Heroism and Martyrdom

When I took up the course for "Leadership: Inspiration, Dilemmas & Action", I hadn't realized what was in store. But with the end term over, I look back to a series of lectures that have rekindled my questioning. As part of the class presentation, groups had to take up sessions on given topics. Ours was "Heroism and Martyrdom" based on the book Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw. The groups were given the creative freedom to decide how they wanted to present.The topic was chosen by us of course. Our choice was based two reasons, it was about Joan of Arc, and it was a little later in the term. The third reason that it was based on a book applied for all other topics.
We were a group of 6 girls and we had no idea what we were going to do. As the term proceeded, groups came up with good to great preparation for portraying the plots of the story. Play was the best and most appreciated way. There were movie and video clips too. By the time our turn approached, we were out of ideas. We knew that we were not good enough for a play in front of the class and movie was out of question because it had no creativity from our part. And that was when we came up with the idea of a shadow play - directed, acted, recorded, edited all complete with background music and live narration.

 

That the whole thing came out so well and was appreciated by everybody present felt really good, but the whole process was more fun. The nights we spent with a white bed sheet to locate a place where the shadows were dark enough to be recorded and failed! Then finding a wall without windows and doors, finding lights to project the right size of image, to place the camera in the right angle so that neither the video was distorted nor the real people got recorded, the covering windows in the room so that the light from street lamp outside did not spoil the shadows. The first scene took hours and by the end of it we were already exhausted but it was just the beginning. And once it was complete, the editing started. The narration was supposed to be live so we had to ensure that the scenes were of the right duration, there was selection of music based on the scenes. And then there was the narration, shrinking a 3 hour play to just 15 minutes without diluting the essence is not an easy feat! It was an unforgettable experience.

And all this for just a fourth of the entire presentation. The rest of the time was for the analysis and the efforts put there were certainly equal if not more. We looked at the history, the themes, Joan's personality, the topic of heroism and martyrdom, comparison with other leaders and then ended with  class discussion. Unlike other sessions, ours was scheduled at night just before dinner but during the presentation, we knew food was not the first thought in most people's mind.

A special thanks to Nidhi, Gayatri, Priyanka, Sonal and Pragya for making it such an awesome experience!