Title: Esther Okinuwe

General Information:

• Pre-Performance Ritual – American
• Esther Okinuwe
• Student, Nigerian
• English
• Massachussetts
• May 14, 2019

 

Text:

This pre-performance ritual is a chant in which the theatre group would first get in a circle. One person, usually a senior member of the group, would lead a chant by first stating a phrase of incoherent words that are not English. The words change during each chant, but they would be weird short phrases such as “Tiki Tiki Tamba.” The person leading the chant first states these words very quietly and the group repeats the phrase back. This back and forth chanting of the phrase gets louder and louder during each successive repetition of the phrase. The final time the chant is stated, it is yelled very loud by the leader and everyone repeats the phrase screaming. Often, the chant is accompanied by expressive movements such as large steps or the throwing up of one’s hands.

 

Context:

 

The theatre group that Esther was a part of was the cast of the play “Eclipse.” This performance took place during the spring of 2018, and Esther performed the ritual with this group for that time period; however, she notes that she has been a part of several different theatre groups and almost all of them have had this same pre-performance ritual. She explains that this is a ritual that most “theatre geeks” do.

 

Esther states that the chant is performed approximately thirty minutes before a performance and the cast members have to get in their places on stage. The cheer is usually only performed when there is a large crowd. According to Esther, there is no need for the chant if the crowd is small.

 

The specific words of the cheer do not matter according to Esther. They have to be incoherent and not English, but they can change from one performance of the cheer to the next. As long as the phrases get one’s mouth moving and promote expressiveness, any phrase works for the ritual to be effective. The tone of the cheer, however, is critical to the performance. The leader must have an excited tone and must increase the loudness of their voice during each successive chanting of the phrase. The other members of the group must mimic this excited tone and successive loudness in order for the chant to build in emotion.

 

Meaning and Interpretation:

 

According to Esther, the chant was designed in a way to mean nothing to the people performing it. If one is doing something before the performance, their mind will be clouded so it is important for the words to be incoherent because this allows each performer not to be thinking about anything. Instead, the chant is intended to get one’s blood flowing and one’s tongue and mouth moving. Esther says that she likes that the chant has no meaning because it is helpful to getting her prepared for the show. She found the chant a lot of fun, and it helped her get pumped for the show. By engaging in a fun chant, she was less worried about performing and more focused on simply having fun.

 

When asked to compare this chant to a pre-performance ritual she has experienced in Nigeria, Esther cannot think of one that applies to her personally. However, she notes that her dad is in an African drumming group, and this group usually has a pre-performance ritual directly before a show that reminds her of the one she performs in theatre. During this ritual, her dad’s drumming group has what is called a “drum out” in which every drummer simultaneously creates random beats on their drum. She notes that this is always followed by a prayer. Esther points out that there is a lot of leeway in pre-performance drumming rituals because drumming, particularly African drumming, is very “ebby and flowy” opposed to very rigid. Esther thinks that this flowiness aspect of the ritual was intended to get creative minds flowing so that even if the drummers had a set that they were going to do that was set in stone, they were still reminded that there is creative leeway in the performance of the set. The importance of this ritual, in her opinion, mirrors that of her ritual in theatre in that both rituals are intended to get one “in the zone.” All individuals in the group in both circumstances are supposed to use the ritual as a means of finding expression and creativity, characteristics that are critical for a successful theatrical or drumming performance.

 

Meaning and Interpretation (Collector):

 

The pre-performance chant performed by Esther’s theatre group seems to place a major focus on being expressive whether this be through building in the loudness of one’s voice or through expressive body movements during the chant. I think the importance of this expression is to get one excited to perform opposed to making one nervous. Since theatre groups in particular rely heavily on individual performance among members in the group in order to have a successful performance overall, it is critical that the cheer make one less nervous and more pumped to perform. Additionally, I think the use of incoherent words is important because it contributes towards the excitement of the chant, further promoting excitement over nerves. A phrase such as “Tiki Tiki Tamba” opposed to “Let’s do this” (or something of the like) puts less pressure on the group members to perform and makes the chant more entertaining and creative. While Esther focused more on the cheer’s benefit for individuals before a performance, I also think that the cheer intends to promote unity amongst its group members. By having the group as a whole repeat back the phrase to the leader, the members of the group share a collective voice and perform their part in the chant together. This promotion of unity is important for the theatre performance to go successfully:  the actors must interact with each other on stage and they must work together. Therefore, the group chant before the performance helps to facilitate this teamwork.

 

Regarding Esther’s dad’s drumming group, I believe there are similarities to his pre-performance ritual and her theatre pre-performance ritual in the way they promote clarity of mind and get one’s body moving. The drumming pre-performance ritual promotes clarity of mind through the prayer while the theatre ritual does so through the meaninglessness of the incoherent words chanted. Similarly, the idea of expressiveness or moving one’s body is apparent in the drumming ritual through the random creation of beats while this occurs in Esther’s theatre ritual through large steps, throwing up one’s hands, and yelling. I think that this shows that despite the type of artistic performance, having a clear mind and the promotion of creativity and expression are critical in preparing one for a performance.

 

In Esther’s pre-performance ritual, there is homeopathic magic associated with gathering in a circle as a circle represents group unity. This unity amongst members of the group is important for the success of the theatre performance and should continue on the stage even when the circle is broken. Additionally, there is homeopathic associated with the saying of incoherent words. Just like the jumbled words represent nothingness, the actors’ minds are supposed to be thinking of nothing right before the show. In addition, contagious magic is shown in Esther’s dad’s drumming out before a performance. During the random creation of beats in the drumming ritual, the drum sticks move about loosely in the drummers’ hands. Through contact with the drummers’ hands, this same looseness is supposed to be reflected through the drummers in the performance.

Collector’s Name: Tori Dozier

Tags/Keywords:

• Pre-performance rituals
• Theatre
• Arts
• Chant