…And why it happens!

Dr. Satyabrata Rout 14.11.2010

We had our show of IPHIGENIA at Vrittyanam open air theatre and there was a power cut from the afternoon. We were in great tension. By the evening there was utter chaos in the green room as we couldn’t prepare ourselves for the show in time. Nobody had done their makeup, wear the costumes and arranged the property while the audiences were waiting in the gallery to witness the play. Finally we requested the audience to wait patiently till the lights come. This was a helpless moment that no one could do anything except waiting. Finally lights came at 7 pm. It wiped away all the depressions from us and we engaged in our preparation in hurry. We made an announcement to start the play within 15 minutes and thanked the audiences for their kind cooperation and patience. I informed my team to check their props, costumes and make up urgently and wait for the final bell. Then I rushed towards the lighting booth to start the show…Then I don’t know why, but my legs led me towards an unnoticed dark place back of the audience gallery which was not the way to the lighting cabin. Before I could understand why I went there at this crucial moment of time where we are already late for more than half an hour, I hit upon an object and fall down. In the complete darkness I found that object is nothing but a wooden block which is used in the play as an important property lying abandon here. “It must have been left behind from the previous day after the show was over. What could happen without this object which fulfills many actions during the show?” I thought. I picked it up and kept it on its place and started the play.

The show went on but at every moment I was thinking of the incident. Many unsolved questions started disturbing me related to this topic. Why I went there while that was not my way to the lighting cabin? More over it was not the proper time to go there at this crucial moment. Did I hear an inner voice of that object calling me? Or it is telepathy? Is it my intimate and honest association with the medium that made it possible? I couldn’t find any logic to that. I got emotional and tears rolled down from my eyes. Yes! This is nothing but pure love in between me and my medium. Be it props, costumes, set or lights, be that animate or inanimate; love always bounces back. Sometimes it remains beyond logic.

Theatre, which is my first love, pays me back everything in double. The respect, love affection and intimacy, I got through the medium remain the biggest asset for me which can’t be compared with money and wealth. During my freelancing days I spent numerous chilled nights covering myself with wings and borders inside the auditoriums, wiped out my tears on the curtains and cyclorama in the hour of my frustrations. Sitting alone in the rehearsal hall I have waited hours for my actors. Painted the sets and hanged the lights without sleeping for continuous nights. Then how could the medium betray me?

Perhaps these are the reasons why I heard the inner voice of that wooden block lying abandon alone at the back of the audience gallery, crying for help…!

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