MY WORD: the word and performance - a workshop with Anjum Katyal

[Scroll down for reference videos and participant responses]

An exploration of the word – as poetry, as lyric, as prose monologue and in other forms – uttered, enacted and performed. With a focus on the emotional connect, the personal relationship between the word and each of us.

Dates: Friday, 1 August and Sunday, 3 August
Time: Friday, 6pm to 8pm / Sunday, 2.30pm to 6.30pm
Venue: the Ranan Workspace (8 Sultan Alam Road, Calcutta - 33)

Fees: Rs. 600/-

To register, please email us at rananindia@gmail.com

Anjum Katyal has been Editor, Seagull Theatre Quarterly and Chief Editor, Seagull Books, Calcutta, and Web Editor, Saregama-HMV. She has translated Habib Tanvir’s Charandas Chor and Hirma ki Amar Kahani as well as Usha Ganguli’s Rudali and stories by Mahasweta Devi and Meera Mukherjee. She is the author of Habib Tanvir: Towards an Inclusive Theatre and a forthcoming book on Badal Sircar. She is Co-Director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF), and Consultant, Publications, MAKAIAS. She is a published poet. She also sings the blues and writes on the arts. 

On the first day of the workshop, we watched videos of a couple of spoken word performances by Katy Makkai and Sierra DeMulder. Anjum also circulated a series of other videos for the participants to watch. Here they are...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0  Katy Makkai (Pretty)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnTWiLvLL0A  Zora Howard (Rage)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xyKKoL1NSM  Sierra DeMulder (National Poetry Slam)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW2uwvVq4so  Alicia Keys (Prisoner of Words Unsaid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYZHb2xo0OI  David Tennant (Hamlet’s soliloquy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcI_xtsiUps  David Meadows (Macbeth soliloquy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dgbbtUbgcM  Judi Dench (Lady Macbeth – Out damn spot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqvAoTHPyxs  Teejan Bai (Kaurav Pandav Yudh ki Taiyyari)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FOlV1EYxmg  Bob Dylan (Song of the Hurricane)

Anjum asked each participant to bring in a text – prose, poetry, diary entry, letter, anything – which is approximately 5 minutes in length when read aloud. If shorter, bring two. Choose something which means a lot to you, which is personal, which has a link/history/story with regard to you.

A sampling of what was brought in...

Debosmita

The world comprises various diversities. Each race has its own language to connect to the rest of the world. But Art is the only language which is perceived by the whole world as one.
Onto that I hold, Dance is the one through whom I can connect myself to the world.A little girl who was gifted by the Almighty so well that she couldn’t even stand on her own feet, but dreamt of making a stand among those who touch the sky. Well, that’s me.It was the word ‘Kathak’ that brought me from being a no one to being a someone.
It was a time when I was too little to even know the meaning of Kathak. But it was the only petrol which could boost my passion. And above all it was the heavenly blessing that all children are entitled to – my mom, who carried me all the way from that dream to reality. 

I am a daughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin,

a friend, a partner, a young girl and a grown woman.....

I am confident and scared....

sometimes terrified but excited....

I am loving and caring....

thoughtful yet hopeful....

I am sick and tired....

I am shy but friendly....

careful and careless....

sometimes misunderstood & broken ....

misguided and mislead... 

I am hardworking and determined....

but a little scared on inside....

I wish on stars and dream my dreams....

I pray to god and cry my tears....

I smile on the outside while I’m dying  inside....

I listen to others who don’t speak to me…

I’m talking to those who won’t listen to me....

so… all I can say…

I AM EVERYTHING AND NOTHING AT ALL........    


Dana

We travelers on the endless wastes

in single orbits gliding


Cold-eyed march towards the dawn,

behind hard weather hoods a-hiding


Meeting as the tall ships do,

passing in the channel


Afraid to chance a gentle touch,

afraid to make the clasp

In high-rise city,

canyons dwells the discontent of ages


On ring roads, nose to bumper crawl

commuters in their cages


Cryptic signals flash across

from pilots in the fast lane


Double-locked and belted in,

too late to make the clasp

Let's break the journey now

on some lonely road


Sit down as strangers will,

let the stress unload


Talk in confidential terms,

share a dark unspoken fear


Refill the cup and drink it up,

say goodnight and wish good luck

Synthetic chiefs with frozen smiles,

holding unsteady courses


Grip the reins of history,

high on their battle horses


And meeting as good statesmen do

before the TV eyes of millions


Hand to hand exchange the lie,

pretend to make the clasp

Songwriters


IAN ANDERSON

Sumit

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come gather 'round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you

Is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That it's namin'

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it is ragin'

It'll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is

Rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is

Rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'.

Songwriter

Bob Dylan

Katy

Growing up with Trees, by Ruskin Bond


A response to the workshop from Rhea Dawn - Ranan Repertory member

“Delay of Gratification”. 

My Gratification might have been delayed but to overcome this long awaited pain, a lovely experience has been gifted by RANAN.I have been thinking for a while why text based workshop is not included in RANAN. We could do so much with texts.  RANAN has performers who have years of acting knowledge and they use it in best of their potential. I don’t have such good acting knowledge or background in my resume’.   I was creating a wall in front of my hope. But as I was trying to get rid of all the hindrances, surprisingly at this juncture where I was pushing this wall, my long awaited workshop has been announced. This workshop was more like a medicine on my wounds. I am a performer. A performer’s realization about pain is different and sometimes this realization changes everything. This pain changes you from inside, sometimes the kind of person you are. This tide inside you is a different kind of realization, not easy to describe in words, sometimes helps you to embrace a new skin of a character. I desperately needed this experience.

With such an attainment of unfathomable knowledge and experience from this workshop and also from others who all have participated was awesome and mesmerizing. This experience is going to be a guiding star for me in my journey.

Here, I have learnt to utilize my facial muscles and to project it with my emotions. Other than my facial expressions nothing more was needed, no other body parts were needed to involve, except my eyes, my lips and my eyebrows and with this we have been taught to project our emotions.

 I sometimes get astonished do I have these things in me? Was it possible for me? Yes it was! My experience and my realization was an obvious proof for that. This is what I have learned. This is what I have always craved for.

It was a wonderful experience!