The school play, a creation and adaptated version of an indian epic

Theatre is the art of interpretation, the opportunity given to human beings to transmit ideas of diverse periods of times in their own way. Last monday, we presented our proposals regarding the specific scene we were given, in my case, The Great War. We were given to present our vision of the original act, how we would adaptate it in our way without losing its essence. In order to not lose it essence, we were specified to propose the act with 3 to 5 main acting conventions portrayed in indian theatre. In my case I presented the purulia cchau movements that can focus on the lower part of the body to reinforce the characterization of the monkeys; a violent dance to represent the death secene of Raveena because in indian theatre it isn't allowed to show a death scene since it transmits impurity and finally, acrobatics that would help give an animal-like characterization to themonkey figures, but especially, it would contribute with the movements and actions of the monkeys in the war.On the day of the presentations that took approximately 5-10 minutes each, we received special feedback from Mr.Gonzalo, Aileen and our classmates from each of the different proposals presented. On wednesday and thrusday, we joined each of the proposals which were 6 slides each on to a single powerpoint presentation which would be sent to Mrs. Alicia as our final proposal for the school play. As a total, it reached approximately 42 slides including the actual summary of the scene, our proposal and the acting conventions we each added. Finally, after school we had our second pre-production meeting where we decided on how the first rehearsal of the play will be managed.



This experience made me feel exited since we, as official drama ib students, were given the chance to adaptate and change a specific scene into our own one, presenting it to Mr. Gonzalo, Aileen and our classmates to see if they could consider our personal ideas for the presentation of the play.This provided me different organization and creativity skills that could be applied to future workshops.  I can admit, it made me feel partially as a producer of a scene of the entire school play which i haven't ever experienced before although it's just one of my first week in the drama ib program. However, it was a difficult task to idealize an entire vision of a scene yourself since we had to pick the best acting conventions that could fit precisely in specific moments of the given act. As a personal experience, it made me open my abilities of creation which made me think beyond my comfort zone, something completely different to my usual life. As a result, this made me reflect on the idea on how the drama ib course isn't only focused on acting skills but it bases itself on each persons creative and analytical abilities.


 Well, the difficulty of adaptating an entire play without the support of the 6th ib years is quite challenging since as a group, an ensemble we must do all the writing, the design elements, the teaching of the conventions all by ourselfs. Im actually fearing of the idea that perhaps, we are ignoring important scenes and moments that must be in the play by adaptating it in our own way. I actually found exiting and challenging at the same time in this course is that we are given the activities of creating adaptated versions of scenes of epic plays such as the Ramayana which can't be done in any type of course. In conclusion, the fear of producing and creating an adaptation of this lasting play has leaded me to different questioning of the total success and satisfaction of our school play. Moreover, for the benefit of my theatrical life, having to do an adaptation teached me how to pick specific and important acts of an entire lasting play.I couldn't completely understand how people can adaptate whole play that includes diverse elements such as lyrical narrations, exploration of mudras, dances and more in  approximately 10-9 hour plays to a specific time limit of 2 hours maximum. Furthermore, translating an indian epic helped me  to notice key spaces where several indian design and acting conventions are used without having a complete knowledge of the original play. Also, i achieved to learn the different aspects of the cultural indian context i have never studied or analyzed in depth. I learned that having fear gives you the courage to go beyond yourself, open your mind and free your beliefs. This sense of defiance helped me to create my adaptated version of the scene I was given.



Will our journey pass through a difficult lane without the complete support of the 6th ib years? I constantly wonder if our adaptation will become as successful as we think eventhough we removed parts that we believe were absurd while in indian theatre had a true significance.How effective will our play be following indian theatre ideals? Reaching to my final conclusion, we as directors, producers and actors will be able to keep the nature of indian theatre in our adaptated version?