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Rasaka playwrights

Posted by DCA Theater on March 27, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Rasaka Theatre

by Will Dunne, Playwrighting Instructor

It is a pleasure to work with this talented group of Rasaka playwrights and actors and watch ten new short plays evolve from a weekend of dramatic writing exercises, actor readings, and group discussions. We met first in August to find the plays and again in early March to refine them.

When we began the August weekend intensive, I was informed by the group that this would be the first South Asian American playwriting workshop ever. Ever? Wow! That added history and excitement—and responsibility—to the creative work that then began as ten enthusiastic playwrights each explored their personal material in relationship to universal themes and dramatic form.

As a result, some powerful dramatic voices that have begun to emerge and tell stories that not often seen on American stages. For me, the plays open the door to a cultural perspective that is in many ways as new as it is rich—- and yet in their uniqueness, insight, and humor the plays also feel familiar and true.

It is wonderful that these new scripts will now make their way to where they belong—in the hands of actors on a stage in front of a general audience. Hopefully, this event will be not the culmination of the Rasaka company’s playwriting efforts but only its beginning. Bravo!