Staging an act of imagination

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“Imagine with your body. Use your body to respond, gesture and move according to imaginations in your mind,” says internationally renowned Israeli theatre director and acting trainer, Professor David Zinder, to a class full of National School of Drama final year students in the city. Though not many may have heard about Michael Chekhov acting techniques, Zinder was in city recently to train students in this physical approach to acting.

Author of Body Voice Imagination: A Training for the Actor, Zinder, a Professor at the Department of Arts and Theatre at Tel Aviv University, has directed over 60 productions in Israel and other countries including India. As he insists on Chekhov acting technique, which has been used by artists like Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe, Zinder hopes for theatre to become more imaginative rather than realistic.
“It’s not just about what story you are telling. But about how are you telling the story. Unfortunately, theatre all over the world is moving towards realism,” says Zinder. He is also not very happy with theatre trying to compete with TV and movies.
“Theatre does not need to copy television. But unfortunately that’s what has been happening in theatre all over the world, especially in west where about 90 per cent of the plays revolve around comedy, dance and drama but lack enough sprinkle of imagination,” says Zinder.
As he has travelled the world with his productions and taken workshops in almost all continents, Zinder says that theatre in eastern Europe is the most exciting of all. “I have seen some excellent theatre productions in Poland, Germany and Romania. They have some well conceptualised and interesting plays. They work on stage design for months. Something which is absent in many theatres across the world including India,” says Zinder.
Zinder is famous for radical adaptations, unconventional performance spaces and simultaneous staging. He received rave reviews for his play Blood Song, a radical adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding, staged in Hyderabad last year. “This play I had two actors playing a role and the stage was divided into many parts where different scenes were playing out at the same time,” he says.
Talking about the theatre scene in Israel, he says that Israel is always buzzing with cultural activities. “About 20-25 performances happen on a given night in Tel Aviv. With an active audience, the theatre scene is better in Isreal,” says Zinder.
Though Zinder is not here with a production this time but he says he would like to come again with a theatre group. “I have not seen many productions in India. I find theatre scene very fascinating here and would love to come back with a play performance next time,” smiles Zinder.