An Exciting Third Week at Chitra

Welcome back readers! This has been an exciting week for the cast and crew of “Chitra: The Girl Prince”. We had our first read!! Yayyy!! It was wonderful meeting all of the cast members. Such a talented group of people! We have an absolute powerhouse creative team. More on the backbone of our creative team in the coming weeks!

We have a diverse cast of talented actors, dancers and designers who are coming together to work on this production. Rehearsals have finally begun and it’s all beginning to take shape. Anita & Sarah Jane have put in 2 years worth of planning, and their hard work shows in how well this production is coming together in layers.

The cast was led through a pronunciation session to help with words that were new to them. In that context, everyone got a chance to share the multiple languages that they spoke. We have cast members fluent in Telugu, Spanish, Hindi, French, Bengali, Portuguese, Marathi, Mandarin, Malayalam, Korean, Kannada & Japanese! How cool is that? Truly a mini United Nations! Anita and Sarah Jane have talked to me about their journey that revolved around bringing together different cultures and they both certainly walk the talk. It is wonderful for me to be a part of this collaborative effort.

The cast also got to see some of the costumes that have been specially designed and sewn for this production. They are gorgeous! So vibrant and detailed! Anita & Sarah Jane have taken the collaboration idea seriously. Between the two of them, they coordinated the collaboration between two costume designers (one from India and one local to Portland) to create unique costumes for this production.

Several cast members tried on pants that were designed, sewn and shipped from India. The pants consist of 3 different parts (and each little part is incredibly detailed). The 3 parts are the pant, the seat, and a mini fan. The cast members were really excited to try them on. Mary Eggers, the Portland based costume designer, will use both local and Indian fabrics to design and sew the tops for the costumes. She will also design and create costumes for the entire cast with the goal of creating a complete and cohesive look. You will get to meet her and her incredible team of seamstresses in our future posts. The costumes definitely represent how two different worlds can come together - a true amalgamation of East and West. Keep an eye out for the costumes when you come to watch the show. They will totally blow your mind! Kudos to the entire costume team!

This show maybe about a Princess but this Princess Chitra is a strong and powerful girl who is the heir to the throne and has been raised as any Prince would have been raised - learning the law of the land, justice and the art of warfare. She wields a sword and shield and is a powerful fighter! Sarah Jane reached out to another award winning artist to choreograph the fights - Kristen Mun, Fight Choreographer extraordinaire! Kristen along with her assistant Alwynn Accuardi, led the cast through a series of moves and safety measures. This week, the first fight was choreographed and taught. A future blog post will introduce you to Kristen and how she brought together Western and Eastern fighting techniques and postures to the fights.

The dancers who are trained in the Indian Classical Dance style known as Bharatanatyam, learned 2 dance numbers in the traditional style. For those who are not familiar, Bharatanatyam is a 2000 year old dance form that originated in the temples of India. Anita whose background is rooted in this style of dance, choreographed and taught this dance to a few of the cast members. This style incorporates hand gestures (hastas) and intricate footwork. Like any other classical style of dance (ballet for instance) - takes years and years of training to attain expertise in this style.

As if that was not enough, the cast also learned all of the blocking for the entire show. Now you must be wondering what that means? In the theater world - this means that the director tells the actors where they should move and stand during each scene ensuring proper dramatic effect. The cast also had a lot of fun learning the choreography of the Big Bollywood Grand Finale number! I’m sure you all will truly enjoy this toe-tapping number when you come to watch the show….

Whew! I think a lot was accomplished this last week. The various parts of the production are finally coming together. Stay tuned for more updates. Till then, wishing you all a Very Happy Holidays!