While in Delhi together to perform for the IGNITE festival, Sandra and I had some late night addas where we brainstormed ideas for some scenes to add to our show. Here are some of them:
BEHIND THE SCENES (a women only space): What happens when the courtesans aren't performing? Stage a behind-the-scenes conversation between the courtesans with some fun characters - a courtesan who actually doesn’t like sex, a nymphomaniac, a lesbian couple. Textually, this scene could incorporate women’s songs (there may be material in The Prostitute in 19th Cent. Bengal or the Oldenberg article). The graphic padam with the "aunt" who turns out to be Muvva Gopala from When God is a Customer might work too (see below). As for staging ideas: are we all offstage and you just hear us? Is it on video because we need 4 characters, but not all of us will be able to perform together live? Do we do another iteration of the SKYPE call but dressed up and in character (the lesbian couple could be in the same frame...)?
LEARNING THE TRADE: What if we have a scene with a senior courtesan teaching a greenhorn (who’s really a lesbian)? The greenhorn can’t do it initially; the senior courtesan gives up; the lesbian courtesan volunteers to try to teach her, and suddenly it becomes very viscerally erotic.
CYBER COURTESAN PHONE CENTER: One of us would sit at a desk at the computer, doing abhinaya into the webcam. The character would be very made up from torso up (perhaps it appears as if you’re naked?), but from the waist down, very frumpy in sweatpants. We see a live feed of the courtesan’s face doing abhinaya on the back wall. At the same time we see the real live body, and the lower body is doing something very mundane and non-sexual, like turning the pages of a newspaper with one's toes. We could have a series where the rest of us are doing chores, phone calls come in (we ask, "Hey, who’s made up?"), and then each goes to a different computer and our image pops up on the back wall. See Kate Rigg’s “Phone Sex” music as reference.
A Young Woman to a Friend (Ksetrayya)
BEHIND THE SCENES (a women only space): What happens when the courtesans aren't performing? Stage a behind-the-scenes conversation between the courtesans with some fun characters - a courtesan who actually doesn’t like sex, a nymphomaniac, a lesbian couple. Textually, this scene could incorporate women’s songs (there may be material in The Prostitute in 19th Cent. Bengal or the Oldenberg article). The graphic padam with the "aunt" who turns out to be Muvva Gopala from When God is a Customer might work too (see below). As for staging ideas: are we all offstage and you just hear us? Is it on video because we need 4 characters, but not all of us will be able to perform together live? Do we do another iteration of the SKYPE call but dressed up and in character (the lesbian couple could be in the same frame...)?
LEARNING THE TRADE: What if we have a scene with a senior courtesan teaching a greenhorn (who’s really a lesbian)? The greenhorn can’t do it initially; the senior courtesan gives up; the lesbian courtesan volunteers to try to teach her, and suddenly it becomes very viscerally erotic.
CYBER COURTESAN PHONE CENTER: One of us would sit at a desk at the computer, doing abhinaya into the webcam. The character would be very made up from torso up (perhaps it appears as if you’re naked?), but from the waist down, very frumpy in sweatpants. We see a live feed of the courtesan’s face doing abhinaya on the back wall. At the same time we see the real live body, and the lower body is doing something very mundane and non-sexual, like turning the pages of a newspaper with one's toes. We could have a series where the rest of us are doing chores, phone calls come in (we ask, "Hey, who’s made up?"), and then each goes to a different computer and our image pops up on the back wall. See Kate Rigg’s “Phone Sex” music as reference.
A Young Woman to a Friend (Ksetrayya)
Those women, they deceived me.
They told me he was a woman,
and now my heart is troubled
by what he did.
First I thought
she was my aunt and uncle's daughter,
so I bow to her, and she blesses me:
"You'll get married soon,
don't be bashful. I will bring you
the man of your heart."
"Those firm little breasts of yours
will soon
grow round and full," she says.
And she fondles them
and scratches them
with the edge of her nail.
"Come eat with me," she says,
as she holds me close
and feeds me as at a wedding.
Those women, they told me he was a woman!
Then she announces:
"My husband is not in town.
Come home with me."
So I go and sleep in her bed.
After a while she says,
"I'm bored. Let's play
a kissing game, shall we?
Too bad we're both women."
Then, as she sees me falling asleep,
off my guard,
she tries some
strange things on me.
Those women, they told me he was a woman!
She says, "I can't sleep.
Let's do what men do."
Thinking 'she' was a woman,
I get on top of him.
Then he doesn't let go:
he holds me so tight
he loses himself in me.
Wicked as ever, he declares:
"I am your Muvva Gopala!"
And he touches me expertly
and makes love to me.
Those women, they told me he was a woman!
-Ksettraya (Telugu), from When God is a Customer
