Being Elvira

 November 5, my first day as Elvira-the name itself seemed like a tongue twister at first, the tongue rolls itself to sound it right. Anyways, the first day of practice and I am given a thorough read through of my part. The writer in me had already started appreciating sudden gushes of comedy and the unexpected climaxes but then my director (another lead in the cast) brought me back. I came back from the practice at around 10 and not being habitual to this phase for a year or so, recollecting all the energy to chit chat and explain the day to my favorite buddies was a little tiresome, but as many of you know me, well, it took me just a day to get into the soak. And the cycle repeated everyday with the most eye awakening promise every evening, “we meet tomorrow morning at 6”. On my way back, I would promise myself of sleeping on time but then they all, my buddies, had some chit chat and could not afford to miss it :P. We have covered variety of time zones from 6.01 to 6.10, be it 6.01 or 6.10 , Mr. Director was always there!! It is easy to talk about being passionate about something, but it takes immense strength and devotion to bring it out. Rightly said-You are what you do, not what you say. I have made great friends, people I surely knew, but just knew, never worked with. People who were perfectionists, each of them, none would settle for less than what their character is expected to do, every delicacy taken care of. My character wasn’t much of me. Surely way more interesting than I am. She had mixed air of being childish, being bold, being naughty, being clever, being a cliché deceiver and yet a hard core ‘wanting’ lover. The most beautiful part about theatre is you get to play something you are not, but I tell you a secret right now, that too is the most difficult part, You have to trim the layer of ’I’ and be someone else. Someone you are in some hidden corners of yourself but there is a silent promise with the self to keep that in. Sometimes being someone you never will be. Sometimes being what you hate the most. And all that indeed is the beauty of it ( I have felt the transition from ‘I and the character as two separate beings’ to ‘how will the character react to a situation and giving an expression’ to ‘being soaked into the soul of character, so much that you forget who you are… And the stage has that magic!! the magic of being what you are not ! Theatre is farce. This farce is exuberance when you live it on stage. This is tragedy when you fall short of an applause, and for an actor, this indeed is life !! As ‘the’ day-november 17 drew near, the fact that I still stand yards away from the glide and flowy nature of the character was disturbing me. Much came inbetween, My NMAT exam, but for very few things you feel like giving your heart and soul to them, this is one of them... I utilized the journey to get thorough with my dialogues. The lady sitting next to me in the bus was wondering why I looked up and murmur something after going through a page! Well, you can’t explain everything, can you: D? Still something was missing, and hence anger burst into tears, I knew it does not matter that if  I don’t do well, nothing will change, but their was a spark to do it as my director wished it to be ! But somehow the magic wasn’t happening. Tears have no reasons, no explainable reasons. I told my friends in the play my fear, the fear of –what if he magic doesn’t happen on the final day and well their answer was-‘it’s a play’! Play with it  :) and probably that was the day something unaccountable changed! It’s been my pleasure to work with people who love theatre even more than I do ! Yes, Theatre is a farce but the joy is real! So purely real!