Experiences 8: My incredible India - Julia Hesse, Dramaturgy and PR at Schnawwl talks about her first trip to Bangalore

My Incredible India


“You say you’ve seen seven wonders and your bird is green – but you can’t see me.”

Before going to India for the first time someone told me: „India is absolute. Either you will hate it or you will love it. There’s nothing in between.” She was right.
Before getting into anything in detail I tell you straight ahead: I love it. I loved from the very first moment I arrived at the airport in Bangalore. Although it was almost 2 a.m. the air was soft and warm and had a special perfume, I can’t describe, but it smelled different from home, excitingly different.

During our instrument-shopping-tour I didn’t know where to look first. The coloured buildings, the beautiful ladies with their magnificent saris of different styles, the shops with all these statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, the old woman that sold flowers to put in your hair (Kirtana once offered me such flowers for my hair. Jasmine and tiny orange flowers that smelled so unbelievably sweet and divine, that you wish to have them as your everyday perfume). The music shops were great and very different from our way of storaging instruments as drums, sitars, weeners etc. looked kind of stuffed in every free space and it was not what you would call clean or tidied up in a German way, but it was rather like a big tresurehold, where you could get lost. We bought a kanjera (but with goat, not lizard skin) and a cachon so that Coordt would have some instruments to play on during his session with the musicians we were meeting to find a cast for “Boy with the suitcase”.
For lunch we met Arundhati, the founder and artistic head of Ranga Shankara, at her theatre. She welcomed us very warmly although she was in big stress as the next day the big folk festival for traditional Indian theatre was going to be opened at Ranga Shankara and she had to leave for one day to Delhi to receive her latest price for best supporting actress, some kind of Indian Oscar…
Thanks to the excellently programmed festival at Ranga Shankara, Andrea, Coordt and I enjoyed several traditional Indian plays from all over India you normally never would get to see as a tourist and even as an Indian you would have to travel all over the country to see these kinds of different performances. As a matter of fact we didn’t understand a single word of the plays in Kannada, Tamil or Urdu, but the way of performing, the wonderful all-over present music and the impressing way of using the body to express feelings made us totally get the atmosphere and the mood of every play. Plus we were lucky enough to see big myths as the Ramayana we just produced in Schnawwl also and the story of Draupadi, this brave Indian heroic woman that fights again her fate of being pushed around and humiliated by men and is rescued by Krishna (?) who sends her a never ending sari so she can’t be seen naked.


Mission Musician

The following days we kept meeting with all kinds of musicians that were masters in handling their exotic and beautiful instruments and as I am rather good with words than scripted music, which means I’m no musician and can’t even keep a rhythm I just attended the jam-session of Coordt and the musicians enjoying the great sounds and rhythm they created without even knowing each other more than a couple of minutes. After some days we found our musicians for “Boy with the suitcase” while being in paradise on earth in form of Kirtana’s and Cookie’s farm out of Bangalore.  Sitting in the open air rehearsal space with a overwhelming view on the amazing countryside with its banana trees and round shaped stones and hills, Andrea and I got lost in the soundscapes the six musicians including brilliant and famous Pallavi, who will sing and act in “Boy” created and made us shiver with their heartbreaking improvisation of a Lullaby. Together with Shrunga, who will also act in the play, the musicians improvised on scenes in the play and invented sounds for a scene in the mountains or expressed an emotional sound setting for the children’s’ work in a sewing factory.


“Mergendising”

For “Boy with the suitcase” as a co production of Ranga Shankara and Schnawwl on all levels we want to collaborate not only on stage, but also have a common poster and production design in both cities. So on Monday Gayathri and Arundhati set us up with Sonya from “Idiom” a top agency for design and advertising, who does the design for Ranga Shankara. We agreed on having several suggestions for the design from Idiom and from our designer Tanja in Mannheim. The best ideas we will melt in one single design for our poster. I’m already very excited about the proposals and ideas of the designers and I hope we will make up something really excellent and extraordinary but fitting at the same time for both theatres and countries. Big challenge, I like that!

Cyber Classes

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to two schools Kirtana had gotten in touch with for our outreach project “Cyber Classes&Virtual Pen friends”. This project wants to connect classes from Mannheim with classes from Bangalore so not only our theatres will benefit from our artistic exchange but also our young audience can get the most out of this interaction. The Cyber Classes give students the opportunity to exchange via internet, by blogging on one hand and by writing emails on the other hand. Additionally to an personal exchange about the different ways of life in Mannheim and Bangalore the students can ask each other about, they will get to know a lot about theatre in both countries as all classes taking part in the project will meet our ensemble of “Boy with the suitcase” during the rehearsals in Bangalore and Mannheim and they will also see the show and discuss about it. The project will be from January till July and it will end with a meeting of everybody on the internet during a skype conference with cameras, so the students can talk and see each other for one time “for real”.

The rock

My most amazing experience was our very early morning walk upon a hill near Kirtana’s and Cookie’s farm. After having wandered through high grass, banana trees, having jumped over a small creek and fought against bushes with bamboo sticks we reached the steep rock. As my shoes had no grip I was forced to leave them at its foot. First I was not comfortable with the idea of climbing the huge rock with bare feet, still having in mind the stories about snakes and spiders Vindi, a wild camp guide, was happy to tell me in the evening before (and by that arrived easily to freak me out for the rest of the night and for the big amusement of the rest of the others). But against all my fears and expectations my skin on the stone wasn’t hurt at all, but the moment I touched the solid and at the same time soft ground, I felt an enormous energy floating my whole body which I never felt before. I don’t want to sound like that Elizabeth Gilbert woman and talk about spiritual stuff, but being on that rock in the silent and still air of morning, facing a landscape so unknown and beautiful touched and marked me in a way I surely shall never forget in my life. Thank you so much, Kirtana!

First review on "The song of Rama"

http://www.morgenweb.de/nachrichten/kultur/20101011_mmm0000000672037.html

This review is more a description than criticism, but well, the reviewer seems to have been impressed at least.

50th show of "Robinson & Crusoe"

Robinson and Crusoe has seen its 50th show on Monday, Sep 13.

Close to 18,000 children and adults have watched the play so far. While the children bring the house down in the school shows in the morning, adults have a rocking time in the evening too and always give a standing ovation.

Next, the play is invited to the National School of Drama's Festival in October 2010.

Article about Shrunga

...by Schnawwl-Dramaturg Anne Richter in the theatre magazine "Jünge Bühne".
In German!
Read it here:
www.die-junge-buehne.de/de/artikel_lesen/54.html

Extensive Experiences 10: Kirtana trains German actors in Kalari

The opening play of the next season at Schnawwl will be "Das Lied von Rama" by Tor Åge Bringsværd. For this production Kirtana Kumar is spending two weeks in Mannheim training the actors in Kalari payattu, a martial art from South India. Read about her personal and professional experiences here:

http://infinitesoulsfarmandartistsretreat.blogspot.com/search/label/germany

Experiences 9: Kirtana Kumar "Sophia Chews On Me"

OK, this blog was written under duress. Torture. Waterboarding...nah! It's been so crazy-fantastic-rich it makes me want to stay with it a while...and simply mull. So much art, so much inspiration. I've liked it most when performances are questioning of the status quo, when form grabs my throat and leaves me breathles and in love. When theate-makers reference their passions - the cool and intrigue of film noir (hats, spats et al), the music of Frank Zappa - one of my teenage Gods (remember the sex and magic of Catholic Girls?)the lonely heart of Kerouac and his Bodhisattvas, I'm sold. I am not just interested in the form and the content, but the memory and the roots of the work.

From the high culture ethos of Puccini's Turandot to the simple Grotovsky inspired Open Circle (Lithuania), it has been an aesthetic roller-coaster ride. So...some moments.

- A poster for the Pat Metheny Group on the Altefeuerwache, the building that is home to Schnawwl Theatre, Mannheim. As luck would have it I miss the concert by a few days, but am thrilled by the idea of the continuum. We are here, Pat Metheny will soon be here. How cool, no?
- Watching Berlin '61. Lovely details strewn casually all over. The very '60s cocktail sticks, the 3-in-1 lamp, the use of music and that subtle yearning for the West, that we recognise so well. The sadness of it.
- Hanging out with the actors of NIE and Open Circle. Hopefully, friendships made and held onto beyond work, time and space. Listening to the ephemeal Unai speak about his method - transparency, honesty and in improv - just going with things and seeing where it gets you.
- The opening visual for the libretto in Verdi's Macbeth was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Haze of the blue scrim, an installation of trenchcoat behind. Then young girls in red wigs and tiny kilts appearing and pressed against the scrim...oh.
- Meeting and doing workshop with the sweetness of the actors at Schnawwl. Seeking something fragile and organic that is interesting and truthful for children and young adults. Also, chasing an ideal of participation and democracy.
- Learning that the Open Circle actors (so young, so talented, so hot!) have promised each other they will never take the commercial, establishment route. I applaud them and am thrilled by their idealism.
- Portrait la familia! How do actors become so strong of voice and body? I want so much to discuss with them the dramaturgy that I was just so unsure about...which brings me to the last thing.
- What I have loved the most is the German commitment to the discussion and analysis of theatre. What could be more dispassionate? To unpack and dismantle with a clear heart and mind, with only one intention.To forward the journey and movement to theatre.

That's it for now. I suppose I should write about the copious glasses of champagne and Pils, the interesting faces and souls, the nice rollies, the general decadence...but that's a given, no? The reason we do this thing?!
love, peace, freedom,
kirtana

Experiences 8: Artistic Director Arundhati Nag on the German luxury of subsidised theatre

This is my third German festival ("Schöne Aussicht" in Stuttgart) and my second theatre for children festival and I am completely in awe of the fact that Germany has build this movement of theatre for children, which we could emulate in India also. Its very recent that theatre has been brought into the Indian educational system as an optioal subject, for students at the 10^th standard level (16 years old), so we have a long way to go, considering the number of people and the shere size if the country, the diversity of languages. Tt will mean very large political will to bring in change for all. Ranga shankara is a small dot on the map which has this collaboration with Schnawwl and I am an fortunate Indian to have seen these festivals – this is a beginning and there is hope.