They've made you chuckle. They've made you weep. They've made you want to tap your feet and dance together with them. And now, the folks at The Mustard Seed Art Company are returning with a new play Hold Up The Sky, which promises to be yet another production to remember.
"Hold Up The Sky is a fictionalized dramatization of Jiang Ching (Madame Mao), the wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. Madame Mao was also a theatre person and I was fascinated while reading up about her. The play follows her choices in life and theatre," says Isabel Santa Rita Vaz, the director of the play and the founder of The Mustard Seed Art Company. "The play will be quite lively and will have a lot of singing and a few dances. Rui Lobo has provided some wonderful music and has trained the singers. "
Elaborating on the choice of the title, she states, "The title is taken from a popular statement that Mao Zedong used to use - ‘It is women who hold up half the sky'. In this case though, through the play we question the idea of power and how one uses this power."
The freedom of speech and the arts also forms an important theme in the play. "I feel that it is necessary for the flow of creative juices that thinking and expressing should be free or else the society is in trouble," says Vaz.
The theatre company is also celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year and Vaz believes that one of the reasons why the company has continued to thrive for so long could be to do with the way they work. "We don't encourage rivalry or competitive spirit and instead focus on being more collaborative. We support each other as one team," she says. Over the years, the company has also built it's name in Goa and gained quite a following. " In the earlier days, people used to only go for plays which were put up by big companies in Mumbai and Bangalore, but now they are more aware about our work and also known that we do not do mediocre work," she states.
Not just that, more people especially youngsters are now interested in theatre, as evidenced from the large number of youngsters in her own plays. "While in Goa, the first preference is still music, we always have a lot of new members coming in and a lot of students are very keen on literature and the arts today," she observes. "People also are realising that theatre, not just in English but other languages too, is not so threatening. At first, people believed that only if you are a born actor can you step onstage. That myth has been dispelled. Most of us can learn and pick up certain skills and there is always room for improvement."
And if you don't want to act, there are other ways you can be involved, she adds. "You could design the clothes, help with the makeup, lights, choreography etc etc," she says.
And while they have had negative comments and even anonymous letters coming their way over the years, none of this has managed to affect their love for theatre as there have been plenty of happy memories to obliterate these, although if you ask Vaz, to pick out some especially favorite ones, she confesses that she just can't pick. "Each play is very different and each person brings something different and memorable to the table," she says.
(Hold Up The Sky will be held on September 26, 6.30 pm at Gomant Vidya Niketan, Margao and on September 28, 6.30 pm at Institute Menezes Braganza, Panaji)
30 years and counting
The Mustard Seed Art Company has been delighting the audience with splendid performances year after year. As they celebrate 30 years, the group is all set to present a new play ‘Hold Up The Sky’
