Drama~Sutra Playwriting Project

Drama~Sutra is a maiden initiative of Nautanki Theatre Company to contribute contemporary and socially relevant plays to Australian stage and literature. The project is primarily a writer-led collaboration of emerging playwrights from diverse cultural backgrounds with Nautanki Company. A guide cum mentor is also involved to nurture the talent and steering the writing in the right direction with valuable input.

The entire project runs for a year yielding a number of Australian plays about South Asian diaspora. Project is divided into 4 phases i.e. ground work, play development, reading and producing. After playreading, Nautanki Company aims to work further with the playwrights to develop the plays with a goal to produce, if possible.

Writers meet for monthly sessions in the presence of the mentor cum guide. Initiated by Creative Director Neel Banerjee, the project aims to:

• Offer an opportunity for playwrights from culturally diverse background
• Creation and curation of alternate stories and narratives which otherwise wouldn’t have been possible
• Act as a bridge between writers, published authors and producer enabling a creative communication for participation and teaching
• Explore freedom to showcase works in front of a wider audience

For the inaugural year 2017-2018, Kevin Bathman, Roanna Gonsalves and Sonal Moore participated in this program writing three draft version of full-length plays. John Suter Linton has been the guide for the writers. After a playreading as public outcome, Nautanki Company is working with Sonal Moore to produce her play Ten Years to Home over two shows at Riverside Theatre.

Nautanki Company is back with another round of playwriting project. For the year 2019-2020, Company is excited to work with Patrick Gunasekera from Perth and Asha Ramzan from Sydney under the guidance of Vel Subra.

Nautanki Theatre Company is grateful to SBW Foundation for providing bursaries for Drama~Sutra project.

Selection for this program is through an EoI followed by a screening. Application for this year is closed.

Behind the Scenes