October 1995. Editor: Anjum Katyal
One of the reasons for starting a journal of contemporary theatre was the need to study process. In a time where attention is paid,more and more, to the product, the end result, the finished or completed item -where there seems to be no time, specially in the way the dominant media transmits information, to study the evolution, the making of, that product -the insistence on paying attention to process was felt as crucial. Another reason for giving process its due importance is its value as a resource for fellow practitioners. Access to the experience of a process-both the uncertainties, misdirections, re-thinkings and frustrations, and the rewards of something 'clicking' or 'working out'-can be very useful to workers in related or allied fields. Also, the relation of the process to the end product is not as humbly preparatory as is commonly assumed. It is usual to see process as 'mere' rehearsal, as a sort of waiting room which leads into The Chamber. However, the experiential of process is that of experimentation, of exploration, of risk and challenge; it is felt as intensely valuable in itself, quite detached from any final product. Process, as many artists know, can be its own goal. A particularly interesting (because particularly open-ended) process is documented in this issue. G.P. Deshpande, the senior playwright and scholar, whose plays have been extensively produced, was invited by Vinay Sharma, a director/actor, and his fellow-actors with Padatik, a Calcutta-based Hindi theatre group, to participate in an experiment. At the start of the ten-day workshop, which is when STQ began the documentation process, no one knew what the end result would be. Ten days later a play had been written. What happened in between-including what was lost in order for other things to be gained-is captured through the ongoing process of documentation, which is reproduced here. Process is exciting because it reaffirms the primacy of the question.
CONTENTS Birth of a play: The Documentation of a Process An Interview with G.P. Deshpande Shevatacha Dees (The Final Day) G.P. Deshpande Scene Eight. The Actors talk to STQ Playwright/Actors/Director Interaction On the theatre of possibilities Vinay Sharma 'What A Tremendous Movement It Was...' Gul Bardhan Epistemes of Empire: Axiomatics of Imperialism and the discourse of Interculturalism Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer Folk Philosophy in K.N. Panikkar's poetic theatre of Transformation Erin Mee Karimkutty: From written script to action text Kavalam Narayana Panikkar Theatrescapes Samik Bandyopadhyay Theatre Log The Dancing Dolphins Sreejata Guha Book Pages Download the complete issue here