Pearls of wisdom by Raell Padamsee

While it has been exactly 10 years since theatre czarina and film actor Pearl Padamsee passed away, daughter Raell says her mother has been the chief driving force behind her career as a theatre producer. Raell recalls Pearl’s one time student Shashi Tharoor adressing her mother as “one of the most talented and experienced figures of the Bombay stage.”

In order to commemorate the day, on April 23rd, Raell’s theatre group will see several noted theatre actors from the city gracing the stage to enact several excerpts from few of Pearl’s most successful plays. Raell points out, “Excerpts from some of her best loved productions like the The Serpent, Godspell, The Collector, The Wiz, Arturo Ui, Duet for One and her last directorial play,  Betrayal will be staged.”

Alyque Padamsee will be himself taking the stage along with several veteran actors like Farid Currim, Gerson DaCunha, Sabira Merchant and a host of others like Cyrus Broacha, Kunal Vijaykar, Ronniw Screwvala, Soni Razdan and Delna Patel.

Raell shares with us five “pearls of wisdom” that her mother passed on to her to make her “theatre-wise”

My mother said… Always do your homework. Never go into anything unprepared, whether be it your lines or a presentation. It will hold you in good stead.

It’s all about the emotional graph of the role, and not just the technique. Learn to live the moment to understand the meat in the role.

To get your lines down pat, do a round robin of lines. Sit in a circle and just say your lines out loud, without emotions or movement to get the cue right.

Always carry the script in a file and write everything down. Don’t commit your moves to your memory always.

Always try and plot your moves before your actor arrives. My mother used to play it out with her lipsticks and her chessmen. It was a big trick that always worked.