friday

It rained today and I was glad. It was still humid, though. The air is so thick sometimes that it's unbelievable that we're near desert. At other times it seems like desert, with the dry heat and the dry wind and dry dust, not to mention the dry dust storms.
Have I mentioned my pump isn't working? We're drawing water out of the reservoir two buckets at a time. I haven't had running water in nearly a week and the landlady's absent. I don't know what to do really, because I don't know whether I need to find an electrician or a plumber, and are there regulars that the landlady uses? It's a predicament of sorts, I admit.

We did our tenth reading yesterday. We read Russians, or rather, adaptations of them. It went off pretty well on all counts. We had a good audience, attentive, and for me that was the best thing because it means that... well, we have an attentive audience. I love Theatre because the whole illusion is founded on an understanding: the performers must have conviction, and the audience must believe. It's easier said than explained or carried out, of course, but as I see it the relationship between performers and audience is one of cooperation. As an audience member I must not refuse an illusion if it is 'honest', that is, if it believes in itself; as an actor it is my responsibility to make sure that what I do is not a lie, is only just guile and artifice and has no faith. An attentive audience means that you're performing for people who want to see it. They aren't there because it's free, but because it has some small worth.
I have this one (but not just one) romantic notion: after we'd done our first reading, Raghu'd remarked that it was a good start to something that could become important, and Neel countered with '...you know, 20 people is not a revolution.' And I thought, Okay, so we offer quiet, dreamy evenings with a number of voices, a few stories and a little light music. Someone who likes it as something removed from daily experience, which might possibly make daily experience a little more pleasant (or bearable, depending on your bent of mind), steps back into the world and has a macroscopically similar week, or fortnight, with the same endless baggage. Whatever impression we make on this person has dissolved in the trudge. But if they come back, then they have us on their side, and we have them. And we have a relationship, which we must honour from then on. We do not waste their time, and they do not waste ours. And in six months, a year, two years - it's possible that we're doing something that is important. I don't mean that what we're doing is 'theatre with a social purpose', but what I'm saying is that Theatre is a social purpose. Respect art and art will respect you.

Okay, these are bunch of pictures I took.
This is Neel reading. He's writing some stuff now, generally, so this is what he does when he's not grimly hunched over the computer. I'm somewhat lying - this is what he was doing today. Friday. Generally, he wanders about and drinks lemon squash. So, if anyone's wondering what makes him so smart, that's it.

This is Dusty Bosom. At her feet is the ball. Take the ball and throw it at her. If you hit her left bosom, you get 10 points. If you hit her right bosom, you get 15 points. If you hit her in the crotch, you get 20 points. BUT, if you hit any of the mice, you get -5. Hee.

Nuts.