Multi-Racial perspectives on the changing face of theatre
SANKHA Bhowmick 5/30/21
Sankha Bhowmick
May 30, 2021
Tell us a bit about yourself, where you're from (local or otherwise), what are your mixed races?
My name is Sankha Bhowmick and I grew up and came of age in Kolkata, India which is a bastion of progressive theater. I did my undergraduate at Jadavpur University, Kolkata which nurtured my theater passion.
How did you come into theater and how and when was your theater company, Off-Kendrick born?
I have been performing since I was a kid at community theater as well as school productions. After I came to the US and settled, Off-Kendrik was born as an expression of my theater passion. One important goal of Off-Kendrik is to document and give voice to the South Asian (Bengali) diaspora in the greater Boston area and the US. Details of our history can be found at https://www.offkendrik.com/aboutoffkendrik
What plays and/or musicals, performance/cultural art do you produce? How many times a year?
Our goal is to have one mainstage performance of a play (or a collection of plays) every year. The play is in Bengali and is an original play developed by us in most cases. We either write original scripts or adapt from existing literature. Since 2016, we have also developed a story-telling platform for South Asians that has a mainstage show every other year. The last show was performed over Zoom in September 2020 that was exclusively performed by the first generation South Asian youth.
How many members and volunteers do you have? How many perform, teach, design, write, etc?
We have over thirty members and ten volunteers. A majority of the members are interested in the performance and production aspects of the play (light design, sound, makeup, set, production, etc). We work together as a team to produce our plays. As the artistic director, I have been instrumental in writing/developing our own plays in a majority of cases.
How is Off-Kendrik able to sustain itself? Through its memberships or audiences, performances, grants?
We have sustained ourselves through ticketed events that are attended by community members. After we became a 501c(3), we have a membership model and we have applied for and received a grant from Mass Cultural Council.
With all of this growing education and awareness around making theater diverse, inclusive, and equitable, what is your outlook on Boston theater now and how do you think it will affect your theater company?
It is wonderful to have a diverse and inclusive theater community. My thoughts on this are that we should develop a sister partnership where we have a shared theater space for a diverse community of performers. This space should be a space for collaboration for different groups and performance by groups on a shared basis. This kind of partnership between different groups will be very powerful and will also allow different groups to draw on strengths from each other. It also offers audience to have a true glimpse of world theater.
All theater companies have struggled even before the pandemic. How has Off_Kendrik survived? Was it able to continue theatre through the pandemic? What is Off-Kendrik in the most need now?
Off-Kendrik has struggled with setting up performances over Zoom. We did not have the technical know-how to get it done in a professional manner. We therefore did not have large performances over Zoom. We have mostly used it for fundraisers from our members and audience. Also, Off-Kendrik needs to identify space to rehearse and to perform on a regular basis. With the current pandemic, there has been a severe shortage of spaces to meet and prepare for live theater. We are also looking for captioning device so that we can reach out with our translated plays broadcast live with closed captioning in English.
What are your upcoming events?
Currently, we shall have audio plays that will be presented in May to the audience. In June Off-Kendrik is presenting an episode of Voices in the Lit Crawl festival in Cambridge on 10th June.
May 30, 2021
Tell us a bit about yourself, where you're from (local or otherwise), what are your mixed races?
My name is Sankha Bhowmick and I grew up and came of age in Kolkata, India which is a bastion of progressive theater. I did my undergraduate at Jadavpur University, Kolkata which nurtured my theater passion.
How did you come into theater and how and when was your theater company, Off-Kendrick born?
I have been performing since I was a kid at community theater as well as school productions. After I came to the US and settled, Off-Kendrik was born as an expression of my theater passion. One important goal of Off-Kendrik is to document and give voice to the South Asian (Bengali) diaspora in the greater Boston area and the US. Details of our history can be found at https://www.offkendrik.com/aboutoffkendrik
What plays and/or musicals, performance/cultural art do you produce? How many times a year?
Our goal is to have one mainstage performance of a play (or a collection of plays) every year. The play is in Bengali and is an original play developed by us in most cases. We either write original scripts or adapt from existing literature. Since 2016, we have also developed a story-telling platform for South Asians that has a mainstage show every other year. The last show was performed over Zoom in September 2020 that was exclusively performed by the first generation South Asian youth.
How many members and volunteers do you have? How many perform, teach, design, write, etc?
We have over thirty members and ten volunteers. A majority of the members are interested in the performance and production aspects of the play (light design, sound, makeup, set, production, etc). We work together as a team to produce our plays. As the artistic director, I have been instrumental in writing/developing our own plays in a majority of cases.
How is Off-Kendrik able to sustain itself? Through its memberships or audiences, performances, grants?
We have sustained ourselves through ticketed events that are attended by community members. After we became a 501c(3), we have a membership model and we have applied for and received a grant from Mass Cultural Council.
With all of this growing education and awareness around making theater diverse, inclusive, and equitable, what is your outlook on Boston theater now and how do you think it will affect your theater company?
It is wonderful to have a diverse and inclusive theater community. My thoughts on this are that we should develop a sister partnership where we have a shared theater space for a diverse community of performers. This space should be a space for collaboration for different groups and performance by groups on a shared basis. This kind of partnership between different groups will be very powerful and will also allow different groups to draw on strengths from each other. It also offers audience to have a true glimpse of world theater.
All theater companies have struggled even before the pandemic. How has Off_Kendrik survived? Was it able to continue theatre through the pandemic? What is Off-Kendrik in the most need now?
Off-Kendrik has struggled with setting up performances over Zoom. We did not have the technical know-how to get it done in a professional manner. We therefore did not have large performances over Zoom. We have mostly used it for fundraisers from our members and audience. Also, Off-Kendrik needs to identify space to rehearse and to perform on a regular basis. With the current pandemic, there has been a severe shortage of spaces to meet and prepare for live theater. We are also looking for captioning device so that we can reach out with our translated plays broadcast live with closed captioning in English.
What are your upcoming events?
Currently, we shall have audio plays that will be presented in May to the audience. In June Off-Kendrik is presenting an episode of Voices in the Lit Crawl festival in Cambridge on 10th June.