Ray Rediscovered

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From the Director's desk: An ode to the crew

While I get to know my cast better, let me present an ode to my crew. When I embarked on this journey I knew that without a good production crew everything fades away: good scripts, talented actors and intuitive direction. Needless to say I was worried sick about this aspect. Well, fact is, I shouldn't have.

I have been gifted with the best crew there ever can be. They just fell into my lap. I wonder if they are going to make me pay later because it just seemed too easy to have this wonderful, talented, smart people working for my production.

Some of them, I have had the opportunity of working with in Naatak's past productions and some of them I have heard of from before andthe rest it was my first time meeting them. I haven't met them all to write as of now, that will be updated later. But for those whom I do know, I would like to say a couple of lines about each of them personally, to let you know why each one of them will take the Ray production up another notch.

Juhi (Producer): When Sumit, Shubhhra and I started talking about a Ray production, initially nothing was clear - not even the director - except for one thing. We all knew we wanted Juhi to be the producer. The unanimous decision happened because this is one women who will slave it through and deliver. She has been involved in most if not all of Naatak's production in the past four years. It was time she got her dues with the title of Producer. I had have the pleasure of working with her in past Naatak productions. She is ever willing, forever cheerful and does not know how to say "NO". As producer she is learning :)

Shubhra (Publicity Manager): If you have a deadline and you are working for her and you haven't finished it yet, pack your bags, book a flight and leave the city, or move to hell or Erebus. But there is still no guarantee that she wont track you down and ask for an update. This is a powerhouse of energy and talent. Though I am disappointed that she is not acting in my production, she more than makes up for it in other ways. Aggressive in her ways and apologetic by heart.

Gopi (Stage Manager): I have worked with Gopi in my first production with Naatak, Jaanch Partaal. And then I used to run into him at various clubs after a couple of drinks (hic!). While I tried to recollect in that drunken haze, what would come to mind first is "that nice guy". That is the reason I think his gmail alias should be changed from "thatguyinsf" to "thatniceguyinsf". If only I had a younger unmarried sister as my gift to him. Gopi belongs backstage as much as SRK belongs on screen. No director/producer should have the courage to contemplate a production without Gopi in the team. That would be sheer foolishness.

Siva (Sets Manager): I don't know him much but he warmed up my heart through his Arnold Schwarzenegger-ish performance of "Chori-Chori". He continues to do so by posting status messages like "It's Belvedere time". Now which director wouldn't warm up to that? Eh? I liken him to someone who is very intuitive, a good team-player and girls, I hear he is very good with the errr...ummm...black and decker tools :)

Manjusha (Props Manager): When I met this woman, she reeked of smartness. In Tamil we would call this "choddi". Where is that unmarried brother of mine? She hits every production point on the head. Keen, enthusiastic and brilliant in production aspects, she is the up and coming star of Naatak's production team. I understand her as a person who is very objective, not given to frills and fancies and who will get the work done, ahead of time, with high quality.

Lakshmi (Designer): A must before any production goes on stage. She is the person who starts the revenues. Her designs are impeccable, intuitive and apt for every Naatak production. She works with every director, all their quirks and delivers their vision without them having communicated it to her. If she were God, I would ask her to redesign me. A dear friend and also in the cast this time showcasing her acting prowess.

Snigdha (Costumes Designers): Though I don't know her much, she looks great, dresses well and apparently comes up with great costumes. What more do you need in a costume designer? I am pretty sure she had read my scripts twice over before any of the cast did. She reads the scripts, gets the context, works with the director and then executes it. Very methodical. I likes!

More updates on other crew members will appear in part 2.

Cast - you will be suitably rewarded with an ode too. I am not sure if it will as nice but it definitely be much funnier :)

From the Director's desk: Ganapati Bappa Moriya!

Postcards were delivered to my house yesterday by my very ebullient publicity manager, Shubhra Prakash. The time from when the images were delivered to her to the time of delivery was less than 72 hours. WoW! Talk about efficiency.



I am not an overtly religious person. But I do believe in "prabhu ka naam leke". So I delivered the first postcard and invited our "kulla daivam" Ganapati Bappa first.

Postcards Yippie (Click on images to see in better resolution)



This is a print screen shot so prolly not the best quality .....

Ray: Uber-Cuca

Welcome to the RayRediscovered huddle of the Director, Producer and crew. I would like to call it the Session "Zero"...since this is the first we all have met to read and discuss the plays.

Following the play reading and brainstorming session, we have an idea of the sets and props required. But as always ideas are amenable to change based on various factors like cost, feasibility, mobility etc. In short, without going too much into the details, we have different sets for the different plays being staged.

Meet the fun crew:
Director            : Kamala Subramaniam
Producer/
Production Manager : Juhi Mohan
Publicity Manager : Shubhra Prakash
Ticketing Logistics : Ashok Malani
Costumes Designer : Snigdha Jain
Stage Manager : Gopi Rangan
Sets : Siva Kollipara
Props : Manjusha Gangadharan
Sounds : Shekhar Hemnani
Lights : Srikar Srinath
I've probably missed others..

Well, those are just the titles. We contribute across domains and encourage suggestions/feedback as well.

How are we doing thus far? Well, we had our storage run.. we had our design run.. now we plan to layout our sets design in paper and figure out how to do the sets with minimal scene transition times. Shoot us an email if you are interested in building sets or procuring props.
Screws: 3$, Wood: 7$, Paint: 14$,
Gratification from a production: priceless
For some hobbies in life there is money..
For others there is Naatak
Lights! Action! Camera! Rolling!

From the Director's desk: The Talented Ray Cast

  • NEHA GOYAL JAIN
  • R.S. SATTANATHAN
  • PALAK JOSHI
  • TEJAS MANJUNATH
  • BIS KANUNGO
  • OMAR SEHGAL
  • HARISH AGASTYA
  • GAURAV MISRA
  • RANJITA CHAKRAVARTY
  • LAKSHMI JAYARAM

Storage Run

As a non-profit theater group we practice and are dependent on reusing our production materials. Therefore, with the beginning of a new show there is an inevitable trip to our storage, where we look for everything we already have before we are out on a hunt for more. We often go with an idea of what we are looking for, however, often we run across items that give us new ideas.

This visit was especially exciting for me, since I was informed that a committed bunch of members from Naatak's previous show had generously provided their time to arranging and organizing our ever cluttered storage. It was great to find items neatly placed in boxes and set pieces organized. From past experiences, I can say that such organization made a world of a difference and we were able to go through everything in a timely manner.

Here's a sneak peek into the storage fun :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/prakashnitza/RayRediscovered?authkey=Gv1sRgCMSahdbO8JimhAE#