One need to experience it to believe it that spaces breathe creativity, ooze creativity and if things go fine, it rejuvenates the creative being as well. Such was the feeling at Sultanpur Lodhi for three days during my long sessions with local artists, actors and students from colleges and teams in August 2011 and it turned out to be a rejuvenating experience for a theatre worker like me working in the intellectual world of action and reaction, mostly in the urban spaces like Delhi and Mumbai.

Sultanpur Lodhi is the place where Guru Nanak spent a major part of his life singing and the resonance is still alive in the Qila where Anād Foundation is creating a conservatory devoted to arts and aesthetics; what better than the space where creation is the creativity or rather process of creation is quintessentially creativity. The three day workshop on drama took place in the centre of the Qila under the ruins, close to the mosque where Nanak rendered namāz at the behest of the local Maulavi and behind it was the shop he ran.

The actors worked on the voice culture, facial expressions and body language through different games and performance enhancing exercises. The workshop culminated into a brief performance which was showcased on the evening of the final day. My intent was to capture the crude bodies and sensibilities in action, without any attempt to mould them into sophisticated polished performance and it worked well to a great extent.
Kuljeet Singh
Creative Director, Atelier Theatre