Playwright in Residence Showcase

Jagriti Theater recently launched their playwright residency programme and will showcase Cumin, the work in progress by their Playwright in Residence, Deepika Arwind

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Have you ever wondered why a playwright writes? What do they write about? Who is it for? Do they wrestle with themselves, do they worry if the work is relevant, do they fall in love with their characters, are the stories they write partly their own? Do they hope to move the needle? Do they write to further their art?

The playwright in residence at Jagriti was born from questions – from their need as a Theatre to ask how they can support the genesis of new work and the playwriting process. Their playwright in residence is Deepika Arwind, a theatre maker and performer whose work centers on the female body on stage and off of it, and she continues to expand her practice in pursuit of a form that is both inventive and autonomous, working closely with sound and movement.

“As the first playwright in residence I am enjoying the process of having space and time to create work that feels quite personal in some of its themes and in that sense, also feels difficult. For me, the residency also came at a time when I definitely require support and infrastructure to write and create meaningfully,” says Deepika who has won and been nominated for several awards for her work.

Rebecca Spurgeon, who is the artistic director at Jagriti, says, “Our hope for this program is that it will help extend much-needed support and resources towards playwrights in the country. We look forward to the many ways Theatre can continue to be impactful to the community through the work it creates.”

They will be showcasing Deepika’s work-in-progress play Cumin which tells the story of Noor and Zula who have lost their mothers to the same type of inexplicable illness and are slowly beginning to feel like their inheritance might be disease and pain.

They are both also grappling with questions of purpose in their careers – one a struggling choreographer in Berlin and the other a celebrity chef in Bombay. In Cumin, we meet four women from two generations through their complex histories and relationships over several years.

The showcase will be an opportunity for you to engage with the playwright and the work – to see how the writing influences the staging and how collaboration in the process of writing can be an immensely illuminating experience for the playwright. They will perform a few scenes that will be followed by a conversation with the playwright.