Serendipity and Learning

As we drove on the Mysore road yesterday, there was a traffic jam - for some reason traffic slowed down to almost one lane on the busy highway. Perhaps some sort of a police checkpost we thought. Or perhaps a random accident. Or some vehicle has broken down in the middle of the road. As the traffic inched its way forward, we saw banners of Toyota Logistics Kishor Limited warning about the dangers of drunk driving, and a set up of an accident. A biker with blood on his face, bike fallen down and the person (an actor) lying still in that pose. And a messaging. I thought it was a novel way to create awareness. Accidents are never there nor meant to be seen, but then creating a live scene like this was a fantastic idea for people to realize the gruesomeness and the seriousness of the whole situation. Sure, they created a traffic jam, but this was for a great cause and with both the banners and the actual visual depiction (which, crosses language barriers) that made it like a street pl...

I had earlier blogged about the theatre learning experience through the 12 week workshop that I had attended earlier this year. The entire project culminates with a real play that is played to a real audience complete with props, costumes etc. It is hard work. 12 Sundays of training followed by a few weeks of rehearsals – nearly 5 times a week. First the trainings get you prepped up. Use your body. Use your mind. Voice. Train. Get physically fit. Handle each other. Trust. Work. Alone. Work. Together. Form, Storm and Norm ( see earlier post ). Getting the lines right is just the first part. Then the moves. Then changes. Then some variation. Then, the script gets dropped. Then you see that the entire so called play looks like people reading news. Then you work on tweaking it, until it ultimately becomes a play. All the people in the scene have to put their best foot forward. And work work work. Get the beat right. Get the rhythm right. Get the timing right down ...

How does one build a team? And ensures that it performs? We all know Tuckmans four stages of teams - Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.  But ever so often, you will find that in teams that there are some who do not contribute as much as they should. Or as much as they had all committed to at the outset when they were selected or self selected into the team. In my view, what works in building effective things are these things: Get commitment from the team early on about the goal and what they will do in order to make it happen. At this stage, it is necessary to give people a choice about whether they want to be part of the goal at all. If not, find options for them to support the main team with what they can do - if there is scope to do that. Once that goal level commitment is established, get the tactical level commitment - if it means showing up each day without making excuses and so on and so forth. At this stage, again, it is important for all the team members to ...

SPOT stands for Summer Project On Theatre, an initiative by Bangalore Little Theatre. Each summer for nearly, the last 30 odd years, Vijay Padaki, cobbles together a set of rank amateurs - and takes them through 12 weeks of training. At the end of 12 weeks, these amateurs star in an amateur theatre production. Impossible as that may sound, he has done it - for nearly 30 years now. The fact that Vijay has done so for 30 odd years means that is safe to suggest that if anyone landed there, he can make an actor out of you. An amateur actor - and show you the gate - through which you walk in case you want to continue the pursuit of this field further. And that is what I did. Showed up on a Sunday in May to sign up for SPOT 2013. Many of my friends have been part of SPOTand have come back with amazing experiences.I myself watched a couple of their plays and found them to be quite mind blowing. Imagine that you part of a training that is also a project. Imagine that you will be taken...