Addicted to comedy

HYDERABAD: Hyderabadis witnessed comedy like never before on Wednesday evening. Theatre artist and stand-up comedian, Maya Krishna Rao performed in the city as a part of the Park’s New Festival Edition V, 2011, which aims at bringing together emerging artists on a common platform. Known for her solo performances, Rao presented a aQDn episodic comedy --- ‘The non-stop car, food, clothes, feel-good show’, which draws inferences from people around us, politics and also social issues. And, when one calls her show a one-woman show, it indeed is one because she not only pens her ideas to weave them into scripts, but also directs herself. Adding to that is the tinge of costumes and props, which takes the concept of stand-up comedy to a whole different level. The act that started off with Maya portraying the character of a Malayalee woman, soon moved on to her aping a Punjabi woman from Delhi, evidently showing that she could slip in and out of characters with ease. While Rao’s costumes and props were colourful and engaging, her humour, on the other hand, was layered and subtle, hinting at life around us--- the society, politics, pressures and a lot more. Multiple facetsAn actor, dancer, choreographer and educator, 58-year-old Maya Krishna Rao, has been entertaining people all by herself for 20 years now, but she has been an artist too. “I belong to a family of artists and have grown up making fun of each other, mimicking each other,” recollects Rao, who has also been trained in Kathakali, which she believes is her major inspiration. “Kathakali has been my major inspiration — it is larger than life — an extraordinary way of looking at life and so is comedy,” explains Rao. Talking about her way of working, Rao shares, “I just get into a room and start working in front of the camera. After that, I improvise.”A taste of comedyRao believes that  comedy is like a drug --- once someone gets a taste of it, one always wants to keep doing it.  “I love doing comedy and making people laugh. It really is like a drug,” accepts Rao, adding, “But, comedy itself is a very difficult task. In order to make people laugh, one has to be very serious on stage.” Explaining about her genre of comedy, Rao categorises it as situational. “My comedy is situational. It is discussing something serious, but it makes people laugh about it,” she adds. Even though she performs a one-woman show, Rao says that her props and costumes are her co-stars. “My props and costumes are like my co-actors on stage who are always interacting with me,” says the artist.  Theatre in educationRao believes that theatre can play a very important role in education. “I want to impart theatre into our education system. Not for students to get into theatre but for them to be able to experience education better. Theatre can help fine-tune one’s mind --- It will make the students think and come up with ideas and solutions,” believes Rao. She believes that drama in a classroom can stimulate students’ creativity and intelligence to a great extent.