Physicality in Theatre

HYDERABAD : Shudrka, a Hyderabad-based theatre organjsation’s approach to creating theatre is a profoundly physical one. This is, in part, what makes the work exhilarating for its actors; it is also what makes it difficult. Inspired by writings of Jerzy Grotowski, Lecoq, Genet and Oliver Sacks, Shudrka has developed a series of physical exercises that are central to physicality in theatre. Performed by the entire group throughout the rehearsal period, the exercises are approached with energy and commitment by the actors.

The exercises help in creating improvisational situations or scenes and as the actors continue to work on the play in a more detailed, articulated way, there is always this foundation of primitive physicality to fall back on. Although each exercise has its own particular set of instructions, the actors are side-coached to be aware of the physical sensation of the space around them as well as the space between themselves and their fellow actors.

The actors are coached to put any images contained in and conjured by the space “inside,” and, as mentioned above, to see both the space itself and themselves in that space. Over time, the exercises strengthen the actors’ connection to each other and to the space around them, which eventually will contain scenery, props, lighting, and music. In doing so, the actors function as an ensemble, creating a vocabulary of images, movement, and gestures that can be drawn upon throughout the rehearsal process. 
More importantly, following the instruction given to “see both the space and yourselves in that space,” the actors come to view themselves not only as components, but also as shapers, of the entire onstage “picture.”

When Ryszard Cieslak, a core actor of Grotowski’s Polish Laboratory Theatre, was asked what he was attempting to teach his acting students at New York University, he gave the following response: “The actor’s instrument is not [simply] his voice or his diction, it’s his whole body. Theatre can be a combination of all the arts - music, dance, painting, writing-but above all it is moving visual art”.  Shudrka like Cieslak, is interested in the “truth” of the body in performance.

The approach to performance is first and foremost a physical one and the actor’s body is the central nervous system of the production. 
During the first few days of a rehearsal process, the actors of Shudrka theatre group spend very little time “at the table,” reading and discussing the text. The actors are almost immediately up on their feet or down on the floor, engaging in a complex series of physical exercises that lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to 2-3 hours per day and serves as preparation for work on the text itself. Moreover, the physical exercises that the actors use in rehearsals help them develop this sensitivity to the here and now of theatrical space. 

– Sohini Basu is an academician and theatre practitioner. She worked as Assistant Professor in ASCI, Hyderabad and was a recipient of the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Currently she is a member 
of Shudrka-Hyderabad theatre group and has performed in more than 12 full length plays