Make-up Shringaar

Make-up is never easy, especially when working on time-constraints. Adding costume change to that make is even more of a time crunch. 

How to make a person look young? old? older? even older? 

How to accessorize him/her for that look? 

What costumes would a person of that age group wear? 

These are some of the challenges and questions posed when we were brainstorming during the make-up and costumes sessions. We watched some Hindi movies to get idea (boy, the (g)olden classics certainly helped a lot).

We received excellent advice from our resident make-up expert and also received training from a professional make-up artist. Most of us are aware of Base, Foundation, etc., but I learnt a few more tricks for crows feet, philtrum, nasal lines, temple shades, ear lobes, adams apple etc.

Come watch us and see our make-up in action!

http://www.naatak.com/current_event.html

8 Ghante...The Sets Build Perspective

For 8 hours, rather than "loitering around and wasting time in the Connaught Place circles" as Pandey* says, we are thinking production and constructing sets that are worth the effort and look elegant.

Our activity starts at our new base "Naatak House". We go through the task list for the day, gather tools and raw materials and commence our operations. After a few trials, we have some prototypes ready. Based on the prototypes, we are now mechanized robots manufacturing the full set pieces. Although we miss the chai, beer & margaritas that we have been pampered with in the last productions; we like the new build venue - over time certain conveniences will follow.

This is one of the less demanding productions that I've worked on. It is a brain-teaser in recollecting and refreshing topics that we've learnt in the past - from "angle-bisectors" to "+/-/ground wiring". Checkout our blog on "how to cut wooden circles". Always a learning experience :)

PS: Interesting? Curious? Join our backstage tour on the days of the show.

*Pandey - One of the characters in the play.

8 Ghante Montage 3

Meet the Cast & Crew...

Director

Harish Sunderam Agastya has been with Naatak since its founding in 1995. Over the last 15 years since its inception, Harish has worn multiple hats with Naatak as actor, director, producer and lighting designer. He directed Naatak's first foray into English plays in 2003 with Where There's A Will, a comedy by Mahesh Dattani. In 2007, he adapted, directed and played the lead in Anthony Shaffer's legendary thriller Sleuth. In 2008, he directed Mahesh Dattani's Final Solutions, a critically acclaimed play on Hindu-Muslim riots. Bay Area audiences have recently seen Harish on stage in several memorable roles such as Tughlaq (Tughlaq - Jun 2010), Patol Babu (Patol Babu Filmstar - Oct 2009), and Kashi Naresh (Madhavi - Feb 2009). Harish is also on Naatak's board and serves as its director of operations.

Producer

Siva Kollipara, a theater and dance enthusiast, has been with Naatak since its 29th production "Madhavi" in 2007. He has been actively involved in other Naatak productions (Tughlaq, K.K., Patol Babu Filmstar etc) and with other Bay Area productions. He has worked with various groups and has taken different roles as a backstage crew member, set builder, lights tech, sounds tech and sets manager. "8 Ghante" is his debut as a producer.

Playwright

Sujit Saraf's plays have been staged all over the US and India, at the National School of Drama in Delhi, Nandikar's festival in Kolkata, and the Bhartendu Natya Utsav featuring "the best plays staged in Delhi in 2007". His novel The Confession of Sultana Daku was published recently by Penguin. For more information, visit www.sujitsaraf.com

Cast

Harish Sunderam Agastya (also Director - see above)

 

Abhishek Das has actively pursued his passion for theater ever since his days in college. He has directed and performed in several Bay Area productions, the most recent ones being 'Madhavi' and 'Bhopal'. Abhishek occasionally dabbles in film-making, and in his free time - works on making search engines (Google) better. 

Crew

Set Design - Snigdha Jain

Sets & Props - Siva Kollipara, Snigdha Jain, Subashinee Krishnamurthy, Alka Sippy, Surendra Lele, Indranil Roychoudhury, Sreekumar Kodakara, Manjula Kollipara
 

Make-up - Soumya Agastya, Subashinee Krishnamurthy
 

Costumes - Snigdha Jain, Sharvari Dixit
 

Light & Sound - Kamala Subramaniam, Sreekumar Kodakara
 

Supertitles - Manish Sabu

Marketing - Rajiv Nema, Satish Karry, Manjusha Gangadharan

Website - Harish Sunderam Agastya, Asheesh Divetia
 

Graphics - Snigdha Jain

Ticketing - Ashok Malani, Ajay Sondhi
 
Brochure - Neha Kumar
 

Photography - Neha Kumar, Swagato Basumallick, Ashima Yadava
 

Video - Henry Cheung, Harsha Ramakrishna

Production Montage - Keys Build

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAAZur43GI

Production Montage - Prototyping

We performed "Astra Puja" and inaugurated our new storage plus rehearsal space - "Naatak House". Here is the production montage from our "8 Ghante" sets build and new storage "Naatak House" kickoff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h37V1KDNV3I

How to cut circles in wood

I was faced with an interesting problem when starting work on the sets for "8 Ghante" production - how to cut 30 wooden circles of 2ft diameter? 

Cutting a perfect circle in a piece of wood can be a daunting task if you don't have the right set of tools. The following are the basic choices: 

1. Wooden rounds from HomeDepot/Lowes/wood-shops - Expensive, but perfect size, shape and thickness. 
2. Do it yourself using one of the following tools - Jig Saw, Band saw with jig, Router with jig

• Jig Saw
  Jig saw is an inexpensive, but time consuming approach. They do a nice job of cutting some irregular shapes and removing the excess wood. The tool cannot rotate fast along the circumference of the circle and can cause the blade to break or bend slightly if you put any sort of pressure while cutting.  
• Band Saw
  A band saw rigged up with a circle cutting jig can cut perfect circles of different size diameters. The first challenge is that you need a band saw and the second challenge is that you have to make the circle jig. I really wanted to pursue this venue, but the lack of access to a band saw crossed out this idea. 
• Router
  Routers can cut very accurate circles of various diameters with a circle cutting jig. The router is mounted to the circle jig with pre-printed measurements. The first drawback is that you need a small center pivot hole in your wood to put the reference pin into. The second disadvantage is this is a time consuming method - you have to cut small chunks out of the wood by going around it several times.
  
  Considering the advantages and disadavantages of all the choices and tools, I picked the jig saw - cheap and reasonably accurate but time/labour intensive. Voila we have out own wooden rounds.
  
  

 

Traditional and Social Media

“The best part about a typewriter is when you’re done and you pull that typed page out, it feels like you’ve accomplished something.” ~ Anonymous

Generally, we understand the differences between traditional media and social media. Although both target the same objective - spreading awareness and receiving feedback, the blatant difference is the directionality and response speed.

Traditional methods involve getting the word out and waiting for comments/feedback using posters/flyers, papers, TV/Radio ads. These are unidirectional and don't provide a direct feedback system.  Social methods provide real-time response of an event, the dynamic nature of interaction facilitates immediate feedback.

How does all this affect us? Its all about marketing - even this day we rely on both traditional and social media for advertising our play "8 Ghante". We have used postcards, flyers, emails, radio ads, word-of-mouth, blogs, facebook, twitter, etc.

Watch us perform at San Jose and San Francisco. http://www.naatak.com/current_event.html

A stroke in history....

A friend of mine sent me this link about the news of World's last typewriter factory shutting down. $300 for a piece of history ?!?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384314,00.asp

"Hi.. I am a PC.. and I am a Typewriter"

PC: "Hi.. I am a PC and Windows 7 was my idea."

TW: "Hi.. I am a typewriter and PC was my idea..."

PC: (interrupting the TW) "What the.."

TW: "Many things you have gotten from me.."

PC: "Oh yeah! Like what..?"

TW: "The QWERTY layout, word processing, page printing, the typewriter font, the jargon - Backspace, linefeed, tab, shift etc"

TW: "Have you heard of tty devices.. like /dev/pts/4 or /dev/tty2 ?"

PC: "No.."

TW: "With the advent of smart phones and pads, the PC is the next typewriter..."

Interesting reads - "The PC is Not a Typewriter" and "Mac is not a typewriter".

Funny Video - "Typewriter and PC"

Curious? Watch us @ "8 Ghante"

Procuring a Typewriter

The play revolves around two typists. Thus, the most prominent prop is a typewriter. There are many places that sell typewriters - some cheap, some as expensive as a MacBook. I am told that some writers still use typewriters ?!?

After a month of hunting around on e-bay and Craigslist, I selected a few for testing. Yes, this was the first time I typed on a typewriter. Strikingly (no pun), the lack of ctrl+z, ctrl+c/v, ... I ended up with linefeeds, wasted real estate on paper; entangled typebars and irritating type noise. 

Eventually, I procured two similar typewriters for a modest sum. The lady showed me the settings to control type speed, paper feed, ribbon, etc. Wicked cool.

Intrigued about our play and the actors using typewriters? Come, watch us perform. http://www.naatak.com

"8 Ghante" Poster: Marketing is an Art.....

Poster for "8 Ghante" is out. After 2 weeks of brainstorming, creativity, negotiating with the artist without hurting her feelings ;-), convincing the Engineering types of your ideas....

It's no different than what I do at work for hi-tech marketing. Exact same steps - just it takes MUCH LONGER as there are several layers of bosses, everyone has to have an opinion (even if they dont deserve to have one ;-), there are things like "putting food on the table" and "career-limiting move" kind of phrases involved....so the marketing guy has to learn things like 'understanding different behaviors', looking at different people's Myers-Briggs profiles, politics, when to stop pushing the limits etc etc.

But I digress....

How is this poster? Does it make you stop - to read further - after the first glance. Every single facet of the poster is carefully designed to make that happen. Then, every word is carefully chosen. Does it make you want to watch the play? Does it create the intrigue? Does it tell you what the play is about? And the litmus test is, you as a customer after buying the product (after seeing this 'ad') feel satisfied or cheated?

Post comments here or send me feedback at rajiv.nema@gmail.com