In a first, director attempts 24-hour acting marathon

CHANDIGARH:

Veteran actor

and

director

,

Chakresh Kumar

, who is widely loved and revered in the city, has decided to do something extraordinary. Attempting a new-fangled variation of his theatrical province, Kumar is using the clay of everyday experiences to create unalike characters stuck in life situations in a performance that will last 24 hours every day for next six days, making it one of the longest and most difficult acting performances ever witnessed in the Tricity.


The characters will be based on people around us - poor, rich and even the historical ones. These characters will travel beyond the portals of the 'glass house' and will try to explore nature, away from the synthetic experience.

Kumar embarked on this tour in the wee hours of Sunday, when he assumed the dual role of being a director and actor, on Day 1 of the performance. For the 144 hours long performance, members of the Alankaar Theater Group have created a makeshift set within a field situated near Jayanti Mata Road in Khuda Lahora village on the outskirts of the city in New Chandigarh.

Kumar's performance began with portraying an actor at 7.30am on Sunday which prompts him to travel to

Tagore Theater

by 9.30am to showcase the everyday morning thoughts, expressions and feelings of an actor as well as a human being. Kumar, while performing in Tagore Theater's glass house, goes and sits on a table full of books on Hindi literature, a pencil, some scripts and a few trophies among others. While murmuring to himself and acting naturally among visitors and Tagore Theater staff going about their day, he is presented with a 'cue' to change his situation, follwoing which he suddenly slips into a different state. He sometimes lands flat on his stomach, imitating a character within a character or wears a mask and begins to have a conversation with himself or sometimes even screams.

Kumar was presented with the fourth situation in the act by 2pm as an actor and after a gap of three hours, he was given the fifth situation at 5pm, following which he started behaving like a director, as a different person joined him and took up the actor's role.

"Our group (Alankar Theater Group) has been rehearsing for this performance since 1.5 years. Kumar stumbled upon the idea during a residential workshop in

Uttarakhand

. Numerous rehearsals, deliberations and discussions have gone into implementing idea. On Sunday, the characters were that of an actor and director. The change in situations have been indicated to Kumar through cues and signs, without disturbing him or talking to him directly. The situations and list of characters for all the six days have already been decided by us and the group in consultation with him. But sometimes, unknowingly if someone goes and talks to him, or he has to eat or tend to nature's call, he will respond to all of these situations as the character itself," said Rajesh, actor, Alankar Theater Group.

Kumar's new situation was presented to him by 6pm, then again at 9pm, followed by a change at 9.45pm which forces the character to exit the glass house and by 10.30pm, the character will return to the set in New Chandigarh.

"We have also identified twenty unique people or points from the route beginning from New Chandigarh till Tagore Theater which will make up for situational adjustments for Kumar while he makes the travel," added Rajesh.


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