Shakespeare Society

Yearbook Report 2008-2009

The year began with a feeling of great optimism and excitement, big plans of outside productions and complicated systems to avoid losing the lights room key. This is a pattern extremely noticeable with the society, and unfortunately, the year ends much sooner than we expect.

The Shakesoc kicked off the year with a couple of workshops: the first introducing ourselves to the first years, and the second conducted by the First City Theatre Foundation.

In September, we organized Intra- Rajpal, the one-act play competition known for bringing to the forefront a number of lesser known actors (and non-actors), incredibly long plays and generally weird behavior. (Robin’s work can be categorized in any of the above, as you choose.)

In November (yet again!) we hosted Inter-Rajpal, and the plays were…interesting. The ladies from Kamla Nehru were most un-ladylike: they kicked and fought and almost scratched each other’s eyeballs out. (“The blood was all real”, revealed an inside source). 

Gargi College too put up a similarly scandalizing performance. (It was indeed a pattern with the all-girls’ colleges this year. We wonder whether this reflects the coming of a new wave of feminism.) St. Stephen’s play ‘Nothing will happen between us’ written and directed by Abhishekh Bhattacharya destroyed the competition- we won and we didn’t even have to fix it.

In December, for our Mid-Term production, the society staged Faust directed by two first years, Shaman and Rajiv. This can be seen as a sign that the society is willing to encourage young artistes with great ideas. (Either that, or we’re truly becoming useless.) The play went off well. An actor commented, “The sky did not fall on our heads, but the sets almost did.”

 To wrap up the year, we will not be able to stage an annual production (thanks to the recession and therefore lack of finances, and a number of other little things/people.) But we do hope to wind it up with something.

The tone of this report isn’t very positive, but we hope that the next year too should begin with much optimism, for from “the ashes a phoenix arises”.