Artist: SHARON MAZARELLO
It was my maiden appearance on the Konkani tiatr stage at StMary’s Hall-Mazagaon, Mumbai. The show was packed to capacity to see who thenew female artist was. I had sung my solo, ‘Dovo Parvo’ at the show with a handmike. Until then, no female tiatr artist had sung a solo with a hand mike. Thiswas a novelty. The audience (houseful) had their eyes fixated on me and I putmy heart into my singing. As I finished, there was a pin drop silence in thehall, not a sound was to be heard. I slowly began to walk off-stage when Iheard a thunderous applause. That I was accepted by the audience was confirmed.
That, however, was not the end. Uncle Jacinto Vaz who waswatching me sing from the wings, took a step forward and hugged me as hesmilingly commented, ‘What a voice you have. You sang so beautifully. You willsurely shine one day. Congratulations to you dear.’
Seeing my success today, he would have been a happy soul.
Who is the girl who sang ‘Moddgonvam Prasar’?
My song ‘Moddgonvam Prasar’ used to air on All India Radio’s‘Manojogtim Gitam’ practically everyday and it had become a household hit. Ihad then just come down to Goa for Bab Peter and Ophelia’s show ‘Tuka KiteakPoddlam’. This show was running houseful everywhere. And one of the reasons forthis could be that people wanted to see who the female singer who sang‘Moddgonvam Prasar’ was.
One day, after the show concluded, people gathered outsidethe ‘mattov’ to see me. While there were many who just wanted to talk to me,there were others who wanted to shake my hand. One particular lady, however,pounced on me and pinched my cheeks. It was Bab Peter who came to my rescue. Hetook me aside and put me in the bus “we were on our way to another showelsewhere.
Sim…Sim...Sim...I stuttered, forgetting my lines
I was playing the main role in John Claro’s tiatr,‘Portuguez Kolvont’, which was earlier played by Sabina. In one of the scene’sin this tiatr, I needed to converse in Portuguese with my doctor husband overthe phone. In the initial days, I was not very confident of my Portuguese andhence would keep a paper with the dialogue written on it near the phone.
During one of our shows, at the Gomant Vidya Niketan hall inMargao, it so happened that the paper on which I had written my dialogues wentmissing. Apparently, the boy doing the stage sets was new and assuming that thepiece of paper was waste, he discarded it.
Now while I knew the first few words of my dialogue, I wasunsure of the rest. I ended up simply muttering “sim…sim…sim…” (meaning yes) inPortuguese. The other artistes who were a part of the scene were taken abackand wondered what was wrong with me. I was completely lost. Thankfully,Platilda guessed what was wrong and came to my rescue. She came close to me andsurreptitiously whispered the rest of the dialogue into my ears. That was how Imanaged to keep the continuity of the scene.
(As recounted to Daniel F de Souza)
