Harder than I thought…

by Anita Chandwaney, Dir. New Playwright Development; Playwright, Director, Actor in Rasaka’s Page to Stage

Okay, 10 minutes shouldn’t be so hard, should it? 
The actors and director and asking good questions.  They’re forcing me to look closer at my premise and to think about what exactly I want to say with the piece.

I never realized how tough it was to write a 10 minute play.  To make it an entertaining and meaningful canvas for interesting, complex characters who are engaged in a conflict.  I feel like my play makes no sense, says nothing and is gimmicky with no real purpose.  Is this supposed to be part of the process?  I have less than 2 weeks to make something of this play...Yikes!

Midnite’s Vultures

by Pushkar Sharma, playwright

“I’ve been refining the recipe of my play “Midnite’s Vultures,” but I can’t seem to get the flavor quite right.  The play gets it’s name from Rushdie’s epic-- the South Asian cultural landmark, Midnight’s Children, and Beck’s frenetically-free album Midnite Vultures.  I’ve chanelled both of those artists in the play which is about two twenty-something poets paying tribute to their American-Indian predecessors and trying to come to terms with the fact that they’re living on land taken forcefully from American-Indians by settlers.  The two characters-- two South Asians named Nicotine and Gravy, explore their relationship with American-Indians at the ruins of the American-Indian city of Cahokia (just outside of St. Louis, MO).

I consider Rushdie ("I am mysteriously handcuffed to history") and Beck ("I’ll feed you fruit that don’t exist/ I’ll leave you feeling where you’ve never been kissed") master poets with compelling, thought-provoking voices.  In this short play I’ve tried to harness their voices to serve my characters and further complicated things by infusing the voice of American-Indian spiritual leader, Black Elk of the Oglala Sioux.

So now I’ve planned the feast but now I’m struggling to find the right flavors.  I’ve sliced and diced these 3 distinct voices and tossed them into a blender, further flavor it with my own cheeky, pop-savvy dialogue/poetry.  But now I’m not sure where to draw the line. When is the Beck too overpowering?  How can I accentuate the Rushdie without trampling the taste of Black Elk’s words?  And when is my own language too greasy and going to leave the audience feeling bloated and uneasy?  Hopefully I’ll find the answers to some of these questions soon.

I’ve only got two days left to get the recipe right.”

March 12 more

by Reeta Hoskote, playwright

On Saturday I got home late and did forget to change the clocks before going to bed. We were springing 1 hour ahead here in Chicago. Around 10:45am my daughter reminded me that we had to change the time. Of course I jumped, got ready and reached late for our play reading reviews. I thought I was being quiet inentering the studio theatre where the reviews were in progress, and I heard this warm friendly, “Hi Reeta”, from Will Dunne. I lost some of the guilt i was experiencing for not getting there early, and returned his greeting, “Hi Will”, in a normal tone.
It had been six months since most of the same people in that room had come together. Some of us, had for the first time come up with a 10 minute short play thanks to Will’s coaching, and the Kiran Bavikatte foundation. Now here we were almost all of us back and listening to our final reviews. Missed Pushkar who is in Boston, and called in from there. How cool is this our plays are being rehersed and we just have a few short days to revise anything we wish to, after the final review last Sunday.

March 12

by Devi Bhaduri, playwright

Seeing our plays evolve together in workshop...so different from sitting at a desk, alone with your own words.  We have such different stories to tell.  Plus, my fellow Rasakans give much more useful feedback than my houseplants ever did!

Good Question!!

by Anita Chandwaney, Dir. New Playwright Development; Playwright, Director, Actor in Rasaka’s Page to Stage

We brought in Will Dunne (award winning playwright, author etc) to facilitate a critique session on the 10 new plays.  I’m not sure how he does this, but he is able to see the forest thru the trees - in each and every play!

For my play, ‘Instant Recall’ Will’s comments were to clarify what motivates Madhu’s strategies and why her ‘instant recall’ of details?  I think it’s that she wants to die (she is dying of something, perhaps cancer), with good memories.  Will also commented that Nigel needed more strategies than to just be obsessed with his cellphone.  He asked why does Nigel soften?  Good question. 

I’ve been doing some rewrites and have taken out the chemotherapy lines.  That took the play to a VERY serious place that was hard to get out of.  It’s always a challenge to determine how much detail to put in so the audience can follow along and buy into the reality, and when it becomes too much. 

I need to chart out what exactly happened on the cruise ship (you’ll have to come to the 3/30 staged reading to see what that’s about!).  What exactly was Nigel and Madhu’s experience that prompts Madhu to swipe Nigel’s cellphone.  Why is she so desperate to re-connect with him?

I emailed my latest draft to my director, Sonny Das.  He’s also one of the writers so I don’t know if he’ll have time to send me feedback but I asked if he’d email it to the actors so if they have comments now or after their rehearsal on the 15th I can still make changes before the “hard freeze” script deadline that we’ve established for the writers.