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February 11th, 2004
A new drama stems from one New York
actor's encounters with life and death in India. NY1’s
Donna Karger has a look at "Kalighat" in the
following report.
It's a place of hope and a place
of despair, a place where the harsh realities of caring
for the destitute and dying become glaringly evident.
The place is Kalighat, Mother Teresa's home for the dying
in Calcutta, and it's also the setting for Paul Knox's
epic drama "Kalighat.”
“I always say that Kalighat,
the place, is the star of the play, because it's very
much about the energy of that particular place and how
it affects the characters who are there,” says Knox.
These characters are based on the
people Knox met when he spent time working at Kalighat
back in the 1980's.
“There was a time in New York
when I was a struggling actor, and a lot of my friends
were getting sick and dying, and the whole experience
of being an actor in New York didn't seem like enough
at that point,” says Knox. “I wanted to see
what else I might do with my life that might be a little
bit more fulfilling.”
So Knox traveled to Calcutta, where
he was one of several western volunteers helping Mother
Teresa's Missionaries of Charity care for the poor and
sick. Knox discovered a complex place where workers were
coping with an enormous task.
Now, after several years in the
making, "Kalighat," Knox's dramatic tale of
his experiences there, is being told on stage.
“Kalighat” is being presented
at the Baruch Performing Arts Center as part of a multidisciplinary
program called "Mela: A South Asian Festival."
This mela, which in Hindi means “fair or festival,”
offers up a wide variety of works by South Asian artists.
“We can show diversity of the
different art forms and showcase them to the public,”
says Aroon Shivdasani, Executive Director of the Indo-American
Arts Council, one of the organizations which is co-producing
the festival. “[We can] show them these are all Indian
artists, Indian art forms, performed, directed, produced
by Indians, and it's something that all of you can identify
with and enjoy, be stimulated by, be educated by.”
For Geeta Citygirl, an Indian-American
performer in "Kalighat," the production has
been an education in her own Indian ancestry.
“I called up the Missionaries
of Charity in Harlem when I first got the script, and
I didn't know that they were here really, I never took
an interest in it,” she says. “And being in
this production and sort of having to research your roots
is always exciting.”
As for the lessons of the play itself,
Knox's message is a global one.
“Ultimately I think the play
speaks to the commonality of humanity,” Knox says.
“That even though there are geographic separations,
cultural separations, economic separations, that there
is a level on which we all share things, and there is
a common link.”
"Kalighat" and the rest
of "Mela: A South Asian Festival" is running
at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan through
February 15th.
For details, visit the Indo-American
Arts Council website at .
- Donna Karger |
