Shakuntala Character Propositions

This Sunday we started our first round of sharing character propositions for Shakuntala. It was exciting to see Magis actors integrate the mudras, the bhavanas, the eye work and various poses from the Bharatanatyam workshop with Saju, into ourselves, as we began to play with different characters and scenarios from the script. When George asked us to look at the script and bring in a 60 second proposition, I felt like it was impossible, where to start? Which mudra? Which character? We have a tremendous supply of both!

I began by working on the dance steps, and I found myself obsessed with the jumping and the walking. I'm wondering if we will incorporate the Saju walk for all of the characters, and if we do, I think we all need to practice walking that way a little bit every day so that it becomes natural for us, in the same way that George wrote about the mudras becoming natural out of repetition. I spent a good amount of time just walking at different speeds with the Saju walk, imagining myself as different characters. I contrasted the paces of the hermits and the palace dwellers.

Then I focused on the jumping that we do in the dance piece. Saju often said that we needed to jump, "Really jump!" I slowed down the dance just to work on jumping, and didn't worry about the arms. In doing this, I realized that I need to spend some time each day working on TA-KI-TA and the different beat counts, because if I don't, I will forget it. I think that the different footwork and the different number of beats could be a spark for character development.

While watching everyone present their propositions with mudras and various poses and gestures, I felt encouraged to trust my soul body, and trust what my intuition brings to me as a way of finding direction in where to start with a character proposition. I've also found George's advice of listening to the music to be super helpful. Rudresh and his fellow band members create rich and emotionally provocative music.

Wendy