Caste Away Arts

The Fifth Cup was a sell-out show. On On Thursday 13th December we performed The Fifth Cup in front of a packed auditorium (350 people) at The Drum in Birmingham. The show went well, all the actors performed their hearts out like I knew they would. I’m so proud of all the cast and crew.

We got really positive feedback from the audience. 70% of them stayed for the Q & A session at the end of the show, I was surprised and touched. I’m glad we did that Q & A session because it’s great to know what the audience think. Their encouragment inspires us to write more plays and take The Fifth Cup forward. Lots of people have been saying that the play made them go home and discuss the issue of caste discrimination with their friends and families. That alone makes me feel that we were successful.

I’ve been on a personal journey writing and producing The Fifth Cup. The past few weeks have been some of the most challenging weeks in my life. I’ve grown up a lot, I’ve learnt something from every single person working on this production. I’ve met some talented and very lovely people and made some friends for life. The main thing that i’ve learnt is that there’s more to people to meet the eye, you just have to take the time to find out (like the MADMAN!!).

Even though the show is over, this is just the beginning for Caste Away Arts and The Fifth Cup. We hope to tour The Fifth Cup next year and we’ll definitely be back in The Drum around summertime. We’re also going to get cracking on writing new plays. WAHHHHH!!! we’ve got so much to do! I’m pretty run-down at the moment and am going to be chilling hard the next few days, but after that it’s back to the drawing board. Watch this space!! ;o)

Tomorrow’s production of The Fifth Cup at The Drum has sold out.

If you wish to join our mailing list, so we can up-to-date on future showing’s of the play please email info@casteawayarts.com and put “The Fifth Cup mailing list - add me!” in the subject title.

Caste Away Arts will be all over radio this week promoting The Fifth Cup. Here’s what’s happening:

This Friday we’ll be live on Raaj Radio in Leicester at 11.10am for an in-depth interview.

On Friday night we’ll be live on BBC WM Radio, this will be at 9.20pm on the Midlands Masala show presented by Satnam Rana.

This Sunday morning between, 7am and 8am, a ten minute feature about The Fifth Cup will be going out on Radio 4’s religious programme.

On Wedneday 12th December we’ll be live on Nihal’s show on BBC Asian Network. This will be from 11am to 12pm for an in-depth interview. 

Please try and tune in for these if you can.

So many things have happened since we last wrote anything on here.

We just had a long weekend of some hardcore rehearsals. Everything is coming along well, the actors and the characters they are playing have developed so much.

On Friday evening we had a run-through of the whole play which went really well. We had a spiritual start to the day on Saturday when the Baba (priest) in the temple we were rehearsing in told us to being with a prayer and then gave us prashad.

Sunday evening was a reflection of the whole weekend, only a few of us were left going through some intense scenes and everyone ended up in tears. There was lots of hugging and then a lot of laughing that followed that. It was a truly beautiful moment which everyone there will remember always.

Production wise, we had a five hour long production meeting on Friday! Yes, five hours!! In between we ate breakfast that Ravina’s sister had made for us. Reena B and Ravina have been sorting all the props and costumes and I’ve been making the programmes and putting together bits of audio for the play.

Trust me, Thursday 13^th December is going to be an amazing evening if you’re coming to watch The Fifth Cup.