Raja Ghat Rehearsal

Friends,

Many wonderful things occurred today.... this morning we were greeted with amazing press coverage from 7 newspapers in India - (we will post pics soon on the Flickr to share coverage, bonus points for those who read Hindi).  After breakfast, we traveled to the beautiful Raj Ghat, where we had our first rehearsal within the courtyard of a 19th century monastery, with views from the roof of the Ganges.  Upon returning back to Nirman for lunch, our missing baggage for 7 of our team members arrived!  After lunch, we enjoyed a great discussion about our experience of performing the play, and later were able to go for a shopping experience and dinner on the town before heading back to the center.  Thanks for staying with us....

Team Kahani

Anya Opshinsky

     It’s my first play outside of the United States and it was a success! Everything was going as planned it felt safe and normal until suddenly we got to the first abstract scene, and for the first time I looked straight out into the audience and realized again that we were half way across the world performing for an entirely unfamiliar group of people.  Families, people of all ages, a sea full of beautifully colored Saris.  It was a thrilling realization and rejuvenated my desire to bring our story to life with all the meaning and energy that it is capable of sharing. During the talk back one of the audience members stood up and asked how we knew so much about Indian culture. He was impressed by our portrayal of traditional Indian family relationships and traditions. I was floored. The group had spent many evenings discussing people’s possible reactions, what might be offensive or assumptive.  That man’s comment brought us to the beautiful realization that people are happy to assume the best of your intensions and appreciate your interest if you act with compassion and respect. 

Cameron Schneberger

     After we cleaned our trays after breakfast, Ed covered the dining table with the newspaper articles about Kahani, each one with picture. “Cameron look! There you are. And there you are again!” There were a total of seven papers that covered our first performance. It was overwhelming and kind of funny given the difficulty of getting our own college newspaper to feign interest and write a decent article when we performed it in Kalamazoo College. I feel a little bit like a celebrity. When people ask us why we’re here I can’t help but feel quite glamorous when I say, “I’m an actor. I’m here to perform.” Aside from that, I’m getting driven around the city, people keep giving me chi tea and now I’ve got at least seven newspaper articles about me.

     Most of the time I don’t feel glamorous, I feel humbled. Today after carrying our props through a maze-like thin cobblestone streets, carrying our props and avoiding herds of water buffalo, we came to our second performance space: a large 200 plus year old building with a gorgeous courtyard. It looked just like the pictures in my Eyewitness: India book I owned when I was little. On the roof of the building you could see the entire city wrapped around the edge of the ganga. It was one of the most beautiful views I’d ever seen. After staring for about fifteen minutes some words finally escaped my mouth. “I want to paint this.”