Enacte series to spotlight women performers, playwrights
Enacte is turning the spotlight on women performers and playwrights in a new series of virtual events, plays, readings and more.
Women Enacte for Themselves, or WEFT, launched June 27 with a Zoom staged reading of “Art of the Possible” by Indian actress Reena Kapoor.
Vinita Sud Belani, artistic director and founder of the Sunnyvale-based theater company, says WEFT is “designed to support women writers on women’s issues, taking their emerging stories to completion.”
“The program is staffed by a team of qualified mentors who take women writers through the process of ideation — the act of forming ideas — that starts with research, story writing and then initial development as a performance piece,” Belani adds. “Hopefully, this will be followed by a live workshop, rehearsals and a premiere performance of the finished piece.”
Belani directed “Art of the Possible,” which follows the conflict between a mother and her daughter who has decided to divorce her upper-class husband. The plot is in line with the company’s mission to tell stories that show South Asian culture in a global context and break ethnic barriers between communities.
Belani says Enacte predominantly selects plays by young, upcoming South Asian playwrights who write “in a diaspora voice.”
“We choose subjects that are of relevance to South Asians taking their place in a global society today. These plays have strong South Asian roles, especially female ones,” she adds.
The WEFT programming is meant to fill the gap created when the coronavirus shut down WEFT’S regular season. It includes a virtual storytelling performance on July 11 called “Qissebaazi,” directed by actor, poet and storyteller Danish Husain and featuring folk tales and storytelling styles from South Asia.
Enacte also offers a program called “Beyond the Box,” which invites community participation.
The program includes Playful@enacte, where people read a play a week and pick one for a monthly virtual staged reading.
“This has limitations, but it enables us to cater to our Texas and East Coast audiences,” Belani says.
Upcoming readings include “Dealing Dreams” by Campbell playwright Jeffrey Lo on Aug. 8 and “Far, Far Better Things” by Bay Area playwright Geetha Reddy on Oct. 24.
Enacte’s “In Conversation: A Speaker Series” features global community leaders who are at the center of both performance art and activism. Upcoming events include a July 19 discussion with Indian film and stage actor Denzil Smith and an Aug. 2 conversation with Indian stage and film actress Lillete Dubey and actor Mahesh Dattani, who will talk about their 40-year relationship as one of India’s premier writer-producer duos.