Caste Away Arts

It’s been a loooooooooooong time since any of us wrote on here. We haven’t vanished off the face of the earth, and we haven’t been lazing around. The truth is we’ve been busier than ever!

We can now reveal that The Fifth Cup is coming to a theatre near you in Autumn/Winter 2008! Tour dates and venues are going to go up on this website over the weekend.

We started rehearsing again last weekend, it was a brilliant rehearsal and so inspiring to be amongst so many talented and commited people.

Will write more later.

Peace out

Rena Dipti Annobil

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.

Sunday was Rehearsal 3 of The Fifth Cup. The love was still there but so was the pressure! We wanted everyone to be off-script for Sunday but some of the actors still didn’t know all their lines. Arrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggh!! We’ve got less than a month left!! 

It was a really productive day though. We tried to maximise the day and have several scene run-throughs going on at the same time. That was sometimes a bit difficult because some of the actors need to be in every scene. There was a bit of a tense moment when one of the actors got a bit stroppy with us when we changed some of the script. He said he felt pressured to learn his lines but it was a waste of time because of the changes we made. I understand why he was feeling the pressure because he’s got a lot on his plate and has a lot of lines in the play. Anyway, we had a talk and sorted everything out. It’s better to talk about these things rather than just keep quiet and bitch about eachother afterwards.

Our new Teacher, Angela, was briliant. She settled into the role and the team really well. One of our main actors, Dhar, was ill so couldn’t make it. That meant that there were certain scenes which we couldn’t rehearse. Surprisingly I stayed quite calm about that because I know Dhar will have learned his lines and will be ready for next rehearsal. He is a total professional.

Harv’s own production “Bhagat Singh” is on Sunday and some of the actors of The Fifth Cup are in that. I could tell that they were feeling the pressure because of the two scripts they are learning etc. I’m looking forward to Harv’s play a lot but I’m going to be glad when it’s over because then everyone will focus 100% on The Fifth Cup. Everyone is gonna live and breathe The Fifth Cup until the performance date!

Some of us went for a drink afterwards, it was Amit’s suggestion (he’s a social party animal!). It was an…erm…interesting experience ) What was really nice to see is how the younger actors like Jay are getting inspired. He’s getting better at acting and has written a play too. We’re going to help him with that and he has kindly offered to donate the proceeds to CasteWatchUK. All I can say is watch this space!!!

Ravina Rai booked the rest of our rehearsals in the house of God. A derelict old looking building from the outside but a beautiful reflection of Gods people from the inside- a  Mandir that I’ve forgot the name of. I loved it and loved the Tea and Pokroa I mean Langar. Nice one Ravina and nice lunch too. Dam that chutney was to die for. The spring rolld roll more on next week. Oh next time bring some more of those chocolates, nutra grains bars, fresh orange juice, holu hoops and Jay wants king size Maltesers, ambrosia creamed rice, a parker pen with a cherry on top, three gold velvet cushions, a X-box and a chair embossed with ‘Jay’, Jinder wants 10 shots of JD and his own bar in the dressing room with a fit bar maid etc………
 

Well got the team warmed up and shot into our scenes. Had a good crack today and really got into our characters? This was intense stuff. There was a lot of mellow drama, flamboyance and plain cheekiness from the class room scenes PRITPAL! I have changed my extra character from Lisa to Ish who smells like fish. It was a good laugh and that’s what’s important in life. Life’s toooooooooo short to be taken seriously so just keep doing what your all doing and smile a mile for a very long while.
 

Well done everyone and an extra well done for Reena Combo. Its not easy to just jump on a project that is half way complete but you fitted in like a glove and performed exceptional during workshops. Thank you so much for stepping in.
 

Originally had an idea to use the after show discussion for hot seating the charcters. Just thought it would bring out more entertainment for the audience and would be more creative. But Rena had a last minute idea of bringing on real life case studies in a after show discussion which will really impact our audiences with this horrible thing called Caste Discimination. ABOLISH IT NOW! JAI HIND!  

We have a new Simran! She’s going to be played by the lovely Reena Combo. She has worked with Harvinder before on the plays “Anum” and “Udham” and is also the Editor of Ikonz magazine (http://www.ikonzmag.com/). Of course being a Reena, she is multi-talented and gorgeous!…and er, modest ;o)
I’ve never met Reena Combo before but I’ve spoken to her on the phone, when I organised a radio interview for her, and on email. I’m looking forward to meeting her. I’m really excited about the rehearsal tomorrow, can’t wait to see how the script changes will look. From the conversations that I’ve had with them, the cast are pretty excited about everything too. I’ve got a marathon meeting with Reena B and Ravina in a bit.

So…we’ve got Rena A, Reena B and Reena C. Evidently we’re working our way through the alphabet. I wonder how far we’ll get by the end of the production…

Until tomorrow!
Rena A

As a social researcher there is nothing I do better than talking to the general public. My aim from now and until the first week of December is to collect narratives and voices of real people airing their opinions and feelings of anything their mind wants to unload regarding the topic of Caste! Yes my folks this is a rare one but we need to open our gobs and start talking about this ‘taboo’ issue.

I have collected some fascinating rare images of everyday people along with some unforgettable quotes such as:

“I don’t have opinion of caste because I’ve got loads friends, that used to be Harijan but are now Christians. They are close friends they eat down my house. My caste is Brahmin. . .They are the back bone of India (referring to ‘Harijans’) because they do jobs others couldn’t. They shouldn’t be disregarded” Anon (42) Management

“From my own experience I have found that the majority of Jatt girls to be very proud, bitchy and typical as well as fat, boring and predictable. They need to change their ways as they give Sikhism a real bad image with their attitude never mind the look. The boys will be boys but their Girls there something else” Anon (22) Msc Student

Wow! If this is shocking you wait until you hear the rest. Come and share your views after The Fifth Cup at our exhibition called ‘’Casting Away SILENCE” and prepare yourself for the debate of your life! Oh for crying out loud!

Reena B

The actress that was supposed to play Simran sent me a text today saying that she needed to speak to me urgently regarding the play. I was hoping for the best but preparing myself for the worst. She told me that she is going to Hollywood to have talks with agents over there and flies out to the States on 12th December, one day before the performance date! Noooooooooooooo! She was perfect for the role of Simran! And how could she think that Hollywood is more important than The Fifth Cup?!

I did wish her well though and can’t be mad at her as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. But it will be weird to see another actress in the role of Simran. I suppose I’ll feel different when I see someone else actually act in that role and no one will be any wiser, well they will now that I’ve put it on this blog! ha ha, oh well.

The funny thing is that I phoned up Harv (the director) about it this evening and for some reason we both burst out laughing! This kind of thing keeps happening and however much of a forward planner you are (and believe me I am one!) you can’t control everything. So you just have to laugh. Harv is looking through her contacts list for replacements as I type. Whatever is meant to be will be. Kismet yaar!

I got the press release done today and started sending it out to various radio stations, websites and publications. We’ve already been asked to be interviewed on a well known British Asian radio station. The lovely Ravina Rai is doing her thing and sorting out more press and publicity for us and Reena is busy with the set and chatting to people on the streets about The Fifth Cup and their opinions on caste. It’s all coming together…er….more like, we’re all trying to hold it together!

Rena A