
There were other such questions and then answers and then enactments. Now, towards the end the anchor asked the audience to close their eyes and think of one event which changed the way they perceived the World. E'one around followed and the magic was working. People actually started stressing their nerves to identify that incident. Now, the anchor announced that she will let one of us to discuss the story to all present and then the same story would be enacted by the actors present there with one of them playing the role of the orator. One of the champs discussed his experience of heart break, how it led to his rise and fall and then rise again. I was bored to the core listening to the story not just because the story was boring but because we are so used to background music in films that the entire story-telling process looked like the worst crime on earth.
I was curious to see how creative the actors can get in enacting the story. Let me tell you guys, I am not able to create even 1% of my excitement through this blog. The actors began with personifications with somone being the clock, someone being the thought, someone the marksheet and someone the binoculars which were used by the lead actor to peep into the room of the lead actress.
Without props, without costumes and without lousy backgrounds they were still able to take us to a ride into our imaginations. We, the audience could actually feel the entire thing going on in our brain like a well directed film. It was INCREDIBLE. I still wonder......
