Adding two shows in SF - Intersection for the arts

We will be performing in San Francisco as well!!! For about a month and a half we went through a whole bunch of spaces and performance venues in SF. Fall season is a busy one in the popular SF. This did not make things easy for us. The fundamental difference between a show in SF and the ones we put up in Palo Alto is of the space itself. While we enjoy the wide procenium , wing space, dressing rooms in our favorite Cubberley, in SF our choices for such grandeur are limited. Black box in their nature, most spaces in SF are about 1/4 of the Cubberley stage. Often this means, no stage, seating under 100 , limited lobby space, at most one dressing room, etc. These can be viewed as limitations if we choose to replicate what we do at Cubberley however, it is an opportunity to try something new, to view adjustments as artistic choices and adapt the show for an audience in an intimate setting.

We found NOH Space last year and that suited well to our needs. Even without a stage and less than 100 seats in the audience, we were able to make adjustments and they were able to accomodate us. It was working out perfectly for us till we found out ... that alas, they are not available for a show this November. This began a series of emails, phone calls, visits to the great city to find out where, when and which space will work for us. This is not an easy task. Renting a theater requires apart from a couple of grand, looking at dimensions, audience seating, lightboard plans, soundboard plans, working with the schedules of the people who are incharge and negotiating and negotiating and some more before you decide to put a deposit down. Reading the contract repeatedly to look for conditions, one place doesn't allow us to sell the tickets, they would like to sell the tickets through their box office or site, another doesn't allow any food or drink in the lobby, one charges extra for sound engineer to explain sound board and the list goes on. Take this process and multiply this by 6 or 7 and you get the idea of how much effort and time was spent so that this show could be enjoyed by the SF crowd.

Why SF? Although this is a no-brainer for many since SF is the hub for all things artistic, innovative, creative... for Naatak it is refreshing. We mainly perform in the south bay but every now and then a director or producer will feel it is worth doing the hardwork of hauling our set pieces and all our paraphernalia to the city and give the SF crowd the experience of Indian theater.

I believe for this production we felt especially drawn to presenting in SF. The main reason, I believe would be that Satyajit Ray's artistic presence transcends the Indian diaspora (our audiences mainly in south bay is indian and more diverse in SF) and the artistic atmosphere in SF is inviting for us to share our adaptation. We will be performing two shows on Nov 15 (2pm and 6pm) at the Intersection, and we cannot wait!