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1st South Asian-American Theater Festival in New England
August 19th to 21st, 2022
About Off-Kendrik
We are a 501(c)(3) Non-profit organization serving South-Asian community of Boston/New England area through Art, Theater and Storytelling for today and tomorrow. Most of our Theatrical Productions are original plays written and performed in Bangla. Super-captions in English are incorporated for non-Bangla speaking audiences as and when logistics permit
We also present a Story telling event called Voices, every year and now every 3 months with a virtual slam. Modeled after 'The Moth Radio Hour' from Public Radio, 'Voices' curates stories from the South Asian community, loosely themed on immigrant experiences
We regularly organize Theater workshops to learn about various forms, techniques and contents of theater and storytelling. We also provide a platform for various theater groups/personalities, social activists and young leaders to talk about their work and express their thoughts
In the 1980s, the South Asian presence in the United States was barely noticeable. In American popular imagination, South Asia was a distant site founded on stereotypes. The only well-known brown character in the entertainment industry was Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the convenience store owner in the famed animated series “The Simpsons”. Let alone a definable diaspora, South Asians living in America had no clear role in the nation’s racial history.
Fast forward to now: Bollywood has a prominent status in American popular culture; major television shows have South Asian characters; and the legislative branch has elected representatives from the community. Yet this exposure has generated equally problematic –if arguably less exotic—stereotypes: ignoring the immense cultural diversity of the region, India is often seen as synonymous with South Asia; anyone from the region is randomly assumed to be a tech expert; and most importantly, South Asian immigrants are collectively labeled “model minority” due to their economic success in the United States, an immigration myth that has only distanced them from other minorities.
The task of underscoring the complexity of the region, therefore, falls on the immigrants themselves, and “South Asian-American Theater” is an event committed to that goal. Spearheaded by the Boston-based non-profit theater group “Off-Kendrik”, it is a three-day celebration of the performative arts –play, stand-up, storytelling, seminar—that brings together eight creative groups. Their narratives address a range of issues in multiple languages, from politics in their countries of origin and experiences of immigration to complexities of ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. More than simply a celebration of multiculturalism, the occasion, with its insight into the diversity of the South Asian-American diaspora, provides a rare opportunity for education and enrichment, no less for South Asians themselves than for others.
Dates - August 19th to 21st, 2022
1st South Asian-American Theater Festival in New England
Performance
Event: Kultar's Mime
Type: Play
Produced By: Sarbpreet Singh
Language: English
Stats: Massachusetts
Performance Summary
Kultar's Mime is a devised play that tells the stories of Sikh children who survived the 1984 Delhi massacre. The play incorporates text from two poems : Kultar's Mime by Sarbpreet Singh and In The City Of Slaughter by Haim Bialik. The play, an unequivocal condemnation of sectarian violence and genocide, has evoked a powerful reaction from audiences all over the world that has affirmed the power of compassion to break the cycle of hatred that continues to plague humanity to this day.
Event: RangaShwas
Type: Play
Produced By: Jilebee Arts
Language: Marathi
Stats: Massachusetts
Performance Summary
Rangashwas is a unique dramatic presentation of famous Marathi short stories. Those timeless stories from all kinds of genres like humor, social, political, and suspense will be enacted and narrated with the help of audio-visual effects and props in minimum setting. These situations or events from different stories will be connected through a common thread
Event: RaktBeej
Type: Play
Produced By: Hindi Manch
Language: Hindi
Stats: Massachusetts
Performance Summary
Raktbeej was a mythical demon, who was difficult to kill because every drop of his blood that touched the ground, created another replica of his. In this contemporary take in a modern setting the play explores continuous cycle of prey and predator in modern materialistic life. How people exploit others and abuse relationship to further their own agenda and climb up the social ladder and in turn get used by others and the cycle repeats itself.
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