We had staged the play Ron in 2006 and it had a huge impact on the audience. Not only did the play moved the audience in USA, but also the play was a big hit in Kolkata. The critics were so overwhelmed with the play that they kept mentioning the play in later years. Ananda Lal in his critic of our play Satyameva (staged in 2007) wrote, “The group who came from New Jersey and stunned Calcutta with their play Ron”. Subrata Ghosh (a noted critic) also reminisced about Ron in his review of “Jodio Galpo” in  Desh magazine in 2009. The play later was staged by ENAD in California Bay Area. Natyabharati of Maryland staged the play in Hindi (multiple shows). The English version of the play was staged by a group in Florida. Now Ron is happening again. A bunch of theater enthusiasts are rehearsing to stage Ron in Chicago on Sept 1 and 2 of 2012. And close to our home in New Jersey, Edison Valley Playhouse is producing “Ron” (in English) for their 2012, 2013 season. The play will make its tri-state premiere in November 2012 along with our Diwali celebrations.

This video captures some of the spontaneous audience responses after watching ECTA’s production “Banaprastha” (Retirement) in 2009. The play was written by Sudipta Bhawmik and directed by Indranil Mukherjee. The play stirred many souls and we received many accolades long after the production run concluded. Some of the people in this video are no longer with us, but there well wishes and blessings will keep us going for a long time.

It was with “Phera”, ECTA started its journey in the world of Bengali theatre in USA in 2003. Since then we have travelled a long way and have produced several plays. ECTA’s plays have earned a unique distinction not only for its production (acting, directing etc.) quality, but also because it gave voice to the Bengali diaspora living in USA.  Translation and production of these plays in other Indian languages also proves that these plays gave voice not only to the Bengalis but to other Indian immigrants as well.  With the best wishes of our audiences, we hope to keep producing plays that tells our stories, stories of our struggles, our conflicts  and our lives.

We have a launched a new website for ECTA at ectainc.org and I hope you like it. This site is based on the famous WordPress platform and hence offers a great amount of interactivity and flexibility. Put in your comments and let us know how you like it. Also don’t forget to share the site with others.