OutSideTheBox - ACT with Avijit Sarkar

1. Your brief introduction

I am a musician, composer, writer, poet, painter and illustrator from Sydney, Australia. I have been in the arts and entertainment since the last four decades, here in Australia and back in India.

2. Please tell us more about your event | Stories by Avijit Sarkar |, inception, milestones and way forward?

‘Stories by Avijit Sarkar’ is a collection of my five short English plays to be enacted in one show on Feb 17^th, 18^th and 19^th 2023. I have been writing fiction for many years but this is my first advent into the world of theatre as a playwright. Therefore, for me, this is a milestone in a way. I hope to write more stories for the theatre going forward, with themes, plots and concepts that are novel for audiences.

3. When did you write these stories, what was the thought process behind the stories and why did you decide to make them into a theatre production?

I have written these plays in the last two years. I have always wanted to write short plays that are a little ‘different’ from many plays that I have been watching in the community. I must point out that these plays have NOT been converted from my short stories. I wrote these plays from scratch and decided to convert this collection into a theatre production, in order to bring together communities through my stories.

4. Why were these stories picked for the production? Are your directors adapting to their own understanding? Who are the directors and do share some more information here briefly?

I particularly picked these five stories for the theatre production because these are not the ‘run of the mill’ stories. They are quite unique in their content and construction. These are quite different from the plays that the audiences have seen in our communities.

I have five directors working on the plays. Each one of them is adapting my plays as per their vision and understanding of the plots. They are making subtle changes to the scripts after conferring with me. I do appreciate this approach because it is their vision that will be presented to the audience. I have been very fortunate to be working with five wonderful directors – thanks to the producer Taufeeq Ahmad Sheikh and Crossover Stories.

The five directors are:

Paul Kininmonth – is a teacher at North Shore Coaching College where he loves to augment his work in education by facilitating theatre. He has a special interest in the works of Shakespeare.

Susan Jordan – is an accomplished actor and director and has been acting and directing since the 1970s in theatre, TV, film and web series.

Sam Cosentino – is the artistic director & producer of Walk Now Productions (an Indie, Co-Op & Community film & theatre group) and he brings his vast experience in theatre and films to this project.

Jyotsna Sharma – is a well-known name in the Indian theatre circuits. She is the director of Crescendo and has over 16 years of experience in theatre in Australia and India.

Akshat Gupta – is a very well respected actor and dance choreographer in our communities. This is his first venture as a director.

5. Which story is most complex and why? What do you want to convey here?

From the perspective of a playwright, I think that my play “The Uncomfortable Truth” is probably the most complex. Primarily because the play lets the audience get a view of the innermost thought processes in the heart of humanity and also establishes the ability of theatre to create an illusion for the audience. I cannot give away much more than that!

6. What is the importance of rehearsals and preparations prior to any stage opportunity? How would you ensure the actors have understood the writer's mind?

The importance of rehearsals and preparations (especially in theatre) is enormous. One of the reasons is that theatre is based on group work and understanding between actors. On top of this, actors need to immerse into the role that they are playing. This does not happen overnight and needs a lot of practice.

I depend on the directors to ensure that the actors understand the playwright’s perspective. With this group of highly experienced directors, I am confident that the actors will be taken on the path that I have visualised for the plays and the characters.

7. Please share your thought process regarding writing and composing original background score for the theatre production? What is unique about it?

This is an interesting topic. Writing background scores for theatre, TV and films is a complex subject and very different from composing songs. I started writing the background music scores for these five plays since the project was launched. The music scores for these plays are completely dependent on the plots. But I have gone a step further by incorporating the vision of each director.

In this project, the music scores that will be presented for the audiences will be hopefully as unique as the plots of the plays. I have used a huge variety of styles in these scores from traditional Eastern styles to very cinematic soundscapes with heavy percussion in a few.

I have also done the initial artwork for the plays and introduced illustrations that capture the essence of each play.

8. Please share more details, facts or trivia around your upcoming production and what should your audience expect?

The producer of this project is “Crossover Stories” – a creative platform launched by well-known theatre personality Taufeeq Ahmed Sheikh, who is also the artistic curator of the plays. We have 27 actors and a large back-end team working on various aspects of this project (marketing, art design, production support, etc.). Tickets for the show are already on sale at https://fb.me/e/2ewEXF7Ip

For the audience, the best way to summarise the theater project is “what you see is NOT what you get”. Expect very unique plots, unexpected twists and endings that might leave you thinking about life, humanity, fate, belief and religion.

9. Please summarise your creative journey experience so far along with a message for thespians and story writers

As a playwright, it has been a wonderful experience so far. My creativity has been enhanced by the inputs from experienced theatre personalities – in the areas of writing, illustrating and music composing. For me, as a creative, learning never stops. Creativity is a never-ending journey for me.

I would like to end this interview with two quotes.

To thespians:

“Acting is not about being someone different. It's about finding the similarity in what is apparently different and then finding myself in there.”

- Meryl Streep -

To writers and playwrights:

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”

– Franz Kafka

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FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT MR AVIJIT SARKAR

https://www.facebook.com/avijit.sarkar

https://fb.me/e/2ewEXF7Ip

Summary note by Suman Mathur

For people familiar with the name and the person, AVIJIT SARKAR means a famed musician with umpteen concerts to his name over 40 years; it also means a restless creative spirit who thinks 24 hours in a day are not enough.

The name conjures up the image of Sydney’s own Mario, the cartoonist. People are a bit wary around him lest they become the subject of his next artistic and social commentary! ( just joking).

Nothing escapes Avijit’s keen eyes and ears, so it’s not surprising that he finds plenty of subject matter for his drawings, stories and plays.

Coming to the stage plays - a relatively new venture for this published author of short stories, essays and illustrator of several books written by famous international authors - one expects novelty, surprising twists, multiple interpretations and above all, important social commentary.

Avijit’s journey reminds us of the saying “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions."

Summary note by Suman Mathur

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