Thank you for following Chitra!

Hello Readers,

Over the past 16 weeks you had a sneak peek into the incredible journey of “Chitra” through our blogs. You saw Chitra blossom, grow and groom into this beautiful and well-crafted production. It has been embraced by positive reviews by both audience and critic alike. In fact, due to the immense popularity additional shows were added!!

Over the years NWCT has brought forward some wonderful productions, but with “Chitra” they have truly outdone themselves. What makes this production so spectacular? Let’s find out.

Willem Dafoe a legendary Hollywood actor and a member of the experimental theater company the Wooster Group once mentioned;

“Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.”

“Chitra” is a unique story that crossed boundaries of time and region and has placed itself to be the main protagonist of the production. It gave our audience a world they should aspire to be in. Chitra may be an age-old story, but this story confronts many issues that we grapple with today; gender roles, duty to family and to the country and the never-ending road to self-discovery. In a world where gender inequality and gender roles are not uncommon this story breaks these norms tells the story of a warrior princess who stands up in defiance to societal norms and gender stereotypes. Chitra encourages each and every girl to follow their dreams and be true to who they are, without having to choose between one’s duties and desires.

Chitra also offered our audience an opportunity to know and understand the cultures of a distant land. This production successfully accentuated the modern multicultural milieu. In-fact, in one of the “Meet and Greet” sessions, a little boy asked Sudipta about the significance of “Bindi” on the forehead.

But how did this wonderful story cross boundaries of time and region and be played on NWCT’s stage?

This was possible thanks to the hardworking team behind this production. This production is a result of two-year collaboration of various theater personalities around the globe. Firstly, our visionary directors Sarah Jane and Anita Menon who came up with the idea of bringing together an age old yet very relevant Indian story and put it in context to our global audience. Chitra is an exuberant amalgamation of the East and the West that introduces this layered tale in an exciting and child-friendly manner. Our playwright Avantika Shankar adapted the story to fit our young audience. Hailing from India and having attended school in America, Avantika drew inspiration from both eastern and western theater alike to have this young brave princess relatable to our young audience.

When asked the audience what makes Chitra so lovable, the quick reply was its brilliant direction by two of the most talented directors in children’s theater and its wonderful choreography. The hybrid style of dance portrayed by the actors was influenced both by the traditional forms of dance and western physical theater. As already mentioned in blogs before Chitra features five different conventional dance forms (Bharatanatyam, Chhau, Rabindranirtya, Dandiya and our favorite Bollywood) which has been interestingly choreographed with other fight choreography styles such as Aikido, Chhau, Japanese bo staff, Irish spear, French and Italian sword play, and a variety of MMA techniques making it the first of its kind in children’s theater.

Irrespective of how well the production was directed and choreographed it would not have looked brilliant had it not been the scintillating performances by our very talented actors and dancers from Portland theater and cultural scene. It is for the stupendous performance by these actors that Chitra and all its characters have been bestowed with so much love. Each and every actor brought in something more to the role than what was on script. Whether it was Alisha portraying the feisty yet beautiful “Chitra” or Ken the brave and handsome prince “Arjun”. Even our wonderful story-tellers “Madan” and “Vasant” portrayed Heath and Sudipta was highly appreciated. One of our younger audience did mention that he particularly enjoyed the comic timing between “Madan” and “Vasant”. The dialogues were well written and were witty and playful providing a good comic relief in the flow of the story.

We took an account of the audience response and review from our cast member, Sudipta (who played Vasant, the Goddess of Spring). Here’s what she had to say:

“It was both exhilarating and heartwarming to observe the audience response each day. Extremely upbeat and enthusiastic on School Show days to attentive and interactive at Public Shows.

We had included a “Talk Back” session at the end of each school show and it was interesting how the students were observing keenly and asked various questions, which indicated that our purpose behind bringing forth a tale as such was not in vain. They enquired about the story, it cultural background, heritage, the make and finish of the weapons used, the time taken to work on the extremely intricate dance routines and more often than not, costumes!! One little school kid asked our lead, Alisha Menon (Chitra), if she was a real princess!

At the end of each public show, there were “Meet & Greet” sessions held at the lobby. This was the high point of my week every time! Kids and families crowded around you, words of appreciation, an autograph or photograph, and so many joyous smiles. They had a good time and enjoyed the event as a family was what most of the guests had to say…and then there were some reviews which made me well up a little; a few of the families who have been a regular patron to NWCT came up to me and told me that this was the best play they have ever watched here! Parents shared how relieved they felt that such work was being in the community ensuring that their children will learn about the cultures far off from their own and build an understanding for it. My joy knew no bounds!

One of our audiences, a member of the Portland Bengali community ‘Prabashi’, mentioned that she wouldn’t believe that a story she grew up with could be told in a magnanimous way, to children who had never heard of it before and be entertaining enough to hold their attention for a span of 90 minutes, had she not seen it herself! Yet another veteran from the community mentioned that it warmed her heart to see Tagore being celebrated in the corridors of an American Main Stage theater.

Although, one particular show that stayed with me the most is the Sensory Friendly show on March 18th at 4pm. This was a specially designed show to cater to kids who are ‘differently abeled’ and need sensory rearrangements to ensure an environment comfortable for them. Little known fact, NWCT is one of the very few children’s theaters in the entire country working towards making this happen. During this show, the house lights were left turned on, the stage light changes were minimal to not excite the visual senses, the sounds were turned down, and the microphones were practically switched off to ease their audible experience. John Ellingson, our stage/creative designer ran the audience through the high points of the show so as to not take them by surprise when it actually does happen. For some of these families, this is probably the only event that they can attend together without a worry of their child responses and how it shall be perceived.

Of all the reviews I received throughout the run of Chitra, the ones I got on this day are the dearest to me. There were very few words, so I actually do not have lines that I can share. But the warm smiles, the hugs, the excitement, the kiss!! And a plethora of emotions…so fulfilling that it’s hard to contain.

I shall end my account of audience reactions and reviews on this high note. I shall forever be thankful to NWCT, Sarah Jane and Anita Menon, for giving me one of the most humbling days of my life.”

Thank you Sudipta! It was wonderful to hear the heart warming audience response received from someone directly involved in the cast, wasn’t it!! To sum it all up Chitra was a wonderful journey that not only entertained audience of all ages but gave them all a food of thought. It made us our audience smile and connects with the characters. It enlightened the audience about other cultures and the about power of will and determination of young adults.

Thank you each and every one for all your love, support, and encouragement and for an opportunity to be a part of this memorable journey!