The joy of theater..

Life's pleasures, they say, come in little packages! And when that little package is an opportunity to watch theater on a weekend with daddy dearest, without the little ones to distract, then that is true bliss. So when dad asked me if I would like to watch “Modit Nighale Kadimod” a Marathi play scripted by his close friend, how could I refuse?

Watching theater has always been one of my favorites, and it beats going to the cinemas by a huge margin. No PVR rushes and no distractions. No loud sounds and over the top dialogues and way over the top clothes! And more importantly, no unnecessary shopping while you are whiling away your time waiting for the previous show to get over . Or maybe the other way around!

Theater is joy. The joy of seeing the characters in flesh and blood, the joy of watching the light and sound effects guide you through the script, the joy of being able to walk up to the actors after the play is over and tell them what a great job they did, the joy of being up close, the joy of connecting with the actors and their characters in a way you could never connect with a movie actor...

The stage itself is so synonymous with life, where there are no retakes. What is done is done. You cannot just go back and redo anything. You have to rehearse well and long enough not to make a mistake on stage. How much more beautiful life would be if we could rehearse our lines in our mind well enough before it rolls out of that acidic tongue of ours!

 You just play your part and leave the stage, and then you wait in the wings till you need to take center-stage again. You don’t keep meddling with the parts that others need to play! And after the play is over you have that hot cup of tea and samosa with your team, and pat each other’s back and say goodbye with a smile. No one cries when goodbyes are exchanged! Shakespeare sure did know when he said what he did about the world being a stage!!

You will realize that actors will usually never make eye contact with one person in the audience. They are trained to be so immersed in the script that though they seem to be looking at everyone, they are actually not looking at anyone! But should that moment of eye contact happen, and then the onus is on you- to maintain that eye contact and not distract the actor in any way till he leaves your gaze!

Theater is pure, unadulterated fun, and you must experience it at least once in your lifetime, if you haven’t already. And I would say, take just one person with you; don’t go with an entourage, if you know what I mean!