DFWPlay
We are drama & musical enthusiasts (primarily in Bengali) in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
4th Bengali Drama Festival in North Texas
Experience original plays from San Francisco, Washington DC and Dallas
July 8th, 2023 | 2:15 PM
DFW Play is proud to host the 4th edition of the Bengali theatre festival in the DFW Metroplex – Fest O’ Theatre 2023. We are happy to bring an exciting lineup of plays from several US cities to join our own team of thespians and performers. Enjoy a day of theatrics with a modern-day comedy, a Tagore dance drama, an improbable farce, and an intriguing youth play.
আসল কথা হলো (Asol Kotha Holo)
Our inner self is always talkative, whispering our deepest thoughts and desires that we desperately try to keep wrapped behind our external facade. We present ourselves as this cultured, nuanced, and dignified social self; but our alter ego keeps screaming and whining in our minds constantly. So what happens if you could suddenly see and hear the alter ego on stage?
Not just one, but two alter egos and their real-world selves! A meeting between two close “friends” from college brings two women to a sweet reunion. But we also get to see their raw unfiltered alter egos, commenting about their dresses, admitting to their own mistakes, and bickering loudly about old wounds and ex-flames.
Come and join the Bay Area Amateur Thespians (BAAT) as we stage a hilarious modern-day Bengali adaptation of Alice Gerstenberg’s “Overtones” (1916). It is adapted, translated, and directed by Sudipta Chatterjee, and features some of the best talent of the San Francisco Bay Area on stage.
Translated, Adapted & Directed by: Sudipta Chatterjee
Cast: Tiya Mukherjee, Mohua Dey, Anurupa Chakraborty, Shinjini Gupta
বেপরোয়া (Beporowa)
Beporowa is a farcical play set at the house of writer Chandan and his wife Rupa. Chandan is desperately looking for a suitable theme for his next publication. Hitting a writer’s block, Chandan invites local eccentric Pakrashi who holds a meeting with the dead through a medium. Pakrashi unwittingly brings back Chandan’s dead wife Olivia. What follows is utter chaos, with both wives trying to take possession of Chandan.
Playwright: Ujjwal Chattopadhyay (based on original script Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward)
Director: Dibyendu Paul
Producer: Mita Paul
Cast – Arindam Ghosh, Subarna Chatterjee Thakur, Shampa Basu, Nandini Sen
চণ্ডালিকা (The Untouchable Girl)
DFW Play will present the regional premiere of Chandalika (The Untouchable Girl), a masterpiece written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Disgruntled by casteism and the system of marginalizing people based on their caste, Tagore’s ‘Chandalika’, written in Bengali, was meant to be a deliberate jab at the social ill. DFW Play will present a modernized rendition of the dance drama that explores the angst inflicted by social discrimination and women’s lack of identity.
The main protagonist of this play is Prakriti (which means Nature in English), a girl born of the lowly Chandals, an impervious, untouchable community. The upper echelons of society have set disparaging rules for them. Her life as a woman is full of rejection and ridicule. She blames her mother for bringing her into the world.
Prakriti questions her existence until one day she meets Ananda (a disciple of Buddha who is not fictional), who asks for water to quench his thirst. First, she refuses as she knows she cannot give water as a low-caste chandal to a high-class monk. But Ananda made her realize she is a normal human being and is entitled to enjoy every aspect of life the way she wishes to.
Basking in her newfound independence, her deep sense of self now imbues stirrings of desire in her for Ananda. But the staunchly celibate monk that he is, Ananda disregards Prakriti’s intentions with unimpassioned ignorance. Slighted, Prakriti feels crestfallen and beseeches her mother, Maya, to resort to black magic and overpower the monk’s strong will. Her egoistic pride overwhelms her mind and she demands that Ananda shirk his sense of renunciation and covet her instead.
The events that follow lead to a riveting storyline, taut with mysticism, conflict and spirituality. The nuanced story sculpts Prakriti as an embodiment of human nature, and in a greater form, Mother Nature. Just as Mother Nature is calm and comforting in one form, but can swiftly assume an aggressive undertone if she is miffed, Prakriti breaks through all restraints to avenge her purported humiliation.
Will her mother cast the fiercest spell to bring the monk to Prakriti? What will be the price for untamed desire, born out of repression? Will deeply conflicted Prakriti realize her own error through the journey?
To Be Announced Soon
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