Jain Spirit 2005 06 No22

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

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The idea of the play came up about six months earlier when the women's wing of Jain Vishva Bharti UK was looking for a fundraising event. Performing Chandanbala was an obvious choice, not only because of its powerful storyline, but also because it was a play that would interest all - men and women, the young and the elderly. Deciding on staging Chandanbala was, however, the easy part. Initial readings of the original Hindi script made it evident that the level of Hindi was too high for UK audiences, a primarily English and Gujarati speaking population. A long-drawn process began to simplify the language without losing the essence of the story. The multi-lingual skills of the samanijis at JVB London proved very useful in this.
The next task, and possibly the greatest stumbling block, was the casting. Not only did the play require a twenty-odd cast of good actors fluent in Hindi, but also people who were willing to go through the six months of rehearsing and organising. Moreover, the play featured complex characters ranging from a villainous soldier to a eunuch and of course, the title role of Chandanbala. Finding appropriate people to play these roles from amongst family and friends was to become a real challenge for the play organisers. "We spent hours discussing the people around us, their appearance, their accents and their acting potential," recall Nina
Choraria and Shivani Sethia, the play's coordinators. "And then we spent days trying to convince these people to take part!"
Understandably, many of those approached were shy or anxious about acting in front of friends and family, not having been on stage since their school play decades ago. Many requests, pleas and emotional blackmails followed and a hesitant cast of volunteers was formed. It was an eclectic group which included students, doctors, businessmen, musicians, housewives and even some from outside the Jain community. Sectarian issues were put aside, and a truly nonsectarian cast came together to do a play with a universal message. No one realised it at the time, but it was this unusual mix of diverse individuals that would give the performance its special quality.
Wisely, the organisers realised early on that a professional show needed a professional director, particularly when performed by an amateur cast. Enter Tushar Trivedi, director at London's Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. Under his expert direction the process of putting together London's first-ever Jain musical began.
What followed were months of script reading and late-night rehearsals, coordinating of work schedules and
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ART & LITERATURE travel dates and most importantly, fun. As initial inhibitions were shed, the participants started getting familiar with their characters and equally importantly, with each other. Family members got used to dialogues weaving their way into everyday conversations and friends worked their socialising around rehearsal times. Clearly, the community spirit was everywhere.
Behind all this flurry of activity, the women's wing was quietly getting on with the organisational stuff. Chandanbala was, after all, a fundraising event: sponsorships had to be secured, brochures had to be printed and tickets had to be printed and sold. Once again, the response from the community - Jain and non-Jain - was wholehearted and heart-warming. The pillars of support through all this were the samanijis, tireless in their efforts and ever-helpful in their advice.
As the day of the play drew closer, other issues needed attention. After much hunting, Hatch End High School was selected as the venue for the play. The stage now needed to be set for the performance, so the backstage work of props and costumes started. Elaborate props depicting palaces, forests and marketplaces were sourced from temples and wedding suppliers, many even created from scratch. The costume requirements were unusual and, consequently, wardrobes of all
photo courtesy of Chandu Shah: cknshah@aol.com
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