April 25, 2006 > Krea presents Tamil play

by Praveena Raman and Venkat Raman

Fremont's Krea will present "Kadavulin Kangal," the fifth play since its inception in 2003, on April 30 at Center for Employment Training (CET) in San Jose. Started by Dheepa Ramanujam, Krea is dedicated for the production of full length Tamil plays promoting the rich Tamil theatrical arts and culture.

For the first time, Krea is offering a play by Fremont writer T.A.Ramanujam or TAR. The plot revolves around an optometrist (Rajiv Jayaraman), his friend who is a film director (Naveen Kumar Nathan), his family: wife (Subhashinee Krishnamurthy), brother (Karthik Ramachandran), mother (Geetha Muthukumar), and a mysterious girl (Dheepa Ramanujam) - just his patient or more? TAR has purposely left the end of the play open to interpretation hoping that this would lead to discussions and perhaps even a debate about the play.

As a youngster, TAR wrote stories as a pastime. Later, he took a long sabbatical from creative writing while focusing on his professional development. But recently he started to get the urge to write again, channeling his energy into writing a play. His first creation is "Kadavulin Kangal." He found the experience very rewarding, especially since his wife Dheepa was directing the production and able to offer feedback on the script. Seeing his script rehearsed by actors allowed him to spot and fix any imperfections in the story and dialogue. Having finished this one, he is already working on a second play.

Dheepa has drawn people from all over the Bay Area for the cast of this production. Actors range in experience from one to several years with some who have acted on stage in India. In the past, Krea has taken some of its production for a run in Chennai, India where the plays have been very well received garnering excellent reviews in local newspapers. To encourage the community to attend a play in a foreign language and help them understand the plot, director Dheepa Ramanujam will make a scene by scene translation of the play available in English.

Tamil productions are, in general, very dialog centric and dialogue delivery is very different from the norm in the U.S. Seeing this play would be an enriching cultural experience for all. Asked why the production is in San Jose though Krea is based in Fremont and the rehearsals are also here, Dheepa replies with a smile, "The rehearsals are in Fremont because they take place in my garage. I would love to have these plays staged in Fremont or at least in the Tri-City area but the small number of available theatre spaces and expensive rental fees make it difficult for us to stage it here. Both CET (500) and Cubberly (300) in San Jose have a large capacity and are not too expensive. We can make ends meet if we stage them there even with a ticket cost of only $10."

Krea's Kadavulin Kangal
Sunday, April 30
3 p.m. or 6 p.m.
CET
701 Vine Street, San Jose
(408-733-7400)
www.kreacreations.com/currentproductions.shtml