Gaston Hall was charged on Saturday night with a level of energy and pride one seldom experiences at theatrical events on campus. The first annual Dramabad Zindabad, a showcase of South Asian-American performing arts, had just begun, and the sense of accomplishment was nearly palpable. The show is coordinated and hosted by ArthArts, a South Asian-American theater group comprised of Georgetown University, George Washington University and American University students, in conjunction with the Georgetown South Asian Society.
After a couple of movie trailers and a brief introduction, the show opened with two well-crafted performances by DISHA Theater, a New York-based troupe founded by Purva Bedi, now a regular on television’s E.R. In the group’s first piece, “Love Story,” a Hindu Indian-American woman and a Muslim Pakistani-American man are about to get married despite misgivings by their relatives. As the guests await the bride’s entrance, however, she is suddenly overcome with doubts of her own, and her anxious husband-to-be tries to reassure her. Despite a loss of momentum at a crucial point in the couple’s dialogue, probably the result of delving into such heavy material so early in the show, the piece was otherwise expertly acted. Gita Reddy was tragically realistic as the skeptical bride, and she was solidly supported by Rizwan Manji’s alarmed, yet level-headed bridegroom.
Reddy and Manji really shone, however, when they immediately and dramatically shifted into brand new characters after a 60-second scene change. The next scene, “Arranged Marriage 2002,” is a humorously updated version of the bargaining process for arranged marriages. Despite clues about the characters’ sexuality (Manji’s enthusiastic bopping to the Backstreet Boys should have been the kicker), the audience doesn’t realize the man and woman are both actually in gay relationships and looking to become parents. Manji was thoroughly convincing as a young, urban, professional gay man, though he was cleverly subtle, avoiding some dangerous stereotypes. Reddy was hilarious in a “You-are-the-weakest-link” manner with her no-nonsense PalmPilot tapping and deadpan facial expressions.
Two monologues followed DISHA Theater, both of which were moderate in dramatic quality. Jay Tipnis, a Washington-area performer, presented a somewhat hackneyed monologue on the dilemmas of a hyphenated identity. Although very well delivered, the superfluous slide show on a screen behind Tipnis was more distracting than supplemental, and the monologue’s conclusion of “Who am I? I am me!” was hardly enlightening. The second monologue, written and performed by Jay Tuli (MSB ‘03) of ArthArts, depicted a South Asian man “fresh off the boat” and his futile efforts to activate his credit card. Tuli showed great energy and creative responses to the imagined voice on the phone, but he plowed through the script in what seemed like a rush to the end. Despite the need to incorporate some pauses, however, as well as cut the cord that apparently bound him to his chair, Tuli’s piece was an effective comic relief.
The real stars of the evening took the stage next. Penn Masala, an all-male South Asian-American a cappella group from the University of Pennsylvania, was far and away the crowd’s favorite. With two CDs, a successful music video, and concert tours in Britain, India and the United States, Penn Masala’s fame had clearly preceded it. That fame, as the group made clear on Saturday, is rooted in solid musical talent. Penn Masala’s vocal percussion and baseline were especially strong, yet soloists were often unremarkable in both vocal skill and stage presence, and the group tended to drown out crucial tenor and baritone harmonies. Nonetheless, the versatility of Penn Masala was very impressive, transitioning smoothly between traditional South Asian music and contemporary American pop.
After a mediocre performance by Princeton South Asian Theatrics and an energetic encore by Penn Masala, ArthArts finally took the stage with an original piece. Two Indian families living in the United States get together for dinner one evening in “Desi Party,” written and directed by ArthArts founder Ambika Samarthya (SFS ‘00). But the parents have an ulterior motive: to set up a romance between Krishna, the son of one couple, and Priya, the daughter of the other. These young friends have a surprise of their own for their meddling parents, however. Priya is actually dating an African-American Muslim, and Krishna has a boyfriend of his own, both of which alarm and bewilder their parents.
Moving easily from scene to scene without ever leaving the stage, the actors maintained believable stage conversations when the attention was focused on another part of the room. They also upheld a good pace and sense of timing throughout the skit. Standouts included Ami Mehta (SFS ‘05) as Priya’s well-intentioned mother, whose genuine confusion with Priya’s decision is moving, and Jay Tuli (MSB ‘03) as Priya’s flustered father, whose response to the news of Krishna’s homosexuality is, “Well, at least he stayed within the people!” Clearly, the skit touches on a lot of thorny issues (perhaps too many), and thankfully Samarthya doesn’t try to offer any simple solutions.
ArthArts has good reason to be proud of its work. Not only has the two-year-old organization produced theatrical scenes that raise social awareness while delighting audiences with both humor and drama, the troupe has also assembled a unique blend of performances, the likes of which Georgetown has seldom seen. If Dramabad Zindabad indeed establishes itself as an annual tradition, as ArthArts hopes, then Georgetown theatrics will be graced with a truly fresh and powerful new shade.
