Our Story
tahatto
dhimta dhimitaka
taaha taaha to
dhimtat tai
The war cry started it all. The war cry that we learnt to express ourselves with.
Focussed eyes on the target…
Faces contorted in the ecstasy of potting the enemy…
Fists clenching the weapon that would be his downfall…
Force that strikes in his heart…
Festivity of triumph.
The momentum that evam’s acting workshop CUT infused in us with that war cry, drove us to come together and form Tahatto.
The Beginning
The war cry ‘Tahatto’ evoked an inexplicable creative need in all of the people who attended evam’s acting workshop in the January of 2009. It was the need to go beyond the status quo that their lives had attained and do something that fulfilled their creative selves. This common need brought them together and propelled the formation of something that was bigger than each individual in the group. It could have been acting, script writing, marketing, production or just plain cheering, but an enthusiastic bunch came together to form Tahatto even before it knew the purpose of its birth. Much like a baby being born and not knowing the higher purpose it is meant to achieve.
The Name ‘Tahatto’
The cry ‘Tahatto’ and its significance is unique to this group of people attending the acting workshop. The mere mention of the name evokes warm memories of camaraderie and lessons acquired during the workshop. The feeling and hence the word is something that no one can take away from this group. And it is only befitting that the group identifies itself with a name that is associated with common memories and makes the group stand out.
The Middle
All babies need a while before they stand up on their feet and eventually start walking in the direction of their calling in life. Tahatto was no different. Starting with a few play readings and a sharing of information and opinions about theatre, it was a few months before Tahatto stood up on its feet and settled on the first script it intended to stage – A Funny Thing Called War. This script was based on the famous Blackadder series and intended to depict the misadventures of Captain Blackadder while at War. There was a fresh lease of excitement as preparations for the play began in full swing starting with auditions. Even as the play reached its penultimate stages of preparation, there was a flurry of activities – rehearsals, production planning, brainstorming – and the collective effort that went into staging Tahatto’s first play was phenomenal.
A Funny Thing Called War premiered in the October of 2009 and had three successful runs around town. Post this success, there was only a moment’s lull before the restlessness to come up with another production possessed the group, and Picasso At The Lapin Agile was announced.
A Funny Thing Called Life
Even as we were working on Picasso At The Lapin Agile, an opportunity to create and stage something really quickly came up. The way we saw it, there were two ways: either we could take it up head-on or we could let it go and wonder what if. And relying solely on instinct, in less than 2 weeks, the complete package of a play was structured, written, rehearsed, marketed and put up. Presented in the form of sketches that explored life in both subtle and humorous ways. It showed us some out-of-the-box original writing, some great ideas and most importantly, what our amazing and extremely talented backstage, production, tech and marketing team was capable of. And it will always be an example to ourselves of what standing by each other really means.
The End
The end of this section, I meant! With a third production on the floor, Tahatto is nowhere close to an end. The baby has learnt to walk now and is only looking at sprinting forward, full force, with more productions.
Here’s to many more productions and to collective energies… Tahatto!
