From the Director's desk: Auditions!

Auditions were held on August 22nd at 2pm. What a day it ended up being. Due to the overwhelming number of RSVP's especially the day before, we ended up having 67 people show up for the audition. This is probably the most in numbers for any Naatak production. I am happy that we have so many fans of Satyajit Ray and his stories out there.

What surprised me was the count of women. An astonishing number of women showed up and with them they bought truckloads of talent. This only goes to show that there are a lot of women out there who are good and Naatak needs to have more plays with women protagonists.

We were entertained with monologues until almost 6 pm. After which we shortlisted. It was sad to see some of them go, though they were talented, just because they didn't fit the role with respect to age. And what a fight the short-listed candidates put up. It just made casting so much more difficult for me. At 9 pm we called it quits.

As I gathered my bags, my papers and got into my car to go home and finally see my family for the day, my thoughts lingered on all the people who came. It requires a level of dedication, motivation, time, effort and courage to come and audition. For that I applaud them.