STORYTIME TAPESTRY

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Deepak Morris??™s Weekly Column

? East Meets West

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Sept 15, 2005

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To continue with my vision of a world tapestry of love and understanding of cultural values throughout the world, every Thursday we will be graced by the artistic vision of Mr. Deepak Morris, a wonderful playwright and friend from Prune, India.? 

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His plays have been preformed in front of audiences in Toronto, Canada

The Mule In The Middle Of

Main Street

How stubbornness helped me succeed

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By: Deepak Morris

Copyright ?© Deepak Morris. 2004

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Someone sent me a private message asking for tips on how to tackle the fear that often grips the would-be entrepreneur. This person was more or less an expert in the field in which he wanted to start his business. He knew the dangers inherent in the business and knew how to prepare for them. But he was afraid because, if he started the business, he would be moving from the ???safe??? model of a salaried employee to the ???unsafe??? model of the self-employed professional.

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That got me thinking about how I started Rhapsody Theatre, a production house, albeit small, that has staged 13 plays since 2001. I looked back to see where I had been afraid and, to my astonishment, I cannot recall a single moment when I felt fear. When I faced my first production, with no capital for publicity, no money to build sets or stitch costumes, no money to book a venue, I was as unafraid as I would have been had I been a millionaire with all the money in the world to handle these issues. When the police threatened to stop a performance, just hours before it was to be staged, because a minor permission hadn??™t been obtained, I had been unafraid. When an actor quit two days before a play was to be staged, I had been unfazed. I replaced that actor with one who turned out to be much better and is now one of the mainstays of Rhapsody Theatre.

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Isn??™t that amazing? To feel no fear! And it is only now, when asked how to tackle the fear, that I realise I should have been very afraid all those times. Why hadn??™t I been afraid?

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I think the answer lies in what I call stubbornness, but what most people feel more comfortable calling passion. I call it stubbornness because passions may wax and wane, but stubbornness is as fixed as that mule standing smack bang in the middle of

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Purpose brings Performance

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How does stubbornness work?

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Not having done any research on the subject, I can only talk of how stubbornness works for me. I have one absolute: The show must go on. Everything flows from there. Once a date has been fixed for a performance, it is not changed. So, my mind accepts that it cannot be changed, and directs my actions accordingly.

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Let me tell you how my mind tackled the first problem Rhapsody Theatre faced: With no money to even book a venue, how on earth was I going to stage a production? The theatre scene in Pune at that time wasn??™t very good. Sponsors preferred, and indeed still prefer, to back a pub event or even a fashion show. The kind of theatre I wanted to do would be focussed more on acting and getting a story across than on spectacular sets, lights and sound, and, even crazier, to some people??™s way of thinking, I wanted to do it without advertising. Mule that I am, I fixed a date, and decided to do it without a sponsor and without advertising.

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Once that was decided, amazing things began to happen! I was sitting, that very evening, at my favourite hangout, The Jazz Garden in Pune. Since none of my friends were around, I began chatting with the owners, who made a casual remark that they were looking for events to promote the restaurant. ???Click!??? went my mind. ???Why not do a play???? I asked. ???Why not???? was the immediate reply. Getting down to brass tacks immediately, I asked them what they wanted from the promotion. ???People to visit the restaurant and eat here,??? came the response. ???Click!??? again. ???If I give you 70 to a 100 people who will visit the place and dine here, will you let me use your stage and electricity???? I asked. ???Yes??? was the response. I had my venue, with not a rupee paid up front. The restaurant would put a cover charge on every entrant and I was free to fix an entry fee to cover costs. We were on our way to our first production. Mind you, at this point, I didn??™t even have a play in hand, although the date was just a month away.

You don??™t have to look for solutions

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Solutions come to you. At a rate that will take your breath away. Dissatisfied with the plays I found, even after searching the net, I decided to write my own play. Rather, that decision was forced upon me, since I had committed to the restaurant and, more importantly to my own mind, that the play was being staged on the date decided.

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The next day saw a solution to two problems. A journalist friend of mine, who was interested in acting, asked if he could be in my play. ???Sure???, I replied. ???Do you mind if I do a small write-up in the newspaper where I work???? was his next question. Mind! I??™d have to be out of my mind to pass up a chance for free publicity! I had an actor and publicity in one stroke. It was a simple matter then to request the journalist to also contact his pals in other publications and ask if they??™d carry a write-up too. Again, to my surprise, they quite liked the quixotic idea of doing a play sans sponsors or advertising. All four English language newspapers carried write-ups on this seemingly crazy experiment.

Marketing becomes a breeze

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I was still left with the problem of filling the house. Theatre-style, the restaurant could seat 100 bodies. Pooling our list of friends, those of us involved in the production figured we could bring in 50. Where were we to get the balance? The write-ups would not motivate people to come. They were useful only in reassuring those we tried to sell passes to that the play was really happening and it would be a good idea to attend. We needed to fill the house, since our entry component on each pass was calculated on the basis of 100 people attending. That would pay for the sets, sound and lights.

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Once again, my habit of hanging out at the Jazz Garden brought a solution. Chatting with one of the regulars, I found that he had a birthday coming up and wanted to do something different with his friends. ???How many friends???? I asked. ???Fifty??? was his reply. Again, in a cosmic juxtaposition that cannot be mere coincidence, his birthday was the date decided for the performance. I don??™t have to spell out what transpired next, do I? We had our fifty bodies to bring the total number of attendees to 100.

Over and Over Again

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I have found that fixedness of purpose ??“ stubbornness ??“ empowers you to tackle any emergency that comes your way. Over thirteen productions I??™ve tackled actors falling ill, authorities demanding strict adherence to procedure, dropouts, threats of boycott from actors, I??™ve even been treated to the comical sight of a potential sponsor running away from a venue when I asked him if he was interested in sponsoring our play.

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With no formal education in theatre, no mentor to ease the way and no advertising, I am still in a position to speak authoritatively on theatre. In three years, I have thirteen plays staged and, obviously, an equal number written. I couldn??™t have done it without the mule in the middle of

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Deepak Morris

rhapword@yahoo.com

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Founder of Rhapsody Theatre, author, playwright,
actor and director Deepak Morris has been
associated with Theatre and Communication all
his life. A Master of Commerce from Pune
University, Master's Diploma holder in
Management from The Institute of Management
Development and Research (IMDR), Pune, and
Diploma holder in Computer Studies from the
National Computing Centre, UK, Deepak
combines a passion for theatre with professional management techniques
to deliver consistently well staged theatrical
performances. An accomplished actor himself,
Deepak has won numerous awards for acting and
debating, including the "Best Actor" award at
the International Year of the Youth Drama
Festival in Pune and the "Best Male Newcomer
Award" in 1997 in Dubai, U.A.E. Having acted
in numerous productions in India and Dubai,
Deepak began writing and directing his own
plays on a regular basis in March 2001. To
date, he has written several one-act plays
and skits and his group, Rhapsody Theatre,
has staged no less than 13 plays in three
years, a record of sorts.

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