The members of the Mount Carmel Dramatics Association have no prior experience in theatre but they are all passionate about the art and have an inclination to learning more about it.
What started out as a mad ads team gradually progressed into theatre and grew in strength. While some of the girls say they have been associated with theatre from school, others say they developed a passion for it only recently. “None of us have had any professional theatrical experience before. It is basically our passion for acting that comes across. Most of us are keen on it from school and some of us have developed a passion for it,” says Meera Sankar, cultural secretary of the college and an active participant in dramatics.
These bunch of enthusiastic women dip their fingers into just about any theme. While comedy remains their preferred genre, they have slowly progressed into spoof and dark humour.
“We have also forayed into other genres like melodrama, suspense and romantic dilemma. We get excited by any new script because putting up a play is indeed a challenge,” says Meera. Talking about the scripting and directing of plays, Sheryl Puthur, a member of the association explains that they usually get their scripts from outside and tweak it to suit them. “The direction is done by us, as is the acting. Previously, we checked on each other’s performances but now some of us plan on taking up serious direction. In fact all of us are comfortable directing each other since all of us have different viewpoints and we like to try out what suits us the best,” says Sheryl. The girls work as a team and make sure there’s no clash of ideas or even egos.
Meera avers there’s a great deal of improvisation and experimentation that go into all the plays, “we improvise on the spot and weave it into the story. It is something we have picked up over the years. It’s a useful skill that has helped us evolve better as actors,” observes Meera.
The Association seems to have drawn up some elaborate plans this year. They’re planning a dance musical toward the end of the academic year and to achieve this the dramatics association work hand in hand with the music and dance associations.
The auditions for the actors has already begun, “we believe in minimal props and whatever we need, we will make it ourselves since we all are involved in art and decor. The play will have modern settings and we will try and create our own script rather than stage a known play,” Meera sums up.
