Cassandra or Maybe a Chair's Tale

Producing a play involves a lot of work. But the most important job is to set up a team of cast and crew members who would take the production from conception to stage.  The team should be in love with the project, and only then a successful production can happen.  When the audience sees a play unfold in front of their eyes –  with the actors performing in perfect rhythm, the lights and sounds all playing together in perfect harmony,  the emotions and feelings on stage touch your hearts – it becomes difficult to appreciate how much hard work has gone into developing this final product. A ninety minute play to an audience member means ninety days of toil and labor for a dedicated team of performers.  Most of the performers who commit themselves to such an arduous task, are not professionals. Theatre does not provide them their daily bread.  Even in professional theater, most performers have another day job that helps them pay their bills. And in community theater like ours, getting paid is not only out of the question, rather in most cases the team members have to spend from their pockets to meet their incidental expenses. Then why do they do this? Why do they go through this enormous amount of personal sacrifice  just to be on the stage for ninety minutes or so?  And then everybody doesn’t go up on the stage either. They keep the cogs of the production running from behind the stage. What is their motivation?

The only answer to this difficult question is – love for the art.  Without love and passion to create theater – to create characters – to tell stories   , one cannot bear the pain that comes with the process of creation.  They don’t do it for money, or fame, or popularity.  Yes, a little bit of appreciation is welcome – but that’s not the driving force here. Creativity has its own rewards and we need to respect that.

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to have the company of many such dedicated and like-minded team members whose love for the art was the only reason why we could keep on producing theatre year after year.   I’ll always remember them and salute them from the bottom of my heart.

Here is a small video in which the cast and crew members of our new play “Cassandra…” share their thoughts about this production.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54adJNoivbk]