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Casting Call for “The Curious Case of a Casual Terrorist”

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Casting Call for new ECTA production
“The Curious Case of a Casual Terrorist”
Language: English
Written and directed by Sudipta Bhawmik
Show dates:
August 5 or 6 (South Asian Theatre Festival, Victoria Theatre, Rutgers Mason Gross School) and  Sept 15 – 30, 7 shows on Fri, Sat and Sundays. (Edison Valley Playhouse) 

Actors needed for the following roles:
Julia – Caucasian female in her twenties/ early thirties
Don – Caucasian/AA Male in late forties to early fifties
Rohan – South Asian Male in his twenties to early thirties
Ayesha – South Asian Female in her twenties/early thirties
James – Caucasian/AA Male in his forties
Suresh – South Asian male in his thirties
Boris – Caucasian Male in his fifties, to early sixties
Qureshi – South Asian male in his sixties
Pallavi – South Asian female in her late fifties to mid sixties

All roles are open. We estimate approx 20 rehearsals (3 hours each) during June and July with some table readings in May. Rehearsals will be held in central New Jersey.
A brief synopsis of the play is given below.

This is a NON-EQUITY show and we have no budget to pay for the actors.

Please send your headshot, bio and a short video monologue or a piece of acting to info@ectainc.org.

Auditions to be held on Thurs, May 18, 8:00pm at the Historic Edison Valley Playhouse, 2196 Oak Tree Road, Edison, NJ.
You will be asked to read from the sides.

Synopsis:

The play tells the story of Basant Adnani, a seventy year old Indian born British citizen, who was arrested by the US law enforcement on terrorism charges. Basant was accused of supplying weapons to a terrorist organization. He was found guilty by the court and was imprisoned for life. However, in reality Basant did not supply any weapons. The entire operation was a setup designed to trap Basant into doing the wrong thing. The terrorist organization, the contact, the weapons supplier, the weapons – everything were fake. What made the seventy year old salesman to fall into the trap is what the play explores.

Although the play is inspired by true events, the characters and the incidents portrayed in the play are purely fictional.

10 Reasons Why You Should Watch Live Theatre

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10. Theater is the most ancient performing art form.  Support it for its sustenance.

      Although theater has survived over the ages, survived the onslaught of technology and competition from other media, it still needs support from the audience. So watch a live theater show and help this art form survive. 

9.   Theater art is ephemeral. If you miss it, you may not get another chance. 

       A theater performance is born each day on the stage, and it dies on the stage. The next day, a new show is born. To catch this spontaneity, you must watch live theater. Video recordings of plays can only serve archival purpose, but it cannot replace live viewing.

8.   In theater, REAL people do REAL things on stage. No dummies, no CGI. Your experience is REAL and visceral. 

And you don’t need 3D glasses.

7.  Watching theater is an intellectual exercise.

Theater invigorates your imagination and refreshes your mind. Watching theater can be good for your brain.

6.   Theater is not controlled by big money and commercial interests.

Hence theater can often speak the inconvenient truth which is often necessary for our society.

5.    Watching theater boosts the local economy.

Have dinner at the local restaurant before or after the show. Discuss the performance with your friends and family over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.  

4.    Theater is a shared experience.

Watching a live performance with hundreds of members of the audience gives a sense of community and belonging. You laugh together, cry together. You are not alone.

3.   Study shows watching live theater enhance literary knowledge, tolerance and empathy.

A study conducted by University of Arkansas, Dept of Education Reform demonstrated that viewing the theatrical productions leads to enhanced knowledge of the plot, increased vocabulary, greater tolerance and improved ability to read the emotions of others.

2.   Theater makes us take a hard look at ourselves, our values, and our behavior.

1. The audience is an integral part of the performance.

A live audience can affect the performance of a live theater in ways that you can’t even think of. So watch live theater, because it needs you. 

 

Baad Protibaad

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Here is a radio play that we did few years ago. The cast includes Subhodev Das, Aparajita Das, Anisha Das and Indranil Mukherjee. The play was directed by Indranil Mukherjee and written by Sudipta Bhawmik. Recording, editing, effects and music by Partha Sarathi Mukhopadhyay.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

EBC Drama Club: Episode 1 Part 2

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In this part of episode 1, Sudipta Bhawmik reads a short story by Satyajit Ray, “The Vicious Vampire”.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

EBC Drama Club: Episode 1, Part 1

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On Saturday March 30, 2013, EBC Radio launched EBC drama club. Listen to the podcast of this episode below. ECTA members like Sankar Ghoshal, Nupur Lahiri, Lilabati Majumdar, Subhodev Das, Aparajita Das, Dhriti Bagchi and Sudipta Bhawmik. In part 1 of this episode we discussed World Theatre Day, talked about the importance of vocal exercises in acting. Later Nupur Lahiri read one of her short plays.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Durghatana – Play Read by Satinath Mukhopadhyay

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Satinath Mukhopadhyay

Satinath Mukhopadhyay

Here is Satinath Mukhopadhyay , the famous audio artist, performing our play “Durghatana” (“An Accident” by Sudipta Bhawmik) for the Radio in Kolkata.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Some Thoughts on Cassandra….

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One June 9th and 10th we will be staging our new play, “Cassandra Othoba Hoyto Ekti Chairer Kahini” (Cassandra or Maybe a Chair’s Tale). In this video, the cast and crew members of the productions share their thoughts on the play.

In any theater production, the cast and the crew experience the play first hand. Then they try to assimilate it within themselves, try to relive the characters, their aspirations, their conflicts. And then on stage, they try to share it with the audience. This video gives a sneak  peek into the thought process of the actors, the director and the production crew. I hope you will enjoy it.

 

Price No Bar!

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Review by Gautam Datta

Review by Gautam Datta

Few years ago, my good friend Gautam Dutta wrote this review article in one of the Bengali publications. While working on a new theater project, whenever I feel frustrated or dejected, I read this article and feel encouraged. I feel re-energized. Gautam and I had worked for Bengali Theater in USA for quite sometime and we, like all theater workers often have this feeling within us – is this worth it? All this hard work we put in to create a quality show, often seems to be hardly of any worth if we don’t have an audience.

But I don’t blame the audience who couldn’t get to come to see a play.  First of all, not everybody likes theater. And for this, we theater people are the ones to blame. In order to survive the onslaught of popular entertainment mediums like film and television, we have made theater into an esoteric art form. Just like fine art has evolved to counter photography, or poetry has evolved to counter printed prose, modern theater has evolved to a form that is often incomprehensible and/or too obtuse. We have taken entertainment out of theater and made it into an intellectual jugglery act.  And with this we have limited our audience pool.  But I can assure you, our (ECTA’s) plays are not void of entertainment at all. Our plays over the years have made people laugh, made them cry and also made them think. Continue reading →