2009-2011

The Street made us realise the power of collaboration. Emboldened us to take up our next ambitious project, Khoj – The Search, based on a short story by the master storyteller Rohinton Mistry. We kept the nucleus of the plot, transferred the story into migrant experiences in Auckland. We devised and wrote the script with the help of Fiona Graham – a professional dramaturge.

Khoj had several new aspects – a bunch of new actors including several trained ones like Rashmi Pilipitya, Mark Webley and our very own Patricia. We engaged with the community to come and tell their stories of migration which were instantly enacted by the friendly artists from Playback Theatre. Some of these anecdotes were include in the play.

Also it was our first tryst with social media – running a very successful campaign with a string of short promotional videos cleverly directed by Sudeepta and shot by our long time supporter Michael Field!

By 2010, the core team was already quite experienced and matured, ready to take up more responsibility. The plan, therefore, was that Sananda will direct the main show and she selected “Beyond the Land of Hattamala” a social fantasy in a timeless world, a street play written by Badal Sircar.

All was well until I learn while on holiday in Calcutta that Sananda decided to move to Brisbane and so not available. Fortunately, Sudeepta was in Bombay at the time, so I made a special fly-in to Bombay to have a cobra style crisis management meeting. We managed to find a new director from the team – enter Rahul Gandhi, the protagonist of the 2009 show.

Hattamala saw the first use of an ensemble cast supporting the two main characters of the play, beautifully coached by Laurel Devenie! And we had live music on stage. The concept of Prayas Band was born.

Sally Barnett of The Edge came to see one of the shows at TAPAC, was mighty impressed and offered us a set of gigs for the Random Acts of Christmas at various spots in the city – from Aotea Square to Britomart. So Prayas arrived in town.

The final act of 2010 was a charity show in aid of the devastating Pakistan Floods. We had Hattamala in one act while a band in the other led by an “introducing” Moushumi Das.

2011 was a busy year. Auckland Museum asked us to do a short interactive gig as part of the Aqua series on Rivers of the World.  We chose to tell the story of Ganga through devised skit and live music. Padma had her OE directing Tamil films in India, and now she was back with us returning as the lead dancer. And we had a Prayas veteran on stage the first time – Zetin Moza.

The main project of 2011 was Taser Desh – Kingdom of Cards. A classic musical by Tagore. It was his 150^th birth anniversary. M-M got us in touch with a very talented choreographer in Jason Moore who truly lifted our game. The show also required elaborate costume and make up [a novelty for Prayas] ably managed by Padma. A very satisfying result with a large international cast, crew and musicians.

And the biggest serendipity came halfway through the rehearsals. We were still looking for ‘the King” for the play. Someone called me one afternoon, to check if he could come and audition for the role. He had recently arrived from Wellington and was new in town. I met him at the steps of TAPAC, auditioned over a smoking break and instantly gave him the role. He was Ahi Karunaharan!