EKALAVYA
Cast: 3
Language: English
Genre: 10 min play, drama, mythology
Based on a story from the great Indian epic Mahabharata, this 10 minute play depicts the tale of Ekalavya. Ekalavya, a tribal (Nishaad) hunter developed his archery skills in front of an idol of the great Kuru weapons teacher Dronacharya. Witnessing the tribal boy’s skills with the bow and arrow, Dronacharya realizes Ekalavya is a direct threat to Arjuna, whom he promised to make the greatest archer in the world. To appease Arjuna and the Kuru dynasty, Drona asks for an ultimate gift from Ekalavya as his fees, knowing well the gift would take away Ekalvya’s archery skills forever.
The Protector
Cast: 5
Language: English
Genre: Drama
What does it take to be a parent? When do a parent’s rights and responsibilities begin, and when does it end? Is parenting only a biological consequence, or does it mean something more? An eighteen-month-old child is removed from his parents by the Child Protective Services (CPS) in suspicion of child abuse and neglect. The parents claim, that the child’s injury was caused by a minor fall, contradicts the medical diagnosis. The couple seeks help from their friends in their time of distress. The friends extend their helping hand to get back the child from CPS custody, but was this the help the parents were looking for?
The Last Flames
Cast: 3
Basanta Koomar Roy, an expatriate journalist from India, has been credited by Tagore researchers as a key person (besides W. B Yeats and Ezra Pound) responsible for popularizing Rabindranath Tagore in USA. But Roy fell from his idol’s grace for reasons that torment many a biographer and journalist even today. “The Last Flames” attempts to re-examine the relationship between Roy and Tagore through a fictional encounter and gives us a peek at the human side of the great Poet’s personality. Samar, a young trainee journalist, comes to interview Basanta Koomar Roy at his apartment in New York city, sometime in 1948. Basanta is excited to share his experience as an Indian nationalist freedom fighter in USA. But Samar tells him that he is interested in knowing about his experience with Rabindranath Tagore, since he was the first to write Tagore’s biography in English for the American people. Basanta refuses to talk about his Gurudev until Samar uses his ultimate weapon that opens the flood gates of memories and emotions of this old admirer of Tagore. The following obituary of Basanta Koomar Roy was published in The New York Times on June 8, 1949: Basanta Koomar Roy, Indian author and free-lance journalist, who had lived in this country for many years, died on Sunday in St. Luke’s Hospital after a brief illness. His home was at 116 West Eightieth Sreet. Born in Orissa Province, India, and a member of the Brahmin caste, Mr. Roy came to the United States around 1910 and studied at the University of Wisconsin, from which he was graduated and where he was later an extension lecturer. He was instrumental in arranging a lecture at the university in 1916 by the great Indian poet, the late Rabindranath Tagore. Mr. Roy was long a writer and speaker for Indian freedom and has been active in the Friends of Freedom for India. He was the author of a biography of Mr. Tagore and of “Dawn over India”, a book telling of the Indian underground movement against British rule.
The Redemption
Cast: 4
Genre: drama, political
This play is about Subimal who, once an active Naxalite, had to flee his own country and come to America in search of a new life. Although Subimal did find a new life for himself, his past always haunted him, a past which he had always kept a deep secret. Suddenly, one day this secret starts to reveal itself to his son Somu from a long lost diary. Somu, a Harvard junior, is extremely curious to know the details of his father’s past, wants to know more about the Naxalite movement. But he never could have guessed the kind of murky and deep waters he is getting into. Subimal tried to prevent the inevitable, but his failure to do so ultimately leads him to his redemption.
Taconic Parkway
Cast: 3 ·
Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
Manasij, a veteran Indian screen actor is visiting USA with a theater group to stage some shows in multiple cities. During his first stop in New York, he is hosted by Deepak and Sharika at their multi-million dollar mansion in upstate New York. The enthusiastic host, Deepak, expresses his desire to make a film with Manasij as the hero and their daughter Pom as the heroine. But Sharika objects to this proposal vehemently. She would never let Pom take part in this dream project of Deepak. Manasij tries to mediate, but soon realizes that he is being pulled into a dark vortex of suspicion and animosity that was carefully camouflaged by the opulence and the veneer of apparent happiness of an affluent immigrant Indian family.
Ron
Cast: 8 ·
Genre: drama, political
An original play set in the backdrop of the war in Iraq, “Ron” examines from a unique perspective the conflicts and tribulations of immigrant families as they try to assimilate into the ways of American life. Ron (Ronobir) Mitra, son of a Bengali immigrant family, is a member of the US Army National Guard and is currently deployed in Iraq. Ron’s parents, Animesh and Shanti, although not happy with Ron’s decision to join the US Army, respected Ron’s wishes to serve his nation. However, Ron’s deployment to active duty in Iraq has been a constant source of tension and anxiety. On the day of the play, at a small get together at Animesh’s place, Surojit Biswas, a writer and journalist from Calcutta India, challenges Animesh and his guests about their loyalty, their beliefs and their fundamental moral values. The party rapidly goes into a tailspin with each character exposing their secret wars that they have been fighting all along.