I enjoy the physical aspect of theatre, says Faezeh Jalali

For theatre actor and director Faezeh Jalali, inspiration for the kind of theatre she does, has come from many quarters. The founder of FATS TheArts theatre company, Faezeh studied at JB Petit High School for Girls in Mumbai, where there was a lot of importance attached to theatre. “Pearl Padamsee would direct our plays, which would almost always have really strong female characters. It didn’t strike me then but now that I think about it, I realise that we enacted characters like Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Anne Frank and Madame Curie among others. Even at home, my sisters and I would act out those kind of plays,” she recalls. 

Later, when she was studying theatre arts in Beloit College in Wisconsin, USA, it was physical theatre that appealed to her sensibilities. “The directors would allow actors space to create rather than block us. I enjoyed the physical aspect of expressing through the body and finding ways of telling stories through the body. Which is weird, because it’s like Indian drama and I went all the way there to discover it,” she laughs. Although she admits she was a bit shy in the initial few days there, she did discover her physical ability later. “By the time I was doing my Masters, I realised that working at text through physical expression resonated with me,” she says. 

All theatre is physical, believes Faezeh. “If you’re not thinking physically, then you’re just sitting there and saying lines,” she says, adding that theatre doesn’t exist only on paper. “It exists in actors’ bodies, minds and through their movements,” she concludes.