All my plays are listed on the new play exchange here.
Full length work unveiled in September 2023!
My play “The Wife” (working title) was one of three selected by EnActe Arts, as part of their “New Works Festival” in September 2023.
This festival was held in honor of EnActe’s spiritual founder Jean-Claude Carrière in San Jose on September 16th. A staged reading of my play was very well received by the audience, details for which are here — https://enacte.org/enactes-new-works-festival/
The Wife
by Reena Kapoor
This play (Working Title: The Wife) explores the themes of identity, culture, and self-discovery. In it, an Indian housewife, who has everything she could ever want, begins to question her life choices when she meets an attractive neighbor from a completely different background who makes her feel truly seen. As their friendship blossoms, she is forced to confront her own desires and what it means to be an individual within the “model minority”.
My play “The Wife” (working title) listed in the lower left corner, was one of three selected for the festival. It was a fully cast and directed staged reading for audience viewing and reaction, along with a talk back with each playwright afterwards.
Four plays produced in 2021
I was the first playwright-in-residence for EnActe Arts as part of their WEFT (women enact for themselves) program. I could not be more grateful for EnActe Arts’ unstinting support in helping me develop and for producing this work.You can read about these productions at this link.
I had written a post about these productions.
But here is here’s more:
1. Art of the Possible - 3-act play, 35 mins
A somewhat humorous look at a situation where a young woman decides she can no longer sustain a marriage with her “perfect” husband and worse she cannot come up with a “good” enough reason why. What is she to do?
Written by Reena Kapoor Directed by Vinita Sud Belani
Creative Designer Raashina Humayun Composer/Sound Designer Aalap Desai
Edited by Uma Sakhalkar, Grégoire J. Martineau
Starring: Anita Rathnam, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla, Anusuya Rao, Sreejith Nair, Rohit Bhagat
2. Bollywood Rules…for Women - RAP song, 5 mins
A rap song about the double standards for women that Bollywood films have long embraced. I do not wholly blame Bollywood; in my view it reflects and yes, perhaps amplifies, what we hold dear. But we can protest, and powerfully mock it and hopefully as a result diminish its focus and amplification.
Written by Reena Kapoor Music composed by Siddharth Chattopadhyay
Directed by Suman Chandra Choreographed by Suruchi Chandorkar
Cinematographer Alan Cash Editor PK
Vocals: Reena Kapoor, Debjani Roy Chattopadhyay
Starring: Reena Kapoor, Suruchi Chandorkar, Raashina Humayun, Prerana Vaidya, Roshni Datta, Anju Prakash, Namita Vakil, Annapurna Chandra, Tannistha Mukherjee, Shirin R. Hasan, Aditi Honawar, Atika Shah, Smita Garg.
3. Oasis - a play in letters, 10 mins
This is an epistolary (literary work in the form of letters) where a young girl grows up into a teenager, eventually into an adult, and through her letters to her estranged father we follow her discovery of what is family and her emergence into womanhood.
Written by Reena Kapoor Directed by Vineet Gupta
Edited by Grégoire J. Martineau Production Manager Dan Holland
Starring: Zoya Khare, Inika Mukherjee, Emielyn Das, Amytza Maskati
4. Burned - monologue, 7 mins
BURNED is perhaps my most tragic piece and it is a monologue from a woman who is the victim of an acid attack.
Written by Reena Kapoor Directed by Vandana Prabhu
Edited by Grégoire J. Martineau Production Manager Dan Holland
Starring Yeshaswini Channaiah