Once it was decided to perform POISON, the next stage involved casting the actors. When the play was originally written I hadnt based the characters on anyone I knew personally but after the first read of the play I had a vague idea of the actors I wanted to play the parts. But the read had happened six months ago, and circumstances had changed considerably since then.

After Ratan’s insistence I decided to hold an audition for the roles. I was initially very concerned about the whole business of auditioning. Firstly, it was just a 20 min play and also my first, plus it seemed to be falling into the realm of experimental. Despite my concerns I was very impressed to see the talent at hand, for once I was spoilt for choice and I decided to go with my gut and made some exciting choices for the cast.

The first day of rehearsals was an absolute blast. The cast totally loved the script and gave it their all, the output was nothing short of spectacular! With a week to go to the play, I was very happy; Things seemed to be falling perfectly into place. But the climax was still a little while away.

As the day of performance came closer there was a certain amount of uncertainty building up. We all knew that the script worked, but it just didn’t seem to have the edge as we kept rehearsing. One of the concerning factors which we didn’t realize was that we had gotten used to all the jokes and the comic timing; What this meant was the moments we were really enjoying were the mistakes by the actors.

Slowly the uncertainty kept growing and I was truly concerned if the play was actually going to be funny. I didnt let my doubts show and kept pushing the actors to keep moving forward. But the doubt wasnt only in my mind and it would turn out to be the biggest hurdle in our way.

Two days before the performance the panic button was hit. The trigger was the realization that the event supposed to accompany our play was canceled. This suddenly put a huge weight on the shoulders of the play and now the length of the play became a huge concern. To add to our woes the play itself was far from perfect. I decided to seek the help of a few of my friends to get their initial views of the play. We did a run through with them and despite their positive reviews, we paid attention only to the problems they felt was very visible.

This is where the next lesson came by. Lesson 2: If you spend time counting your problems you will never get around to solving them?

I was overwhelmed. I saw this Goliath in front of me and froze. My actors seeing fear in me got concerned themselves, suddenly it looked like everything around us was collapsing. That was possibly one of the lowest moments of my life. I stood there not knowing if I was capable of pulling off this task in front of me. At that time the only thing I could think about was that scene from Rocky, when Rocky comes back home after seeing all the preparations for the big match. He talks to Adrien and tells her that he cant beat Apollo, that he is not even in the champ’s league. He lies down and says that all he wants to do was go the distance…
At that moment one thing was clear in my mind, the show will go on. What happens shall be seen…

That was when we spoke to Ratan and he clearly pointed out to us that we were just lacking the self confidence to see this thru. I don’t think I can explain in words what those 15 minutes meant to me, after talking to him there was a renewed sense of inspiration in each one of us. We decided to give it our everything.

I don’t know about the rest of the cast, but those 15 minutes changed me. We went back to our rehearsals and what happened next was simply unbelievable. We let our selves go and discovered a side of the play that we were totally blind to. Before long we were rolling on the floor laughing(ok that was just me).

The positivity was glowing everywhere, we finally looked like we were stepping up for the challenge. Things were turning better for us even outside the play, the accompanying events were confirmed and the guest list was growing. It looked like we were going to have a packed house but would the audience like the play?

We would all know the answers to those questions by the next evening…