Learning from Plays

I saw my first play in 2012. I knew I had fallen in love with the craft then.

It was written by the well know playwright Girish Karnad, and was presented in the front lawns of the NCPA during the Tata Literature Festival in 2013. After witnessing this performance, I decided that I would try to attend as many plays as possible in the coming year.

Here is a list of a few plays I got to attend over the past year.

1.  A Play on Beethoven’s Life at the St. Andrews College Auditorium in Bandra

2.  A play by Naseerudin Shah titled, ‘A Walk in the Woods’ which was about the friendship and conversations that an Indian and Pakistani diplomat had when they met at international diplomatic events.

3.  A play titled, ‘Tuesday’s With Morrie’ that was an adaptation of the well known book by the same name, written by Mitch Albom. This play described the relationship between an aging professor and his student over time.

It was fascinating how a theatre performance could bring to life characters created in the mind. At these events I would get into conversations with people sitting around me about books, philosophy, the play and other plays we must watch. There was nothing direct I learned at these plays, but they often made me think about issues I would never think about normally. Sometimes I would come across an idea for a project sitting at one of these plays.

At one such, I noted down a few insights about learning from life. 

'When you give yourself the opportunity to learn from different sources, you give yourself the opportunity to learn from the best aspects of different fields. You can learn from a play or from a ride on the train. You can learn something from an intense conversation with a friend or from a teacher in the classroom. Learning from the classroom is just one aspect of the learning opportunities you have everyday in your life.'

Here is a picture from a play I recently got to attend in November, 2014. It was about the life of the great scientist Albert Einstein. It was titled, 'Einstein' and was produced and directed by Naseeruddin Shah.

Do inform me if you stay in Mumbai and would like to go attend a few plays together at the NCPA in Nariman Point or the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu.

Let us learn Together

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