Mithya

Myth Ya Right awards!

2012-02-19T17:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for the encouragement of our efforts to put up what was Mithya's biggest production so far!

Personally I feel a big void in life because there is nothing to do. (Of course there is work, there are chores, activities here and there, but NO Practice! No time to while away anymore!) It is upsetting! For about 40 days or more the Mithya group has been involved in coming together and put up a play as serious, as intense and as big as this one. Is there any wonder, then, that there should be many memories attached to this play?

Now, I may write a mushy narrative of experiences during the play in future but for now, here is my tribute to all those involved in the play. I'll call them Myth Ya Right! Awards - more for the contortion of the original word than for lack of better names like Awards... (Only some find a mention but that is only because of my frequent interaction with them.)

The award for best:

Lighting: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay - Not as much for stage lights and related labor as for displaying a kid-like glint in his eyes when he found a trolley on which he could stand and move about. Together with Sonal Mithal he successfully blared strong lights into everyone's eyes. No surprise then that he'd done something to cause the audiences to have tears in their eyes. At the sets he'd often climb up the ladder at the drop of a hat to stand right next to intense lights. He'd then pick a person to talk to, call him/her, the person would look up, and... well... profanity would follow!
His dedication to serious work would come to the fore when someone would mention food! From that mention to the time food was with him, he'd be serious about work. Then he'd get back to his buffoonery, often sounding like Sourav Ganguly!

Music: Ganesan, Nachiket and Usman - for successfully preparing actors and cue masters for SNAFUs or bloopers on stage. It was only one day before the actual play that they realized they weren't composing for a spoof. Until then they'd take turns to deliberately mistime the sound cues. It wasn't until the last show that everyone realized how much that helped the actors develop a knack for maintaining calm in the event of an actual F&&& up! Must be geniuses! About the music pieces, Usman was stunned to learn that he wasn't composing for Coke Studio or Atif Aslam's latest album!

Cue Manager (sound and light box): Sonal Mithal - After auditioning people for that role she only thought it morally improper to take up the lead role. So she decided to be the production manager. (Besides no one had the patience to appease Mithya's president should she fuss and cry over something!) One of the key hands behind making the Uncle look shabby, she'd not suggest a rockstar kind of costumes for the uncle! If the music and light folks were not bungling, it was Sonal who'd deliberately mislead Jay and others. That explains the nothing that was done on the first day the theater was handed to Mithya! Her fascination for fancy equipment overcame her and she used that whole day to play her version of PS3! Together with Saptarshi she'd create the occasional halos around actors under the pretext of faulty equipment!

Cue Master: Jay Chheda - For bungling Uncle Vinay's cues until even the final dress rehearsal. Sources say that he did that deliberately to have my on-stage presence to as minimum a time as possible! Sources also say that the director suggested this. After the award, I re-christen him to "Q (Kyu)Master?" He also gets the award for best backstage management because he had a very Old Parsi Pappa look a la Munnabhai MBBS! Some actors claim to have heard him say to himself between cues "Rani to pappani!" An actor complained in private that Jay's hastening between scenes nearly caused a dressing blooper that'd have caused nightmares to the on-lookers. Esp Mala Kathhhri!Also nominated and nearly won the award for Mr Consistent performer for having mimed Paperwallahs gay actions on all 3 shows from behind the stage! He only lost the award because he lost control of the backstage crew every time he did that. (Hard to get people to work when they're rolling on their stomachs!)

Make-up artist/Shadow actress: Sarah Brown - for working hard on make-up and doubling up as backstage crew as well as shadow of Mala! Her skills were more in the way she disguised her nervousness to show Mala's shyness/discomfort and reluctance at the psychiatrist's office! Rumors have it that she was the brain behind what is accepted as the Asst Director's master stroke of tiring/stressing the actors! She had minimum work to do then, but maximum credit for the make-up. Her item dances during practices earned her the sobriquet of "Gulaabon". Her ability to learn fast was demonstrated through her quick usages of un-parliamentary words in Hindi! Gulaabon delicately lent herself to the production work too. Or so she made people believe! No one realized her scheme of pointing to her shadow appearance as a reason for not doing much work. An actor under conditions of anonymity confessed that Gulaabon would just sit in the blue light backstage. He shudders at the thought of being revealed to her, lest he gets to hear her full range vocabulary in Hindi!

Publicity: Namita Narain and Ankit Chandra - Former (Namita) for bullying the actors into submission during interviews. But just when the actors realized they were being bullied, she'd sugar coat them with compliments and assurances to be natural on the cam. Flatter them with "You guys are amazing! I was always a tree in plays!" Word has it that she had to work on her bullying skills when despite all her efforts, there was a great turn-out for all 3 shows. We had to do something about the extra people that wanted to be let in... Her bullying worked wonders to hush up one actor who'd refuse to give up on his gimmicks! Always the one to add fire to fuel, she'd assure (false assurance) "setting up" between 2 people any time!

The latter (Ankit) more for publicizing his singing than directing all traffic to the latest play in the blog site until just the day before the 1st show. His altruism and efforts behind the stage were manifest in how he'd lend himself to the Asst Director as a favorite punch bag! His best contribution to publicity was to get his girlfriend to fly in from Pittsburgh. At the least that worked... His best production work was in getting food and thereby keeping perpetually hungry beings like Saptarshi interested in the play!

Director: Radha Venkatagiri - For being the Sonia Gandhi for her puppet (Sibin Mohan)! Her charm worked its way to new comers, one of whom would occasionally claim Radha to be his fiance instead of Radhika!
Also gets the award for assisting with the make-up (read: scrubbing faces and eyelids to redness/soreness). The important inspiration from her for everyone came when shed narrate fictitious tales of how she'd not get high at all and that she'd drink 10 shots and sue the liquor maker for making flavored water!

Assistant Director: Sibin Mohan - for his masterpiece when he came up with the idea to make the whole thing look natural. He is a Neo-director trying to make his mark but boy! His ploy to tire the headlights out of 2 actors such that they actually appear and act old (also tired) seemed to work wonders. Friends of the 2 actors who sat in the audience couldn't recognize them even days after the last show!
The stress was working on Mala Cuttery too except that Sibin, smartly, would pat her shoulder assuring that she was the best actress he ever worked with! It didn't work on Deepak because his mind was always on Hookah, Shayari and Liquor, not on the play! His best contribution was during those days that he wasn't in town for the practices!
He reportedly went on record saying that this was going to be his last play as a director. Pity the newcomers took that as a carrot tied to a stick. If only they'd known that that was what he mentioned last time too. The straight face that he puts it with often made onlookers think that he was Mithya's best actor so far!

Versatile actor: Mohin Khushani - for his versatile roles. His Looney Tunes-esque portrayal of the paperwallah, Sarkar-esque portrayal of the Barista and and Drunken-man-who-ain't-knows-the-difference-between-beer-and-wine portrayal of the Waiter wasn't what earned him the award. It was not even for his butt-thrusting a la Saurav Ganguly! His award was for wooing and accepting his co-star (a change from his days when he'd shudder at the thought of being seen with girls), for pretending to study for a fictitious exam when help was needed backstage and for his publicity interview. In fact the meaty part of his role was when he successfully held his chuckle and tried to seriously say that the person playing the Uncle was his favorite actor. To this day no one bought that, but hey he convinced himself! That is quality acting...

Junior artist/ Backstage intern: Dhruv Mehta - After his raunchy back massaging dance he'd slip into the production crew's dress code with more fuss than even Charlie Sheen could create! Dopey dance with wannabe accent seems to be the thing with Junior artists. They also refuse to share a dressing mirror/chair. He started the Junior Artists' rebellion in the dressing room but quietly led it from behind the Doofus-faced Khushani! Khushani would bark vehemently about how difficult it was to sit on a fellow Junior artist's lap during make-up etc. He'd create a ruckus in the dressing room, and when outside it, he'd look to show his non-existent cricketing prowess! Renuka, the jewelry designer and Nachiket's wife, held more sharp catches than Dhruv and Khushani put together!

Mr Nice guy/ soft spoken actor award: Aviral Jain - Coming from the village of La Mart-in-here he was always raised to leave enough room for the audience interpret the play in their own way! Very good practice except when it comes to saying one's dialogues so softly that the audience cannot hear anything, thereby leaving no choice but to imagine/extrapolate those lines!
His only line in the play (he used often) that made sense and men could readily associate with and feel ever so emotional about was "What do you mean? This just doesn't make sense!" (said with a gawky expression...)
The nice guy bit is for promising intoxicants to the lead actresses but never doing it. Chivalry indeed! Sources suspect the low-voice-syndrome in the play was because of repeated stress of the throat (read gasp+gulp) every time he saw Strawberries & Cream in action (read Girl-on-girl)!
He definitely helped keep everyone's moral high by plugging in earplugs and listening to random stuff instead of reciting Shayaris or narrating stories from Luck-No or La Marts! (In which case it gave Sonal - Aviral's best audience - an excuse to not work despite her not needing one.)

Actress/Glamdoll: Nisha Somnath - Every actor/actress in a given famous movie has a famous thing noted in it. Dharmendra for his "Yamla Pagla" dance and "Basanti in kutton ke saamne..." Amitabh for "Mera baap chor hai" Raj Kapoor for his right palm to the audience, light nod and Bambi eyes saying something like "Ok ji", Al Pacino's dance in "Scent of a woman", Yana Gupta's "Babuji" song.
Our Nisha has done it all. She oozed oomph through her high heels. That was the single major factor for her glamdoll tag. Her gait changed greatly with her skimpy and tight outfits, but not more than with the heels. A candid man in the audience wrote in his feedback, "Dear Mithya, all was ok! I loved everything about the play! But must you really have a horse to transport crew and actors from one side of the stage to the other?"
Her method acting must be lauded. She deliberately estranges her real life chemistry with her onstage mother and uncle so as to give her best performance. So what if despite that she couldn't act.
Her most noted lines/words in the play - "Eh! Did my scene with Spurr-tee come out well? I think it fell flat!"
"But how am I acting?" "Ehh I am not doing it well. Maybe you should find a better actress!" (Sibin's integrity was put to maximum test every time Nisha asked him for feedback on her acting. Best Director indeed!)
Words that really moved/reduced the co-actors to tears, "Deii! You are Deid! There is no Llleww for me! Lizzen!" (for Die! You are dead! There is no love for me! Listen!) (from sitting on chair to ROTFL, i.e.)

Upcoming star/Stacey's mom: Spurti Akki - for integrating her on-stage character into real life behavior. Every time a co-actor would ask her for coffee she'd readily peruse her lines from the play, "Huh? (and look lost)" Her peak acting was when she'd be upset over not being allowed to go to her "lab". (At the rate at which she was claiming things about her lab and/or work she should got either a Nobel Prize or an Oscar!)
Her portrayal of Mala's mother beat "Stacey's mom" by miles! People went gaga over her - not as much for her graceful looking saree as much for her impressions of old actresses in old songs.
Nisha's lines may or may not make her famous, but this starlet's lines "It is going to rain ALL NIGHT!" said no less than a million times by now will occupy the Mithya billboards for eons to come! In a given play her frustration (at the weather forecast not being heeded to) building up each time she said the line was impressive and definitely what made audiences go back home with a moral of the story! Last heard from sources, she was considering a career switch. She wants to replace Ravi Shastri as a cliche generator! (Both lines from the play and outside of it!)
She's taken to stardom like a Royal pig takes to a dirty sty! Last seen on the streets she was throwing tantrums about a spoon not being at the precise temperature in a restaurant and that it was hard for her to maintain her schedules with so many people interrupting her for autographs!

Best actress overall: Who said you needed to be on stage or in the whole movie to act? Anthony Hopkins won Oscar for a short duration in the film! Radhika is our such example. She went a step ahead. As an actor that never appeared, she mixed her emotions in an inimitable manner - romance, anger, catwalk, understanding and sharing & caring nature, etc!

Special thanks: Mehul Thakkar - for making his involvement with this play a minimum. With the feedback from the play and with more ideas, he is sure he can do better at that!

(Originally posted in my blog site - http://varun-turlapati.blogspot.com/2011/10/myth-ya-awards.html
Some flattering comments on FB for yours truly:

Nisha Somnath So here goes our review for from Sarah Brown and me :D

Doll lover/ Mr. Creepy : Varun Turlapati was born for the role of Uncle Vinay . He made being creepy look effortless both onstage and off -stage :P . He spent most of his time trying to woo the production team by giving them names like Gulaboo or singing ( read braying ) old songs. Although uncle had the hots for Mala he most definitely had more hots for the paperwallah. Uncle would walk into the room everyday hoping he would get more "laydes magazines " delivered just so that he could have another peek at the paperwallah. He did lift everyones mood even though it meant that most of them were laughing at "him" and not his jokes . There was never a serious moment with him around and he took extra efforts to lift people's spirits including losing his pants in one practice :D . You were a complex character Uncle but where would we be without you ?
October 28, 2011 at 2:24am · · 7
Sibin Mohan ‎Nisha, Sarah: You guys forgot one more bit for Doll Lover:
He deserves the best actor award simply because he has convinced himself that he is funny. He is a method actor in true respect since he tries antics and lines that only he thinks is funny and then laughs out loud even before he can complete said "jokes". ;)
October 28, 2011 at 9:24am · · 3

DARK SPACE IS MY CANVAS AND RED BLUE GREEN LIGHTS MY PALETTE...

2011-11-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

After so much of hard work, the least that is expected is that I write a blog about my tryst with lighting the stage for the Mithya performance - 30 days in September.

So we had 12 palettes, 4 splashes, 3 strobes; besides that we hung 4 source fours and installed a floor-mounted flood light. The play demanded at least 6 sets - living room of the mother-daughter duo, the counsellor’s office, the guy’s bedroom, one party scene, one coffee shop and one fine dining restaurant; besides an array of emotions that haunted each of these spaces...

We got to work with the most sophisticated equipment on campus and the Whole hog 3 PC software. It was mind boggling. The technologically advanced lights did not allow for any yellow light unless we mixed red and green, and then we ended up getting concentric circles of red and green... It was quite disappointing. The best way to cast a yellow light is by using a source-four which casts only a pure yellow light. But we had only 4 dimmers into which we could circuit the source-fours. In a way, the advanced technology became a limitation.

One of the most challenging situations was when the uncle enters the subconscious of the Mala's mind and haunts her in her thoughts. We showed it by way of washes - faint bluish tone to light up the back area of the uncle so that his face isn’t really seen except for a shade. This particular scene had two sets on stage lit up simulatenously - living room and the bedroom. We used 4 sources to light up the bedroom and 2 sources to light up the living room. Im particularly fond of this light-design in the entire show. Simply by lighting we were able to make the two spaces appear distant and distinct space-wise and emotion-wise.

The dying-of-the-uncle scene portays his death in the Mala’s subconscious - which we showed by casting a yellowish orange shade on him. That shade was possibly lit using 5 light sources.

There were instances where the Mom is shown as not belonging to this mundane world but to her own world by her God. The unreality of presence of each character in a particular situation had to be evoked to evoke empathy amongst audience. E.g.,the scenes demanded an expression shame, disconnect, empathy, disgust, pain, anguish. Even the happy places like a party or a restaurant had to be made to look discomforting and sorrowful - as if something unhappy is happening here with a person.

Besides, we had several occasions on which lightening had to be created. For that, we used one of the splash lights and used strobe settings for the effect.

We also used a 3 feet wide drape that fell from ceiling down to the bottom and backlit, to show Mala’s unconfident past; by means of casting a shadow of a woman on the drape from behind. The effect was gorgeous. For several subsequent scenes, we used drape as a backdrop on which light was splashed vertically down to give the space its required ambient quality.

Issues - I was not satisfied by the concentric bands of lights we were getting when we mixed colors. In the last scene, there is one occasion in which the actress is completely in dark as she walks across on the stage. The low spot on the dead man was not too effective, as the drape backlight hit hard into audience’s eyes... Inspite of casting 12 lights on living room, there were spaces that were badly lit (read unevenly). Here I don’t mean shade or intensity wise, I just mean color wise. Somewhere was too green, somewhere too red. Someone’s shirt reflected green while someone’s shirt reflected orange. It seemed quite a medley. I guess we might be able to get more clarity next time. This was my first lighting experience. I am happy about getting the opportunity to work on it; and also teh freedom given to me in terms of design. Also, my question to myself is - is there a way to solve issues of transitions thru dim lighting? We had numerous black outs through out the play which probably can be avoided. But having said that I feel I could have done more, this opportunity has done more than instilling in me a new passion... Painting with lights on a dark space...

I was accompanied by Saptarshi B in this venture, he has immense experience with lights and it wouldn’t have been half as much possible if he wasn’t around. From climbing ladders to fix the lighting circuit to actually hanging the monsters of source-fours, he did it all. His experience also helped us battle the sophisticated whole hog software quite smoothly. Thanks SB; thanks Sibin and thanks Mithya for giving me this platform to experiment with my creativity...

Sonal Mithal

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in september: Sarah Brown

2011-10-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sarah Brown, who managed the backstage efforts shares her thoughts about the production and props

30 Days in September: Armory theater on the Map

2011-10-20T16:13:00.001-07:00

We figured you might need to know the exact location of Armory theater. Click on the image for a larger view. Armory theater is on the east side of Armory Building. It is Room no. 160. The direct entrance to the theater is just behind the Harding Band Building.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in september: Mohin Khushani

2011-10-19T22:17:00.001-07:00

Mohin Khushani, the versatile actor, shares his thoughts about the play

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in September: Sibin Mohan: Director's vision

2011-10-18T14:40:00.001-07:00

Sibin Mohan, the director of 30 Days in September, shares his vision about the play

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in september: Mala

2011-10-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Nisha Somnath, who plays the role of Mala in 30 Days in September, shares her thoughts about the play.

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in September: Ravi

2011-10-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

Dhruv Mehta, who plays Ravi in 30 Days in September, shares his thoughts about his role and the play in general

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in september: Deepak

2011-10-15T17:52:00.001-07:00

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in september: Shanta

2011-10-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

Spurti Akki, who plays Shanta, the mother in latest Mithya production "30 Days in September", shares her thoughts and experiences.

Mithya cuttings: 30 Days in september: Vinay

2011-10-13T17:39:00.001-07:00

2011-10-03T12:21:00.001-07:00

30 Days in September

2011-09-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

30 Days in September

2011-09-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Mithya is getting ready to host this fall's performance: 30 Days in September

Schedule:
Oct 21st : 7 pm - 8:30 pm (one show)
Oct 22nd: 3pm - 4:30 pm and 7 pm - 8:30 pm (two shows)

"Thirty days in September" is a play by Mahesh Dattani that delves into the sensitive and generally taboo issue of child sexual abuse. Mahesh Dattani raises his concern about the torture that abused children undergo, how they may sometimes gain pleasure from the pain they suffer and how it damages their growth and torments them at every step. The play however ends on an optimistic note that if, as a society, we have courage to tackle these issues head on then wrongs can be addressed and faith restored.

This play is a mirror to the aspects of the society which most people are oblivious about. Through this play Mithya would like to provide insights about child abuse which is one of the most sensitive and traumatic experience for a human being. The audience will gaze into the mind of a victim of sexual abuse, feel the guilt they live with and understand the confusion and issues that hinder their future relationships. This also gives insights into parts of society (Indian society in this case) that makes this a much harder issue to deal with than otherwise.

The reasons why we wish to perform this play are due to the complex natures of the main characters -- the protagonist Mala (the victim), her uncle (the abuser), Mala's mother (herself a victim of child sexual abuse) and Mala's boyfriend, Deepak, who wishes to understand her problems and help her. While these characters all have their superficial problems, the play delves deep into their characteristics to bring out the real nature of people and inter-personal interactions. The stage setup and the depiction of the course of events is also unique and hard-hitting so that it forces the audience to come out of their comfort zone and explore these issues and the events on stage in a more direct fashion, especially in this particular venue. We believe that the Aromory theatre with close spaces between the audience and actors will heighten the interactions between the two.

Mahesh Dattani is one of India's best-known playwrights. A winner of the 'Sahitya Akademi' (India's National Academy of Letters) award. Dattani also writes for BBC Radio and is involved in an international project commemorating the 600th anniversary of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His collected plays have been published by Penguin, and two of his plays, "Dance Like A Man" and "On A Muggy Night in Mumbai" were produced in New York at the Tribeca Arts Center.

Silence! The court is in Session Recording

2010-11-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Here is the video recording of our performance "Silence! The court is in session".

Silence! The court is in Session: Some pictures

2010-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Mithya would thank you all for your response to Silence! the court is in session. We had a terrific response to the play and thankfully, everything went on very well.

We have added a small slideshow on the right side of this blog to showcase some pre-production scenes. We will soon be putting up the complete video of the play here too.

Mithya

Silence! The court is in Session

2010-10-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Mithya is producing this semester's first performance, on Nov 6th at Illini Union's Courtyard Cafe at 3 pm.

This is a free event, and free tea and snacks will be provided.

"Silence! The court is in session" is a play by Vijay Tendulkar (7 January 1928- 19 May 2008). He was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist and social commentator. Presented on stage for the first time in 1967 this play has proven to be one of his finest works.

Though the play was written almost 4 decades ago, the theme is still relevant in the present day Indian society. In the play, Tendulkar has depicted the plight of a young woman, Miss Benare, who is betrayed by the male dominated society. It is a satire on the middle-class society's hypocrisy. A play-within-a-play, it grapples with several problems of the Indian society, such as the degradation of the judiciary system, pretentious institutional social service organizations and forceful male supremacy in Indian society.

Our complete cast features:

Nisha Somnath as Miss Benare
Aviral Jain as Mr. Sukhatme
Piyush Gupta as Mr. Ponkshe
Mehul Thakkar as Mr. Kashikar
Arushi Aggarwal as Mrs. Kashikar
Richa Chauhan as Mrs. Karnik
Mohin Khushani as Mr. Samant
Varun Turlapati as Mr. Rokde

Crew:

Sibin Mohan: Director
Bharat Sankaran: Script Adaptation
Nisha Somnath: Producer
Swati Gupta: Narrator

Our production team includes:

Komal Nadkarni
Neel Patel
Sonal Mitthal
Sonia Khanvilkar
Zeba Aziz

Music was composed by: Karthik Ananth

Publicity was arranged by:

Ankit Chandra
Piyush Gupta

Deke Weaver’s Elephant - The Unreliable Bestiary.

2010-09-29T10:40:00.001-07:00

I also visited Deke Weaver’s Elephant - The Unreliable Bestiary. It began with an intimate audience crowded around a semicircular arena with two huge screens at either end displaying facts about mammoths and elephants. Soon Deke Weaver showed up as an elephant long dead but called over for an interview on local TV channel. Amidst advertisements and self - glory of the host; the Deke in elephant ears and trunk and his usual light-hearted conversation manner gave out more historical facts and information about habitats and behavior of elephants in different parts of the world.

Soon the screens were removed and the whole place opened up into a large larger than life space. Amidst magnificent drumming and trumpeting the audience was made to get up and walk all around the arena holding hands as they found themselves new seats - carefully done in hay. The whole place smelled of fresh hay and the whole place felt raw and crude; u put your hands down and hay would stick to your palms; I just loved that part most. Audience were sitting in two parallel rows facing each other; even as the performance happened in the long parallel space between. Huge screens behind each row of audience running the entire expanse of the arena captured our attention. Shadows of grasses; shadows of elephants, puppets, videos of old times; stories from near and far; pictures of forgotten diaries, were all collected and presented in a beautifully woven narrative - let out by Deke in his captivating voice. The story of a circus elephant who went crazy in a blizzard and had to be shot by locals; story of mahout training and stories of elephants living in families and that they remember were interspersed with the story of an ambitious queen for whom elephants were a symbol of power.

The minimalist abstractions to mime a blizzard; skin of elephant zoomed in to its intricate detail to cover the expanse of the screen and the singer singing elephant trivia to a simple note. I was simply impressed by the simple narration, simple costumes, simple dances, simple abstractions to narrate a tale of extinction, struggle, survival and memory...

For some reason - dunno what - to me it appeared to be a performance in the genre of a circus (if there is any such thing) though there was no such parallel; but just the simplicity and the abstractions perhaps make me think so...

Sonal Mithal

A visit to dance performances by Hubbard Street Dance Company

2010-09-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

I recently watched a series of four-dances by Hubbard Street Dance Company, Chicago. The first of the series was Ohad Naharin’s Tabula Rasa. The ballet performance began with turbulence , dancers leaping across stage and into each other, then leaping away again. It seemed the whole stage was personifying an outburst. Female and male dancers constantly kept rushing from one end of the stage to another in a state of emotional turmoil. It showed a woman in search of her man but every time she finds someone; he is immediately ‘taken’ by another woman; until she meets the fourth who collapses under the weight of the ‘relationship’. The story was quite obvious but the presentation was a visual treat. Bodies leaping like flames and subsiding metaphorized this eternal human turmoil. Teh earthy tones and teh stretchy fabric of the dancers in the black box of the stage empahized more on the earthiness of all things temporary. Suddenly the audience saw all dancers entering the stage in a line - facing the audience, rocking from side to side and sliding sideways. It was almost hypnotic like a series of pendulums crossing the stage, it may have taken forever and I wouldn’t have minded it; I was already hypnotized by the regularity and the comfort of things going on in an order when suddenly the eight in the line stood and stopped its sideway rocking; the ninth hit against her and then the tenth did too. Then as the other seven kept continuing with their rocking-sliding off stage; the three again begin their search for self within the other. Finding it in the other and then sliding out of it as in complete denial and then again getting back to it. I just loved the sprightly light moves almost wave like - having a fluid slippery quality to it.

The other piece that remain etched in my memory now as I write is Deep Down Dos. The performance begins with a light traversing the width of a dark stage rolling on rails and one by one lighting up each dancer positioned strategically on stage - such that a long shadow is cast on each dancer before he is engulfed in darkness and the light moves on! The moving of the light is accompanied by whistles and rumbling sound of a train engine, it could well have been a thunderstorm too; to me its sounded like a sound of forceful imposition and intrusion. The rolling spotlight is also one of the dancers along with the other; only that it moves along its path while other dancers leap and whirl about unconditionally all over the stage. For once I got reminded of the ‘gaze’ when the light looked back at the audience; when the light looked back at the dancers as they attempted to disentangle themselves form the influence of the light. Soon the dancers leave the stage with just two of them left spiraling gracefully in a duet.

Both the dances seemed like drawing elegant curvy lines on a black canvas...

Sonal Mithal

Vyasa'a Epic Dissertation -

2010-09-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

Our Original Vyasa's Epic Dissertation was such a hit that we were asked to perform again!

Have a look at Epic Dissertation version 2 :)

Mithya Auditions Coming up!!

2010-04-15T13:25:00.001-07:00

Diwali Night Mad Ads

2010-03-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

Mithya got together to cook up a potpourri of silly incidences that happen to an average Indian
graduate student when he comes to the US for his studies. Or rather not? Well in our opinion everybody has a nice little story to tell, and here is what our set of grad students went through. Enjoy!...

Watch Madads by Mithya, Diwali Night,2009 in Comedy | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Mithya's Diwali night performance: Vyasa's Epic Dissertation

2010-02-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

This skit shows a humorous window into the life of a "typical" (international) graduate student from India who arrives in UIUC. The story is loosely set to parallel the life of sage Vyasa who wrote the epic Mahabharata that includes many significant events and characters from Indian mythology. In this skit, Vyasa is the graduate student and the "epic" is his Ph.D. dissertation. Using a set of loosely connected humorous events, we see Vyasa's travails through graduate student life, starting from his arrival at UIUC to when he completes his dissertation.

The skit is set in the typical "mad-ads" style where the actors on stage mime and the narrative and dialogues are presented in voice-over style by an off-stage narrator.

This was our first, albeit unofficial, performance since it led to the formation of Mithya. Hence, we consider this to be our first performance, although the RSO was officially formed and registered after this event.

Watch Vyasa's Epic Dissertation in Comedy | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Indian Family Guy: A Mithya Presentation

2010-02-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

Indian Family Guy gets a visitor" was a comedy skit performed at ISA
(Indian Student Association)'s India Night event in April,2009. The
comedy skit was an Indianized version of the popular animated sitcom,
Family Guy. The plot centers on a fictional trip by President Obama to
explore grassroots India, as well as his encounters with an Indian
version of the show's main characters, the Griffin family. This was
Mithya's first performance as a RSO (Registered Student Organization).
Around 20 members were involved in this Performance.

Watch "Indian Family guy Gets a Visitor" in Comedy | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Final Solutions: A Mithya Interpretation

2010-02-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

Mithya's presented a small portion of "Final Solutions", a powerful play by Mahesh Dattani, at the Krannert I-fest in the fall of 2009. The play addresses an issue of utmost importance in India, that of communalism. The play presents different shades of the communalist attitude prevalent among Hindus and Muslims in its attempt to underline the stereotypes and clichés forming preconceived notions of another community. The real power in this play comes from the concept of the sinister, stomping, screaming mob, which is the metaphor for the latent hostility present within each person. The play brings forth the fact that the fact that communalism is not out on the streets or among the crowds, but in our minds; and thats where the fight against it needs to begin.

Watch Mithya Performance- Adaptation of Final Solutions in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Chimeras: A Mithya Interpretation

2010-02-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Chimeras, an adaptation of three short stories by Sashi Deshpande, was Mithya's first large scale theatre production. Originally performed at the Kriti Festival, Chicago, Chimeras was later performed at the Courtyard Cafe of the Illinois Union at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This production presented an alternative look at the two great epics: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, from the perspective of the women in these epics. Chimeras used monologues interspersed with dance to combine the stories of three of the most powerful women in Indian Mythology: Sita, the wife of Rama, who together were considered the epitome of virtue and chastity; Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava princes who, guided by Krishna, fought a debilitating war, and Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas.  While both epics end with the triumph of good over evil, the purpose of Chimeras was to delve deeper into the different and compelling voices from within these epics.

Watch Chimeras.part.one.mpg in Drama  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Chimeras.part.two.mpg in Drama  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Chimeras.part.three.mpg in Drama  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

"Play" by Samuel Beckett: A Mithya Interpretation.

2010-02-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

Adaptation of ‘Play’ by Samuel Beckett written in 1962-3. The play aptly titled ‘Play’ demonstrates the fundamental nature of Absurdist theatre. This play does not proclaim absurdity but embodies it. It is tightly orchestrated and staged production involving three figures with stuck up to their necks in urns. The three figures are a man, his wife and his mistress who seemed to be eternally trapped together, primarily after death to constantly argue out their mutual relationships. The challenge of the play was to enact monologues without as much as quiver in the body, with just the voices giving away the emotions. The three characters were played by Sibin, Shweta and Anjali, and the play was adapted to suit the limitations of lighting effects and stage props available at hand.

Watch Samuel Beckett's "Play" by Mithya at Krannert I-fest 2009 (UIUC) in Drama | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

First Mithya Meeting of Spring 2010

2010-02-03T23:04:00.000-08:00

Interested in drama, theater, comedy, dance, music, art, stage design, lights, etc.? Do you love to get up on stage or work behind it or even take over a camera lens? Want to learn about film making or stage productions or even attend theater workshops? Come to Mithya's first meeting of the semester!

What: Mithya, Indian Dramatics Group, meeting

Date: Saturday, February 6th

Time: 4pm

Location: Seibel Center Atrium (near Bevande Café)

Everyone is invited, hope to see you there!!

Sibin Mohan

2009-11-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

My passion is writing. I have been writing since high school, be they short stories, poetry, scripts, essays, etc. In my first year as an undergrad I participated in a theater workshop and immediately fell in love with the medium. The play that resulted from that workshop provided me with my first part on the stage. Ever since, I have searched for opportunities to perform and/or direct plays, skits, etc. My hometown, Bangalore, has a culture of comic skits performed in a voice over format that usually pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable on stage -- these skits, in their satirical tones often highlight important issues underpinning society, such as politics, sports, culture, morals, etc. I have been part of, and even written and directed, quite a few of these over the years both, in NC State (my alma mater) as well as at UIUC. It was after one such performance (rather the first one here) in the fall of 2008 in UIUC that Apeksha Godiyal, a graduate student in UIUC at the time, and I met and decided to start up a group that would focus on theater. We were lucky enough to find a talented and dedicated group of people who also had a similar love for theater -- hence, Mithya was born.

Over the last two years, Mithya has seen a wide variety of performances, from the comic skits (always a big hit at social events on campus) to some great adaptations of famous plays. I have been involved in most of the productions in some form or the other, from directing some of them (`Silence, the Court is in Session', `Chimeras', `Indian Family guy',`Vyasas Dissertation') to acting in one (Samuel Beckett's `Play') or just being involved in the production, publicity, artwork, etc. Mithya helps me bring together my love for writing and theater. During this time, I have come to realize that I love to direct and write more than being on stage.

These first two years of Mithya have seen a great talent of people come through our ranks and while many of the members have graduated and left town, their performances and the productions they have been a part of will remain a lasting memory.

My real job, and my other passion, is research. I work as a Research Scientist at UIUC, where I analyze embedded systems. My random essays, reviews, etc. can be found on my blog, Context Switch, the Blogcritics magazine and Technorati where I contribute articles from time to time. One of these days, I hope to complete a short film that I have been planning for the last year or so, of course using the vast amount of talent that is at Mithya's disposal.

Ankit Chandra

2009-11-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

I am more of the back-stage guy with some aspirations to make it big on the stage too :) I have been associated with Mithya for almost all of its productions, but have acted only in one. And there too, the person who was recording the performance happily skipped my part! Since then I have mostly stayed back stage, arranging for publicity, food, venues etc etc.

In another world, I work for NCSA in the Dark Energy Survey project. I am also a part of Mithya-The Band, and have performed at various events around the campus.

Ashwin Jadhav

2009-11-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

I am a student at the department of Aerospace Engineering. My profession doesn't let me contribute to Mithya as much as I want to, but luckily we have an excellent group of motivated people amongst us. It's been a pleasure working with them so far and I look forward to contributing even after graduating. You can find out more about me at my website www.ashwinjadhav.com

I've performed in performing arts since my school days, when it became my passion. Although I joined the Mithya Board as a coordinator in early 2010, I've been associated with Mithya almost since its inception, performing in the Diwali Night Mad Ads 2009 and Final Solutions. I am also a part of Mithya - The Band as a vocalist and guitarist

Nisha Somnath

2009-11-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

I am pursuing my masters in Aerospace Engineering. Although a technical student, I have vibrant interest in performing arts. I have been trained in classical dance and have performed at numerous places in India.

However, I have had no experience in theatre bar one or two plays staged at school. Being involved with Mithya gave me the opportunity to follow my interest in theatre.I have been involved with Mithya from fall 2009 and have had the opportunity to take part in the dances staged by Mithya for Diwali 2009 and for Vasanth Bahaar 2010. I have also participated in Mad ads staged by Mithya. I have acted in the play "Final solutions" by Mahesh Dattani.The most recent play that I was involved in is " Silence! The court is in session" by Vijay Tendulkar .

Mithya - The Band Debut

2009-10-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

Mithya diversified recently into the Music scene on the campus by launching their band.
The debut performance happened at this year's Diwali night at Temple Buell Hall on Oct 25th.

The band played songs from different genres and was well received by the audience. You can follow them at their facebook page here.

Check out the videos from the performance here

Have fun!

Team Mithya

Mithya presents Chimeras

2009-09-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

Mithya presents Chimeras: An adaptation of popular Indian author, Shashi Deshpande's short stories. Chimeras centers around three powerful women from Indian mythology: Sita, Draupadi and Kunti. The play is a fusion of dance and monologues which looks at the epics through the eyes of these women.

Entry to this play is free, and it will be held at Illini Union's Courtyard Cafe on Oct 11th at 5:30 pm.

Background:

Chimeras is based on the great Indian epics; Ramayan and Mahabharat. These epics portray Indian culture and ethos across centuries. Although there are many facets of these epics, Chimeras looks at them from a unique view point; that of the most important women in them, namely Sita, Draupadi and Kunti.

Mithya at Quad Day

2009-08-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

Look for the Mithya UIUC booth at quad day. If you are looking to join a drama club at U of I to act, work on a production team, or perform, then Mithya is perfect for you.

MEMBERSHIP IS FREE!

Have any ideas, compliments or criticisms? Write to us at mithya.core@gmail.com or drop a comment here.

Welcome to Mithya!

2009-08-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

Mithya is an Indian Dramatics Group in Urbana Champaign. It is dedicated to production of plays and short films with Indian themes, backdrops and subjects. Its purpose is promotion and cultivation of Indian style drama that encompasses varied number of styles, genres and traditions. Participation is open to all theatre enthusiasts!

We are hosting our Fall 2011 production, 30 Days in September, on:

Oct 21st at 7 pm
Oct 22nd at 3 pm and 7 pm

Visit our home page for more details