The other side of the breakthrough.

Sometimes, one should temper ones excitment about crossing a boundary, about the other side of which they have no idea. Or something like that. I wonder how many explorers went Yay! Uh-oh. After that wonderful breakthrough I find myself in a whole other medium, through which we progress like mollasses. In this case, the medium of the musical play, where the story's entire progress is done musically.

I didn't know what we were going to do next - yes, I knew where the story needs to go - but how do we establish these tribals, the world that Gunadhaya stumbles upon. The quality of 'difference' between his world and thiers, yet holding onto the potential for interaction between the two. Music was the answer.

I decided that as much as the first section is grounded in realism, and in the representing a world of the court of the king. The second act would be qualitatively entirely different. It started with watching the actors perform Kollatta in a morning class (its kind of like dandia, but its very fast, and thier are a thousand different patterns).

The actors just standing in space, balancing the stage, became the forest, it looked like one, I got them to go into the nearby woods and to just sit with trees and get a sense of them, not just what they looked like, but what they evoked in the actor. They all created thier own bhangi's for the essence of the tree they chose to emulate. So, we have actors, standing across stage, in various poses, with kollatta sticks in thier hands. Eyes closed, quietly making the sounds of the forest. Insects, birds, the occassional animal rustle.

Gunadhaya enters the forest, lost in thoughts of his unjust defeat. Realises while his mind has been preoccupied, his feet have perhaps, wondered a bit too far. I thought that even if he was more cognizant of the forest, his attitude would be, "I have pretty much nothing to live for out there, so I may as well go here, and if it marks the end of me, big deal. I can't speak any known language in the kingdom, I have all this knowledge now rendered useless, I have been uncerimoniously removed from pride-of-place position in court, and I don't get to hang out with the Queen, whose company I have rather enjoyed all these years. (Oh yes, we had a big debate about whether I was turning this into a love story between Gunadhya and the Queen - there's all kinds of Love, I argue, not just the type all you young hormonal adults are thinking about. Good, another moment of learning.)

He enters the forest, and the tree / actor / tribal characther of Kanubhuti starts to sway in the wind, and his branches start to hit those of the tree/actor/tribal characther of Kaalava his wife around whome he's entwined, in tempo. He begins to hum, next thing you know, the two of them break out into a kollatta song, and start a two person kolatta, which immediately develops to a four person kolatta, and then the entire center of the forest joins in, and the tribals are now doing a kolattta with Gunadhaya hiding behind the outer trees, who join in as the tempo rises and gunadhaya has no where to hide.

That - is what made me decide the second section woudl be all about song.

Progress?
- Well, we've got past the forest to Kolatta moment.
- Had the tribals bring gunadhaya into the kollatta
- Then since he's feeling a bit like a fish out of water, go sit on a stump and watch.
- Then the rest of the tribals finish thier kolatta and celebrate a dance nicely done, and then sit around Kanabhuti to hear one of his many stories.
- Kanabhuti tries to start, but everyone is very interested in this new stranger, Kanabhuti recognizes him clothing. (Its similar to the clothing a kings entourage once wore when they came into the forest and killed Sata, and took one of the young tribal boys away).
- Then after instructions by Kalava, the tribals leave Gunadhaya alone for a while, giving him a chance to acclimatize.
- In the meanwhile a tribal family from another space come and visit. Tell Kanabhuti new stories. Which everyone is very excited about. All this is happenning in regional dialects of around karnataka, Tullu, (Some konkani), another variant which the actor insists has no name.
- Gunadhaya is mesmerized by the story telling and slowly shifts to in the circle, so he can try and ge ta sense of the stories being told, even though he doesn't understand a word...

We've also separately out of sequence worked on the song in which gunadhaya learns to speak paisachi (Actors use kannada there - to denote paisachi, the idea of which is communciated imlicitly in the dialogue).

We've also composed the key song of the second act about stories, a huge choral number - so now I just have to block them in place. My lessons in Musical theatre from the New Wolsey in Ipswich are coming in handy.

But god is it so much slower that crafting the first half!

I think the other problem is that I can only articlate this half of the story in point form, and maybe I need to write here the story of Gunadhaya part three to help me get a better flow and feel for the story I'm trying to tell here.

So, expect part 3 soon.