The Adventure of Hürmüz and Her Seven Husbands!
It’s been rumored that the recent quiet state of the TAC Turkish Drama Club has been broken with the play, “Deli Dumrul”, the preparations for which started in 2013. Under the supervision of Önder Şit and Mikail İncir, we attended a variety of training opportunities in the last four years, in and outside of our city, to deepen our insight into the world of performance arts. We did this to improve the quality of the plays we stage, and hence to increase the viewing pleasure of our audience. In order not to settle with just a broad understanding of acting, we wanted to hone our skills in improvisation. Since the dynamics of our club provided us with the predisposition toward comedy, we have worked on this genre for many years. Building on our accumulated experience each year, we, along with our teachers, have tried to facilitate the adaptation of new members and younger students into our ensemble because knowing each other well, and maintaining a sense of unity is key. For this reason, the group knew best who was the right for fit for which role once we identified the play we would stage on World Theatre Day.
The play, “Seven Husbands for Hürmüz” which was staged, with a slight delay, on March 29th, was based on very creative ideas from the development stage. If the gender of the available cast had allowed it, we would have liked to stage a “Seven Wives” version. However, we had to let this idea go because of the lack of girls in the cast. Our club advisors, Önder Şit and Mikail İncir, tried to give everyone the opportunity to get a taste for every role, and then, we decided as a group who would be the best performer for each role, according to their personal strengths. We worked very hard to refrain from being influenced by the roles of the actors in the movie version of the play, and instead tried to bring orginality to our respective roles. We first decided on certain characters and then created a two-act play and afterward, it was time for a lot of rehearsals. The 50-minute club period was insufficient even for the first act, and for this reason, we agreed to stay for at least one after school period each week. We saw, in time, that even this was not enough, and we decided to spend one day each weekend on the stage. As the date of the play approached, we became more excited, and then we received our costumes. It was energizing, knowing that we finally would establish our roles, which we had been rehearsing for months. From this point forward, every rehearsal would be closer to the real act, complete with the costumes and props. Then, it was the week of the play, and as a club we decided to stay in the dormitory each night in order to prepare as much as possible. It was a hectic time for the Turkish Drama Club and we were determined to raise the bar in TAC’s drama chronicle. Especially following the mishap of last year’s play when we forgot our lines and cut 20 minutes out of the play! Therefore, taking on another two-act play sounded like a risk, but were blessed with a consistent opportunity to practice during which our roles really became a part of us, as well as the endless determination of our club teachers. On the day of the play, we were anxious, hoping the end result would be bursts of laughter from our teachers, parents, and classmates who filled the seats, along with giggles, congratulations, and giant applause, which would make the months of dedication worthwhile.
In the blink of an eye, the curtain was down, and there was the sound of applause in the auditorium. As the Turkish Drama Club, we were able to invoke the laughter of hundreds of people in the audience. This was the fuel which made us put our best effort on stage. We are aiming for even better quality and a stronger team starting in September 2017, and we believe in our ensemble members and teacher advisors who made the best of World Theatre Day.
Selin Seçen 7 – 11IB TM