He Takes an Interest O
th the 9 of October last year Alan Wagner, Director ofArts at Mehera— bad told us about the upcoming Drama Fes tival and the reason it exists: “The fourth article of the Trust’s Deed ofDeclaration is: ‘For the writing and production ofPlays, based on the messages, dis courses and sayings ofAvatar Meher Baba, for the benefit ofthe public.” This year a new opportunity has pre sented itself to honor Beloved Baba’s wish in this regard. A drama festival is being planned at Meherabad for the weekend of October 13, 14, 15 and 16, 2000. The concept ofthe drama festival is to develop plays related to Meher Baba on a single subject in different languages and from different cultural backgrounds. The subject this year is Attraction’. So far there has been a response for plays in Marathi, Telegu and English. Every play, regardless oflanguage ofperformance, will be accompanied by a program containing the scenario in English and in Hindi. Five days later the show began and Alan gives his report: “As I walked out to the theatre to open the festival and introduce the first plays, I was thinking about what I would say. I realized these plays being performed for the festival were unique in that all the plays that I have been involved with in the past twenty-three years here at Meherabad were our attempts to give something to Beloved Baba, whether it be Mehera’s birthday play or Baba’s Birthday play. His receiving of them was what made them special. “However these festival plays were Baba giving to us, because the festival was cre ated in response to Baba’s personally stated wish. That made them doubly special for all involved.” BabaTakes an Interest Alan continues: “Sometimes when you do something, it’s all right, it may not be perfect, butyou got though it, you did everything that needed to be done, and people were satisfied with whatever the result was, and you’re re— lieved. Then sometimes you do something, and you’re not sure how to do it, and you feel butterflies in your stomach and you wonder, ‘Is this the one that is notgoing to work?’ And then you start doing it, and nothing could be easier—everythingjust falls into place without a hitch, B does followA, C does follow B, and we end up at Z without any effort at all.
•.:.
•
‘
,
And you realize that HE took an interest! This was my experience while organizing and executing Meherabad’s first Drama Fes tival. There were four plays, two in English, one in Telegu and one in Marathi. Theywere all original and all written especially for the occasion. And they were all loosely connected to the designated subject of Attraction’. The two English plays were performed on Oc tober 14th, in the afternoon, one following the other. The first was a delightftil comedy about the aspirant’s quest for God through a penance and the kinds of opposition he encountered. The second English play dealt with a rather goofy professor lecturing from Baba’s discourse on love and its various manifesta tions as attraction. These manifestations were enacted by an ensemble group of four actors who, interchanging, played all the parts. We went all the way from atomic to Divine, and fun was had right up to the Sublime. The Marathi-Hindi play on October 15th was a serious dramatization of the aspirant’s awakening to the pursuit of God.
It was performed by Mumbai and Ahmed nagar Baba lovers in a traditional Marathi street-drama motif characterized by tradi tional dancing, music and humor, and an exquisite simplicity that supplied a rhythm that even a non-Marathi speaker could enjoy. Many thanks to the playwright, Prashant Ahir, for he and I have talked about the possibility ofthis festival for the last fifteen years! The Telegu-English play was surpris ingly international, detailing a story of an Indian boy marrying an American girl who is a Baba lover, and thus coming to Baba, but not without travail. As would be ex pected from a group from Hyderabad (the Silicon Valley of India), the play creatively incorporated computer-generated effects for the first time in the Meherabad theatre. Our thanks to M.R.V.K. Balaji, who once again demonstrated that he is a sincere and tireless worker for his Lord. Having never done a play, he came through with something ative, new and touching. J ose Henriques from Argentina informed me on October 15th that the Argentinean Baba group had hoped to bring a Spanish play for the festival but was unable to do so. That play was being performed in La Plata, Argentina, concurrentlywith our drama fes tival. Later, this same play acted as a means of continuing the drama festival into Novem ber. The La Plata group came to India in late October and on November 1 ith performed, in Spanish, their beautiful and sen sitive play of the soul’s journey. Present was an extraordinarily interna tional audience at Meherabad. One Mumbai pilgrim commented, “This play proves that there really is a language of the heart.” Alan Wagner and Heather Nadel are asking for international and Indian theatre groups and choirs to consider bringing their troupes to Meherabad for the Beloved’s pleasure at Meherabad Theatre in the fu ture, so that this article in the Trust’s Deed can continue to manifest. Contact: Alan Wagner do “Avatar Meher Baba Trust” Kings Rd. Ahmedna gar M.S. 414001 India.