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Good Question!!

Posted by DCA Theater on March 13, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Rasaka Theatre

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.