Talent doesn’t always come with age and experience alone, as shown by the first year students of English and Foreign Languages University from the city, who staged a musical drama, This Is Me at Apollo Foundation Theatre on Saturday.
The 16-member team successfully captured the essence of love during the hour-long play where the audience was asked to think about what love really means. The play emphasised the fact that love enables people to admire each other’s uniqueness, while bringing two completely different individuals together.
P.S. Tanvi, the director of the play feels that every person is unique. “We wanted to capture the meaning of love, with a LGBTQ theme in mind, as they are the most neglected section of the society. We divided the play into five episodes and took inspiration from real life incidents,” she explains.
One of the episodes showcased a love story between two soldiers via an exchange of letters, with melodious music jazzing up the drama and adding an edge. For another episode, they took a leaf out of the The Vagina Monologues and gave it their own twist. “Most of the students are first year graduate students while a few are pursuing their Masters at the university. We all worked as a team, helping each other with props and the script to suit our need,” says Tanvi.
For Minakshi Ajit, a first year student who worked with Tanvi on the script, it was a great learning experience. “When I joined the theatre club of the university, I didn’t know that we would get the opportunity to stage an actual play so soon and that too, in front of a live audience. Initially, when we had conceptualised the musical, we were skeptical as to how the audience would react and whether we novices would be able to deliver on stage. But with thorough practice for two weeks every day, we could successfully beat away the stage blues,” says Minakshi. As for the team behind the play, they are planning to continue their theatre productions in the future too.
