I HATE OPENING NIGHT!
Two hours before every directorial premiere, friend and fellow trooper, Arghya Lahiri will turn to me and ask, “Remind me again, why do we do this?”
This time is no different. It’s been 15 years since I first directed a play, and the same feelings return — the trepidation, the nerves, the self doubt, that knot in the stomach, the need to run away. It is a strange kind of “stage fright”, given that I am not even going on stage.
Perhaps this is because a show is never actually complete until an audience enters the room. A theatre performance only exists if there are people witnessing the action. Otherwise, it’s just another rehearsal. And no matter how many rehearsals you do, on Opening Night, the play WILL change. All we can hope for is that it will change for the better. The fear is — it might not.
Openings of any kind are an exciting affair. The buzz, the good wishes, the energy, the anticipation are universal whether it is the premiere of a clothing store, an art opening, a film, or even a hotel. But all these things exist before and exist after; a show, on the other hand, exists only for as long as the interaction lasts. A theatre performance is a fluid thing, it changes based on the responses and reactions of an audience. And maybe that’s why Opening Night of a play is an even more anxious affair.
By the time you read this, my latest production So Many Socks would have opened at the Prithvi Theatre approximately twelve hours ago. It has been a long, arduous, but exciting journey that began over a year ago when I first picked up Tenzin Tsundue’s collection of poems, Kora. Since then a number of people have helmed the project. Annie Zaidi crafted a script that tries to capture in the pauses, more than what is said in the words. Movement director Amey Mehta worked with the nine dancer-actors, to find the most effective way to communicate emotions that words cannot. Toral Shah and Vivek Jadhav sent out search parties to scour the lanes of Parel, Dharamsala and Majnu-ka-Tila for the elements that make up the production design. And there were the socks, from everyone and everywhere. Quite literally there were so many socks!
I write this while sitting in the eye of a magical storm. A storm caused by the panic of “show time”. Costumes are being furiously altered, lights are being refocused, lines are being changed, actors are being incontinent, and by and large all hell is breaking loose. Around me I see incredibly talented people working with all their heart to get it right. In order to put something together that will exist for only the eighty minutes that the audience will experience it. I sit in admiration. I sit in awe. I sit in fascination. In a few minutes I am going to be asked that familiar question again. The answer is obvious — “Look around, this is why we do it.”
I LOVE OPENING NIGHT!