Tribe as Theatre: Ramayana 2k3

For many of these performers, it was the only play they ever did. But they did it for years. It meant so much to them that they couldn’t leave it.

I first saw the show at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California, when it first premiered as Ramayana 2k2 (2k2 = 2002). As far as we knew, this was the only run and there was no talk of it being extended or revived. There was so much buzz about it, that at the very last performance a large group of us on the enormous wait list crammed the lobby hoping to see the sold-out show. The curtain was about 45 minutes late as they shoehorned more and more people into that space, almost giving the actors no room to perform. I was lucky enough to stand in the back of that occupancy-breaking venue on that night.

And then, as it turns out, it played for the next two years.

After it closed at Highways, it reopened in the larger Gascon Center Theatre (as Ramayana 2k3) where my group, Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble, was the resident company. So, I saw it multiple times. Looking back, I think I must have seen this show more times than any other single-cast show in my theatre-going career.

Ramayana 2k3 (subtitled “An electronic dance drama”) is the brainchild of director Robert Prior who collaborated on the piece with choreographer Stephen Hues. Robert Prior is a writer, director, designer and performer who creates multi-disciplinary theater works inspired by world mythology and literature. Hues’s choreographic work has also been heavily influenced by myth and ritual. I myself have played a great deal in the theatrical mythic sandbox, so I was very interested in this show. Prior and Hues had visited Indonesia to experience its dance drama forms and to research the project. Ramayana 2k3 was produced under the banner of Fabulous Monsters Performance Group, a theatre Prior founded and with whom he has created over two dozen performances.

Writer-Director Robert Prior (left) and Choreographer Stephen Hues (right)

After it played in Los Angeles, it had a successful run at La MaMa and was nominated for five New York Drama Desk Awards. The show then came back to LA after that.

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic from about 500 BCE and comprises 24,000 verses. It is one of the classics of Indian literature and has been adapted countless times.

It tells the story of the virtuous prince Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, who wins the hand of the beautiful Princess Sita. But when his wicked stepmother banishes Sita and Rama into the forest, Sita is abducted by the evil demon Ravana. Rama has to save her with the help of an army of heroic monkeys.

Rama (Rich Welmers) and Sita (Anahata Spurkel)

Prior’s version is performed with live actors and puppets and choreographed from beginning to end to relentless score of techno music, especially created for this production by twenty composers.

The dialogue of the characters was part of the score as well and was effectively mixed into the club-level sound design.

It was classical theatre and a rave at the same time.

And although the actors did not lip sync, you always knew who was speaking. It gave the piece a larger-than-life quality and so all the performers had to do was act and dance. I say “all they had to do” like that was easy.

The actors came from many different performance disciplines. There were “traditional” actors, but there were also belly dancers, jugglers, pole dancers, acrobats, and others who could not be categorized, but would not be out of place at Burning Man. How on earth did all these people end up in a theatre production? I would ask myself that question every time I saw it. None of these people would ever answer a casting ad for a “play.”

Writer-Director Robert Prior said, “Because the story is traditionally told by a community, I felt like it had to come from a community, in a way. So, there was a neo-circus, performance-art, techno scene that existed in LA at the time, and it was a pretty spiritually-centered community.”

Cirque du Soleil was just beginning to become big at the time and so there were various circus-inspired happenings and performances in and around Los Angeles, riding that wave of popularity.

“So because of this very international, multi-ethnic, community of artists who were already collaborating,” Prior said, “I thought this should be the community that does the Ramayana.”

Hues described the group as the “Moon-tribe, Burning Man, underground Los Angeles community.” He said, “I had worked with them (as a choreographer) and knew what they had to offer. So we just auditioned a bunch of people who were part of that.”

“At that time, there were a lot of cirque-inspired performances that announced themselves as being narrative,” Prior said, “but they never were. I wanted to see a piece that was essentially physical theatre, where the circus and dance elements were highly integrated into the story-telling and it’s built with actors.”

And that is what he did.

Sita (Anahata Spurkel) and Rama (Rich Welmers)

An actor in the cast (who came from an acting background) told me that dressing-room energy before the show was unlike any he had experienced in any of his regular shows. It was loose and disorderly and carnival-y – with all these different types of performers descending upon the dressing room and setting up shop, rather than quietly arriving to prepare for a performance.

Even with the techno conceit, this show exploited all sorts of performance traditions.

Shadow drama? Check. Belly dancing? Check. Oversized puppets? Check. Swinging from ropes? Check. Ballet? Check. Acrobatics on stripper poles? Check.

However, having such a disparate group of performers created other challenges. Some actors didn’t have dance training, some dancers didn’t have acting training, and most of the other performers had neither.

Prior said, “All of these people, some of them came from dance, some from performance art, some from circus, and some just from ‘the scene.’ But everyone ended up getting trained in acting and dance and circus.”

Ravana (Will Watkins, center) surrounded by Demons (left to right: Avo Soltes, Christina Bullard, and Katherine Mendelsohn)

So it was not as simple as just getting together to rehearse a show. All the performers had to be rigorously trained to enter the world of the play.

“It was challenging trying to bridge all of those different worlds together,” said Hues. “And bringing the dancing together so it was consistent. I was really fascinated by ceremony and ritual and mythology for many years. I started working with mudras (hand gestures used in yoga and meditation) in the 90s. Throughout the production, I think the mudras are really what holds the movement together.”

A forest of monkeys are enlisted to fight Ravana

The call for the show was 90 minutes before curtain and 45 minutes of that time was spent running dances and moments from the show. For every single performance.

The real genius of the show was how all of these different theatrical elements we blended together into a cohesive whole. It was all dance. But within what looked like dancing, there was also huge battle scenes, comedy, puppetry, mime, and various forms of acrobatics. No matter how many times I saw it, I always looked forward to seeing it again. It was beautiful. In a way, it fulfilled a place of ritual for me.

Of the sixteen cast members, thirteen stayed from the beginning to the end. And beyond.

“One of the things about the cast of the Ramayana is that the sense of the community that we created didn’t stop,” Prior said. “The group returned to Burning Man for five years. And everyone is still involved. I went to the wedding of one of our actors a few years ago, and there must have been twelve members of the Ramayana there. We are still a tribe in a way, which is very moving.”

* * *

RAMAYANA 2K3
An Electronic Dance Drama
Based on the Ancient Hindu Myth.
Produced by La MaMa ETC., Seth Landsberg, April Vanoff and Fabulous Monsters Performance Group.

Written & Directed by Robert A. Prior
Choreographed by Stephen Hues
Visual Projection Design by: Yo Suzuki
Sound Design and Editing by: Scott Jennings

Live Tabla by Abhiman Kaushal.
With a pulsating backdrop of techno sounds by:
The Muytator, RaRa Avis, Andrew Yeater, DJ Treavor, Jason Saunder, Jonathan Morning, Alex Spurkel, Amani vs.Teapot, Bentheogen, Rik Saraj, DJ Brian, Andy Shiva, Shaman's Dream, Bentheogen, Ben Milstein & Martin St. Pierre.

Costume, Mask, Puppet and Prop Designs by: Robert A. Prior, Lisa Leighton, Sheryl Schaffer and Paul Hershey.

Lighting Design by: Stephen Hues and Chris Housenick.

Starring: Anahata Spurkle, Rich Welmers, Will Watkins, Bridgette Amato, Carlos Madrid-Mora, Jon Morris, Aurelian Roulin, Desiree Castro, Christina Bullard, Alexandra Goldfarb, Maya Lilly, Avo Soltes, Gwen Larsen, Billy Mulholland, Coree Reed, Cool Benson, Jason Myers, Dawn Amora, Brianna Tarnower, Wilpower, Russ Stark, Marcus Low, Michelle Bolong and Tim Ottman.

Originally produced at Highways
and Gascon Center Theatre by Rob "DigiRob" Berg

Photography in this blog by
Leland Auslender, Esquire Jauchem, & Tedward LeCouteur