The tour started on 7th of January and first we landed in New Delhi, Rajasthan, India. There we would perform on Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2008 festival, which was organized by National School of Drama in New Delhi.
National School of Drama, New Delhi
Festival-decorated entrance of the NSD facilities
Our venue for the performance was LTG Auditorium near the school, at the proximity of Connaught Place downtown New Delhi. LTG is smallish procenium stage with a history of past 60 years, which can be seen in the interior. People working there were charming and after some logistic difficulties all the necessary equipment was also provided.
On the quick glance everything looked all right, but on the closer inspection, you could see, that in India, there is some very original solutions for technical stuff. For example the dimmer below looks completely ordinary on the front side, but...
... when you have a look on the backside, you'll realise there is something, at least I've, never seen before. But, not to worry, everything worked all right. It's just amusing...
Also the ways of working differ somewhat from the western way, which is more familiar for me. Creating lights that are used for dramaturgical purposes, not just to lit up the necessitities, seem to be still rare. -I had the opportunity to enlighten one stagemanagement student at one point, about the mysteries of gobos. He had never seen the phenomena before and was totally overwhelmed over seeing "hundreds of little green rays of light". Practically, people also seem to work on stuff mostly crouching down, as these guys cutting filters for me -with a razor blade.
Nonetheless, the two performances we had there on 11th of January went smoothly and they were received very well. Indians seemed genuinely to like our style. And it was also something new for them to see. One spectator said to me that contemporay dance is still somewhat odd bird in India and some viewers might find the lack of dialogue bit disturbing, but they'll look at it with great interest anyway.
Detail of the ending of our performance in LTG.The time we stayed in New Delhi was mostly work for me, so I didn't have any chance to explore the city itself. But, then again, I've been there before, so it wasn't that big of a disappointment.
Next our journey continued to Mumbai in Maharashtra state, some 1400 kilometers south. There we were to perform at Satellite Festival, which is a smaller-scale kick-off of the Bharat Rang Mahotsav in New Delhi. Approximately one third of the performances seen in Delhi performed also on Satellite Festival. Our venue was Nehru Center in Worli district.
Nehru Center auditorium.
Nehru Center was much bigger stage and the institution private. Facitilies were much newer but somehow the capability less efficient. I had to face some serious problems in there, since I was told that in Mumbai you just cannot provide profiles etc, because they're not used in this city. Lots of gray hair on my head over just one performance on 14th of January. So, technically, our performance was cut down due to the fact that equipment just didn't exist in Mumbai. A hard bite to swallow for a perfectionist such as me. But, then again, it's not brain surgery, nobody will crook if it's not 100% correctly operated. I just have to learn to look at things more open minded. Good lesson learned here.
Focusing gobos in Nehru Center.
Detail of the performance in Nehru Center.
In Mumbai I managed to have some freetime also, but that was mostly because of the thight performance schedule of the festival. In other words, we had to wait to get in to the stage. So, we did some excursions in the city. Mumbai seems to be pittoresque place, and much greener and spacious than Delhi.
At the India Gate, one of the landmarks of Mumbai.
A near-by bazaar, where we did some serious haggling.
One of the emormous open-air laundries of Mumbai.
And then, below, one of the curiosities I encountered in Mumbai. This is the electrical contact box on my Hilltop-hotel room. It's probably the cutest one I've ever seen!
After Mumbai, finally, BANGKOK!!! It was instant feeling of unwinding after India. I just felt the pressure leaking out of my body, because I knew that things would work out just perfetly in Bangkok. I've been there before for a long time and I already knew the theater and the people working there. I was sort of coming home for me. There is so much more light in the city, it always seems so luminous and the sky is so high.
We were invited to perform at Bangkok Fringe Festival '08, organized by Patravadi Theatre. On the day of our arrival, the technical director of the theater, Jirach, had already done preliminary rigging for me. During the following night we did the focusing and programming, finishing the project around 4.30am. It was a long day and night, but then everything was ready for the showtime. Jirach is a person, who's got my unconditional respect, since he made it all so much easier. He is just so f*****ng professional, fast and seemed to understand exactly what I wanted to achieve. So, big thanks to him!
Rigging the sidelights, front american Em and behind him, Jirach.Detail of the performance at Patravadi Theatre, the very ending scene.
Wat Chana Songkhram temple in Khaosan.
Sanam Luang ( Royal Grounds) near the Royal Palace and lots of colorful kites.
A night-shot of Wat Phra Kaew, from across the Chao Phraya river from Siriraj side.Later I met my good friend Aleksi, who have been living in Bangkok for past five years. We went to have dinner with his family living in a big house on Rama III-road, a bit further out from downtown. We had some delicious Tom Yam Kung prepared by Add and some pork chops by Ilja. A genuine fusion kitchen at it's best!
Silom in evening traffic.
Family dinner with Aleksi (on the left), Add's daughters, Ilja (Aleksi's father, a good friend of mine also) and Add.
View over Phahon Yothin from Aleksi's 16th floor aparment. Quite cool. 
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