Brava for the Beauty
Singer-actor Meher Mistry relates what attracted her to theater as a profession
"This opportunity gave me a full-time job,” she claims. From June 2015 she rushed from physical fitness training to dance, drama and music inputs. This made a 12 to 14-hour day till the performance in late October. She also geared herself with reading about theater to be up-to-date with latest trends and philosophies.
She believes she is a better artiste now as she worked on breath, core strength and stamina to project her character to the audience. "You need to put yourself out there, exude something on stage and need your body to be alive all the time.” She mentions how important it is "to be in the body” — which is to draw energy from your body and spirit; and go to the source of the emotion being portrayed, even if it is a fairy tale. "What draws me to this work is surrendering to that feeling and freedom of being able to be someone else and be somewhere else.” Initially termed La Belle et la Bête, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve is considered the original author of one of the oldest known fairytales.
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Meher Mistry
A month before staging the show, the rehearsals were performed on the same scale as the actual performance stage. The 27-year-old talked of the last month of rehearsals when "Every day is a day of discovery… magic (of it all coming together) is created and I always take away something from a show.” She also believes the umpteen sessions together with the entire cast was the glue which created the great bonding. "We got to know each other at an individual level, understanding each other’s rhythms. A wonderful family was created. There is high pressure (at rehearsals), so you learn to lean on each other. You get to understand yourself, then people around you. You build chemistry, listen and react.”
She also voiced how this kind of work "pushes you to discover things about yourself.” Mistry learnt that she "is witty and sharp-tongued like Belle. Not taking life too seriously. Not being defeated. Nothing is permanent.” Mistry "very much related to her (Beauty’s) sense of humor. The lightness and ease at which she deals with people and situations is something I also try to do in life. I admire her very much. She doesn’t take things too seriously. Yet she’s incredibly fearless and doesn’t cower away from any situation.”
The musical had 10 ticketed shows at the National Sports Club of India auditorium which houses 2,500 persons. Two previews were also staged for the media, family and friends in Bombay. Subsequently 12 performances were held in Delhi in January 2016. Both cities saw packed shows and will see replays in the summer of 2016, Livemint of January 23, 2016 stated.
Soprano Deirdre Lobo, originally from Bombay, gave the performer Skype lessons for voice training from the USA; else all the inputs were in person by an Indian team. The young performer wants to go in for the full gamut of acting-singing-dancing, "Pursue something I am so passionate about and which is my greatest strength.” She candidly states she "would love to be trained (abroad)... Can’t do a degree as it’s too expensive.” Trailing off she adds "Maybe a course — theater and music.”
A childhood belle
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Exposed to theater at an early age Mistry performed as a rainbow and sang Somewhere over the rainbow in a primary school entertainment in a Christmas pageant when she was about three years old. The neophyte had travelled around the country with the children’s play James aur ek giant peach. It was a Hinglish (Hindi and English) adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel James and the Giant Peach, with an Indian twist.The actor who studied history and psychology at Jai Hind College, sang in the college band and for college festivals like Malhar, Kaleidoscope, etc.
The mezzo soprano performed as one of the nuns for Raell Padamsee’s musical version of The Sound of Music. She was understudy to Maria, the lead female role, and says glowingly "I’ll never forget those two hours” referring to playing Maria in the absence of the main performer. "It was my first (major) professional show.” This was 2011. Three years later, she played Mary Magdalene in the well-known musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Opportunities presented themselves with Rusty Screws by Meherzad Patel which was a comical satire on the life and lies that Rusty lives as well as in Sunil Shanbag’s Stories in a song.
Mistry has even extended her singing abilities to do jingles and voice overs, lent her voice to advertisements for national television – anything to help gain exposure. "You can either do advertisements or theater. Ads take up too much time to leave you to do theater as you go from one ad to another,” she reminisces.
She also acted in a short feature film with director Tanuja Chandra. "It was a huge learning curve as the medium is different... You are constantly under the camera, in different shots. The (film) medium has a technical aspect; it’s a craft on its own… It takes one day to do one scene. So you have to be in that same space and give your best. It requires focus. Give as many takes as required. You do the same thing, trying different things.” She then adds, the character (in the film) "is not a real life person but still it (character) is. I had to find her (the character’s) lightness, her pixie (attribute). She is most unlike me …”
"Knew my calling”
"When I was six or seven I was sure I wanted to be a teacher… and that too at my own school,” says Meher Mistry about her alma mater J. B. Vachha High School in Dadar. All that changed in 1989 when she went to the USA to B Street Theatre in Sacramento, California, "to do whatever I could.” Her uncle, Buck Busfield is co-founder and producing director, where she did a three-month summer internship. She cleaned, did props, costume and administrative work. She was conferred the designation of assistant stage manager. "I just came into my own there and had a sense of belonging,” she says animatedly, "I knew my calling!” She watched theater, talked to people, sat in at college classes.
On her return, she informed her parents that she was going to be in theater. Her parents, Meherrukh (née Dadachanji) and father Sarosh took it all in their stride. Meherrukh is a tourist guide and Sarosh retired from the merchant navy. Sister Gulrukh is a realtor in the US.
A staunch follower of Meher Baba, none of the Mistrys have had their navjotes performed for three generations. Her grandparents were influenced by the Baba, as her grandfather’s father was advisor to the inner circle.
Mistry recommends the acting profession to anyone saying "There is so much struggle. Unless you are passionate, it will pull you in other directions.” There is "uncertainty of income as you do not know when you would get another contract and for how long… You don’t know what’s coming.” One has to cope with rejection every time a part is denied and only perseverance and tenacity can pull you through. There is always a reason — whether you get a job or don’t get a job is out of your control, you may not understand why. Never question why another is chosen,” she concludes.