Before the curtain raises...

In continuation of my last post - Faces half done!, I just thought of showing a bit more inside the green room of Yakshagana artists.

The process of their make up is very fascinating. The myriad array of colors applied onto the faces with precise accuracy and the patience of each one of them to get those colors applied is truly commendable.

In the below set of images you will be seeing some of the glimpses of one such preparation before they are ready to go on stage.

 

 

 

  

  

 

Now they are all ready to go on stage!

Cheers,
Ash

Faces half done!

They are all budding artists in the art form - Yakshagana.

Some are very new and some are well versed.

I went to their green room couple of times in order to document the process of them getting ready. It is a fascinating place to be in. Both from observation point of view and from image making point of view.

Often the green rooms does not consist of large area. One has to work in small space under loads of constraints to capture the process of an artist undergoing the transformation from his earthly identity to the on stage avatar. 

The make up forms a huge part in this form of art and it takes quite a huge time to make one person ready to go on stage. All looks like a movie in the fast forward many a times inside the green room, yet everything has to be accurate and elegant. One thing I noticed was that they all look composed and calm during the complete duration of their make up. They try to take the character inside them which they are going to play on stage. Unlike any other play you almost never have a prescribed set of dialogues in Yakshagana. All the dialogues of all the characters have to be spontaneous and that is a challenge in itself. They have to have their presence of mind all the time along the course of the performance....and I need not mention that there is no room for any errors!

All the faces you see in this blog post were in the process of one such transformation. They were all on their way to completion. Of course for their performance that day and may be in their journey of mastering this wonderful form of art as well.

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And how did they look when they went on stage? You may have to wait for my next blog! :)



Cheers,
Ash