Experimental Workshop 2018
Off-Kendrik is now a larger group, with new members proposing creative ideas for future productions. For instance, an experimental workshop was planned early in 2018. The notion of “fake news”, which is central to current American political discourse, was chosen as the overarching theme for the workshop. Around January, a dialog prompt was provided by Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, which motivated four members (Mahua Sen Mukhopadhyay, Souvik Chattopadhyay, Chandreyee Lahiri and Nilay Mukhopadhyay) to write four skits. Each with five or six characters, the skits were directed by four other members (Shanto Ghosh, Arup last name?, Deepak Deb and Sankha Bhowmick), and following a short preparatory phase of a few weeks, they were performed, two at a time, at Waltham Public Library on the first Sundays of March and April before an invited audience. Without make-up or costume and with minimal props, the productions were especially attentive to acting. A candid discussion was held after all the presentations, where each participant shared their learning curve, especially the unfamiliar experience of the intense production process. Summing up the failures and successes of the effort, it was decided that with slightly different strategies, three more skits on the theme of “fake news” would be produced over the summer and performed alongside Rajeshbabur Antardhan in September.
