Merchants of Drama

Night of January 16th : 25/26 March, 7 PM @ KH Kala Soudha

2010-03-20T11:45:00.003+05:30

What happened on the Night of January 16^th?

A startlingly successful international tycoon, the head of a vast financial empire – is dead. Who is responsible for his death? Is it a cold-blooded murder, or the suicide of a man too proud live less than a king?

It all comes down to the testimony of those around him – the men and women who knew him best.

Only you, the audience, can decide.

The play is a courtroom drama with a jury selected from the audience. The play has been critically acclaimed as a timeless masterpiece that accurately reflects the sentiments of the jury in each generation

Night of January 16th
A play in 3 acts by Ayn Rand
7 pm, 25th and 26th March 2010

K H Kala Soudha

Ramanjaneya Temple Compound

Hanumanth Nagar directions from MG Road

Tickets for Rs. 100 @ www.buzzintown.com

OR BLOCK TICKETS HERE

We went missing...

2009-10-04T22:55:00.002+05:30

... and we're not completely back yet. We just decided to post in case "Without A Trace" decided to profile us. It's best that we keep it short and simple...

1. For those who attended the audition and are wondering whether it was a fraud: No, it was real. There were some serious hiccups with respect to the venue and some non-trivial acting roles we needed for the play. Serious enough to postpone it until we could sort things out, and serious enough that they have not been sorted out yet. Apologies for keeping you hanging, but we're kinda dangling by the short and curlies ourselves. We have your email addresses (which we have not sold to any direct marketing company) and will get back to you all just as soon as we figure things out. Thought we owed you guys this much info at least...

2. We have not been completely idle though: We did a theatre workshop @ Festember (NIT Trichy). It was a fun and hectic 2 days, and we are amazed we survived the searing Trichy heat after the cooler climes of Bangalore. In other news, we rocked that workshop...

3. We also work: And this continues to be the root cause of all delays. Part-time theatre enthusiasts - you know our pain...

More later.

Dhan te nan... Dhan te nan... Ok, that's enough!

2009-08-23T15:51:00.005+05:30

Ok, so we're really tired of lazing around. And thanks to Aashish our asses are now moving instead of sitting and obfeffing about which parts in Kaminey were Guy Ritchie-inspired and which were Tarantino-inspired.

So here we are again with auditions for our next production. Like our last production, this production is equally ambitious, if not more. We are auditioning for a few major roles, a few minor roles, and an odd-job guy to do our household chores while we are at rehearsals. We are also on the lookout for members of our production team. The requirements to qualify for our auditions are as follows:

Odd-job guy: Elaborate curriculum vitae describing previous work-experience, long and short term career goals, 3 essays, GMAT score, CAT percentile, and a stress interview.
Major/Minor acting roles, Production team: 20 minutes of your time on the day of the audition (phew! too much!!)

The audition details are as follows:

Date: 29-30 August 2009 (Sat, Sun)
Time: 4pm to 7pm (on each day)
Venue: MoD Headquarters...

101 Arien Edifice,
A-cross, Nanja Reddy Colony
Opp. Kempfort (now Total Mall)
Old Airport Road

(We love calling it our headquarters just to make it sound cooler. So please don't be disappointed if you don't see a nice water fountain, free chocolates, and a hot receptionist)

In case you have any queries regarding the auditions, or Rakhi ka Swayamvar, please feel free to mail us at merchants.of.drama@gmail.com . Or you can call any of the following people:

Aashish: 96119 09290
Rakesh: 99019 67330
Faiq : 93425 04426

So if you are a thespian, a colourful lights guy, a fancy costume person, or just someone who can spell 'theatre' - do drop by for some fun. See you!

PS: We are working on the hot receptionist bit

PPS: There will actually be free chocolates

"Aaja ki oneway hai yeh zindagi ki gali, Ek hi chance hai,
Aage hawa hi hawa hai agar saans hai to, Yeh romance hai.
Dhan te nan, te ne na na"
- Kaminey

Planning to stay PUT at home this weekend? Think again...

2009-03-13T14:31:00.006+05:30

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

MoD is back. And this is for all our fans who have been eagerly awaiting our decision - we are NOT giving up theatre to contest in the Lok Sabha polls (Mind you, the option looked quite tantalizing given the amount of intelligence, or lack of it, required to contest). Instead, PGK is scripting a play, Ramdas is watching Boston Legal and Rakesh is analyzing South Africa’s home defeat.

Unlike corporates we do not get any pleasure out of saying the sequence of words “You Are Fired” in a deep voice. Instead we would love to say “You Are Hired” in a deep voice. And that is exactly what we are doing. We are looking for actors and production crew members for our next play, the script for which is shaping up really well. We are thus holding open auditions this weekend. The details for the same are provided below:

Date: 14th and 15th of March, 2009.
Time: 4pm to 8pm
Venue: 101, Arien Edifice,
‘A’ Cross Nanja Reddy Colony,
Opp Kempfort (Now Total Mall),
Old Airport Road,
Bangalore – 987654 (Ok, the pin code is incorrect. Will you sue us? Bring it on!)

Oh, and we apologise for the short notice. As it is fashionable these days about everything, blame it on the recession. So, if any of you folks really want to make a fool of yourself but can't do so this weekend, shoot us a mail or call us and let's see if we can work something out.

PS: Please be on time or else you will be shipped to New Zealand and be made to bowl at Sehwag.
PPS: Pepsi, Kaapi Macha, etc to be sponsored by the MoD Squad.
PPPS: You are welcome even only just for the freebies.

In case you have any queries, don’t request the database (Ok, bad one :P ). Mail us at merchants.of.drama@gmail.com or feel free to call anyone of the following:

Praveen (PGK): 99002-12387
Rakesh (Steve): 99019-67330
Faiq (Faiq): 93425-04426

T minus 100 hours

2008-07-07T11:52:00.006+05:30

One week ago, the Indian Express and the Times of India reported that a Nazi war criminal was identified and arrested after remaining in hiding for over 50 years (link). The story later turned out to be a hoax (link).

This weekend at Alliance Francaise, a 16 year old boy will show you how it could have all been true.

An Apt Pupil !!

2008-07-03T12:23:00.010+05:30

Aaaand... after the usual procrastination we bring you *drumroll*... (Click on image for details)

The play will be staged at the Alliance Francaise (Off Cunningham Road) on the 11th and 12th of July at 7 pm.

For donor passes priced at Rs.100 each, call 99808-62727 or 99002-12387. Else, just login to buzzintown.com mail us at: merchants.of.drama@gmail.com . Tickets are also available at Crossword on Residency Road and the Alliance Café.

“But maybe for all of you, there's something about what the Germans did which excites you - something that opens the coffins of your imagination. Maybe part of your dread and horror comes from a secret knowledge that under the right- or wrong set of circumstances the things that live in your coffins would be glad to crawl out...”

– An Apt Pupil

Based on the novella by Stephen King, and adapted for the stage by Praveen Gopal Krishnan, this play is an 11-character drama that explores the themes of guilt, corruption and dubious relationships. In an Apt Pupil, a young Nazi-obsessed American high school student, Todd Bowden, blackmails a WW2 war criminal, Kurt Dussander, to entertain him with gory tales of the death camps. As he spends more time with the old man, the tales of the past seduce and possess both Todd and Dussander. What follows is an edge-of-your-seat thriller involving impersonation, dream sequences, murder and blackmail. After all, is it possible to be exposed to murder piled upon murder and not be touched by it? An Apt Pupil is a primarily about evil - and how the human mind chooses to see it.

Update: The cast includes Rakesh Krishnan, Saumya Garg, Parijat Mukherjee, Santosh S, Akhila Koneri, Faiq Gazdhar, Mayank Rungta, Shridha Tyagi and Vivek Shah with sounds by Amit Barde.

Quid plug quo..

2008-06-30T15:55:00.004+05:30

Yes. We are aware that we aren't discussing our upcoming play much - but that's mostly because we are too busy working on it. 11 characters,15 scenes and 10 tireless backstage people can be a logistical nightmare you know, especially if we do this part-time. But the good news is that the show is shaping along nicely, so we hope to keep you riveted when we take to stage 12 days from now.

Firstly, a huge thanks to Evam for giving us a hand with publicity last weekend at Rangashankara. Most of the production crew were at RS that weekend helping Evam out with the brilliant Doubles, Triples and Quadruples. Some of us even managed to catch the show and our unanimous review of the play is thus - Awesome.

An inevitable quick plug though - Evam is showing ART on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at RS at 7:30pm (PGK highly recommends this one, it's his favourite Evam play - and we take his word seriously, mostly because he can fire us all if he wants to..heh heh...). Block tickets at www.evam.in and go for it!

New Logo!

2008-06-24T14:28:00.004+05:30

Since anything - even spotlights, designed through PGK's dexterous use of Photoshop somehow ends up looking like ...er... a part of the male anatomy, the rest of the MoD Squad over-ruled the leader and came up with a new spiffy logo instead.

And the result - mostly after some regular Gaussian fading of 2.2 and 5.2, cross-layer distortion and inter-temporal chaos Harding effect is...

P.S: Credits - Sapna and Pari. And Adobe, of course...and that nice, friendly man who sells pirated software CDs at Majestic.

The Final Countdown

2008-06-03T18:49:00.002+05:30

With the IPL finally over,
The antics of Shahrukh and Johar,
And the Redskins turning sober,
Pseudo managerial instincts getting stronger,
No time for a blog, but only Twitter,
Practice is getting bigger, faster and better

Time and tide wait for none,
Is what old people say when they are almost done,
The time has come, (Read like an over-enthusiastic Filmfare Awards presenter),
Finally to mix practice sessions with rum,
Unless rain or elections should come

The script is ready,
The actors look steady,
The play even has a teddy,
Thus gears up Em O Dee

With PGK and Rakesh living the grind,
Leaving the unpacking and cleaning maid behind,
@Boss: If we haven’t shaved, please don’t mind

Ash to ash, dust to dust, venue to venue,
The Squad is trying to present something big and new

A good audience and the blessings of BSB is all we seek before the final 3, 2, 1

Rehearsals aka 'Battle without Honor or Humanity'

2008-05-14T16:15:00.001+05:30

The cast has been more or less picked, more - we hope. While PGK has been having sleepless nights working on the script, the actors are slowly getting into their groove. A couple of readings have been completed, and we can safely say that this is our most ambitious production...yet.

Do let us know what you thought about the teaser poster, we plan to release the main poster in a month or so - till then, do watch this space.

Oh, and while we do not need actors, we do have a couple of slots left for the production team so if you are wondering if you are too late, you aren't. Get in touch with us!

Keep the emails flowing in, and no - for the last time, we DO NOT have any Golden Globes for you. I don't care if you are willing to pay by the hour. All these rumours about us these other jealous theatre groups spread, I tell you!

Cheers!

P.S: Psst...Will suntanned dark-brownish Globes fit the bill instead??

Teaser Poster!

2008-05-06T23:19:00.004+05:30

Suno suno gaaon waalon!!

2008-03-18T11:58:00.002+05:30

Adding to India's already problematic resource crunch is MOD. We need more people!! We need actors, directors, and a calm and composed* production and technical crew. And despite planning to take on a whole new set of people from last week's audition, we ain't stopping..

So, without much ado, the details!
Venue : the same place really... found here
Time : 4PM to 8PM
Date : 23 March 2008, Sunday

In case you get lost or confused or have any other queries give a call to one of the numbers below or mail us at merchants.of.drama@gmail.com.
Praveen : 99002-12387
Aashish : 99452-80487
Rakesh : 99019-67330
Santosh : 98451-99120

So it's round two! See you all there...

* at least someone should be calm and composed!

Auditions! 16 March 2008, 5 PM

2008-03-13T20:11:00.007+05:30

Looking for a chance to act/ be a part of the stage?
Merchants of Drama is looking for actors (male and female) and a production team for their production - which happens to be a short-play comedy to be staged sometime in June/July. Like Hillary Clinton, we believe that experience is important, however if you 'hope' you can 'change' our mind, you are welcome to drop in and give a shot at the audition. As with the last time, loads of fun is assured and we promise (again) not to hit on any of the girls, guys or animals. Please leave your mothers-in-law at home though...

About Merchants of Drama:
Merchants of Drama is a Bangalore-based theatre group which remains deeply committed to some vague and undefined ideals of ethics, and has a passion for excellence and the music of The Backstreet Boys. MoD has been founded by two members who are bound by a common interest in theatre and a mutual hatred for the software industry. One of MoD's long term goals is to touch and feel two Golden Globes sometime in their lifetime. They hope to win some awards as well.

Merchants of Drama had staged a successful production last year - "Playing Along" and which featured in the Times of India and Midday, Bangalore.

(More about our history here)

Disclaimer:
MoD is an equal opportunity organisation and we do not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, gender, political leanings or the kind of clothes you do or do not wear.

Venue:
Hi-Tech Structures Pvt. Ltd,
202 Blue Cross Chambers,
11 Infantry Road Cross,
Bangalore

which is.... here in Google Maps

Date: 16th March 2008, 5pm

In case you get lost or confused or have any other queries give a call to one of the numbers below or mail us at merchants.of.drama@gmail.com.
Praveen : 99002-12387
Rakesh : 99019-67330
Santosh : 98451-99120

PS: Sorry for the short notice. But this is actually a long notice. Okie.. bad joke... no more...

Auditions!

2008-03-13T11:33:00.001+05:30

I would like to say - "we are back!" but we never really went anywhere.

Auditions this weekend for the next production!

Details coming soon!

Photos: poster signing and other timepass

2007-06-04T17:59:00.000+05:30

PGK, Gyanesh, Rachna et moi. Zimbly timepass...

Merchants of Drama

Merchants of Drama (again. same people, I assure you..)

Faiq on the mike! (pronounced as "fike")
Our sounds guy

Faiq again.. completing the mug-shot

Gyanesh and Ewa

Lodu "El Lodus" Nathan (officially known as Vivek Vaidyanathan)
God said "let there be light", and Lodu hit the switch...

Yup, we have our own cheerleaders

Mando and PGK - the ones who lost all the money :'(

Raj, Mando and PGK : The thespis from NITT

Santosh and Lodu

Photos: The sketches

2007-06-04T17:45:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Vivek Shah for taking the photos! As soon as I get more photos of the others they will be put up. Really not trying to be narcissistic :)

-Aashish

The Cricket Sketch
Santosh as the project manager addressing his team

The tights sketch
Taken from Rowan Aktinson's sketch "Pink tights and plenty of props"

Fatal Beatings
Headmaster(Aashish) and father(Gyanesh)

Fatal Beatings
Headmaster(Aashish)

With Friends Like These
The father-in-law

With Friends Like These
The father-in-law

Photos: Playing Along 3 June 2007

2007-06-04T17:36:00.000+05:30

From left to right: Viren(Ajay), Andy(Raj), Sandhya(Rachna), Kishore(Gyanesh)

Kishore(Gyanesh) leaving for his parents' house

Sandhya(Rachna) and Viren(Ajay) with the red bra

Andy(Raj) with the dog photos

The Devil of the play

PGK introducing the cast

The complete cast (including sketches)

Stop the press!!

2007-05-31T17:38:00.000+05:30

Yes, we're in print. And what a glowing recommendation as well! Thanks to Mid-Day for doing this piece on us!

We're getting reviewed..!

2007-05-30T19:38:00.000+05:30

Some posts on our thread in the Ranga Shankara community on orkut: http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=949636&tid=2533489766397902443&start=1

Pictures of Playing Along, 27 May 2007

2007-05-30T17:15:00.000+05:30

A few high(er) resolution images of the first performance - many thanks to Ankur Gupta and his lovely SLR camera. More after the second performance.

Note to self: Have got to carry our cameras to the hall on the day of the show...

The Yavanika auditorium in red and black - our theme :)

Andy (Rajkrishnan Parameswaran) and Viren (Ajay Simha)
Playing Along, scene 2

Sandhya (Rachna Taranath) and Viren (Ajay Simha)
Playing Along, scene 1

Policeman (Aashish Ramdas) and the gay man (Praveen Krishnan)
The gay policeman sketch (Monty Python)

The devil (Aashish Ramdas)
Playing Along, scene 1

Blocking your tickets

2007-05-21T18:13:00.000+05:30

I thought it would be wise to take some time out and explain how this would work. I don't think too many people are going to read this, but I might as well put it up.

Blocking your ticket over the phone:
1. Call 99806 44552
2. One of the members of our troupe will take your call
3. Give us your name, the number of tickets you want to block, and your phone number. And of course, tell us for which date you want the tickets..
4. If the tickets are available, they will be blocked for you and we will give you an immediate acknowledgement.

Blocking your ticket by email:
1. Mail us with your name, the number of tickets you want to block, and your phone number. And the date.. don't forget that..!
2. If the tickets are available, they will be blocked for you and an acknowledgement will be sent by email.

You can pick up the tickets anytime before 6pm on the day of the show. You need to provide your name and your phone number (just so that we identify you, you know...). In case you do not pick up the tickets in time, they will return to the common pool to be sold at the venue to anyone who wishes to buy a ticket.

Oh yeah.. the ticket price

2007-05-21T17:32:00.000+05:30

The ticket price is missing from the tickets and the posters. Just to clarify - it's Rs. 100 per ticket (admit one). It's free seating in the auditorium - no blocking of specific seats or areas in the audi.

The way to Yavanika - the road less travelled

2007-05-21T14:59:00.000+05:30

A lot of people asked us where we were going to stage the play, and for a long time we couldn't tell them. Mostly because we hadn't booked a place. When we finally did manage to book a place, we found out that no one had ever heard of it! Yes, yes, we're talking of Yavanika. Funnily, the stage is wonderful and it comes with lights (not there in Alliance) and sound support. And the people there are tremendously helpful. And even though we went there for the first time with a bias against a government run auditorium, we were pleasantly surprised.

Still, we haven't figured out why this place is so unknown. It probably doesn't market itself enough. So now that we're staging our play there, we have to do the marketing ourselves and make sure that people know about Yavanika - and more importantly - our play!

The route to follow (for those coming from Airport/IndiraNagar) is:
Get on to MG Road, from the trinity circle end. Follow it past Mayo hall and the Brigade road signal to Anil Kumble circle. Turn right and go stright till you hit an intersection. Turn left: you are now on Cubbon Road.
From there make your way to Dr. Ambedkar Road (little complicated to explain how, but this road is not too far away). On Dr. Ambedkar road you will see Vidhana Soudha on the right and the Karnataka High Court on the left. Go on till the signal, and that is where the road forks into Nrupathunga road (to the left) and the Post Office Road (to the right).

Why this complicated route? Because what I was told was that Nrupathunga Road is a one-way and so you have to approach it from the Vidhana Soudha route. Correct me if I'm wrong, and if you have simpler routes, please let us know!

Yavanika can be found on Wikimapia here: http://wikimapia.org/283228/

Also, we got a few images from google maps to help you out:

Yavanika - marked with the red circle ((C) Google maps)

The entire map of the area ((C) Google maps)

le marketing gimmicke

2007-05-21T14:47:00.000+05:30

We've been sending this out to a lot of people we know, and don't know. It's our mass-mailer - yay! we have one too!
----------------------

Yaooza!
Merchants of Drama is proud to present

Playing Along...
A riot of a comedy in two acts

Date: 27 May 2007 and 3 June 2007
Time: 6:30 pm

Venue: Yavanika Auditorium
State Youth Centre (next to RBI)
Nrupathunga Road, Bangalore.

Merchants of Drama is proud to present it's maiden production: Playing Along.... It consists of a series of sketches adapted from various sources followed by a self-scripted one-act play. Playing Along... is a much acclaimed comedy which has won awards at four national inter-college theatre competitions in 2005 including at Saarang (IIT Madras) and at Unmaad (IIM Bangalore). The play is in English and the duration is about 75 minutes.

The play will be staged at the Yavanika Auditorium, on Nrupathunga Road. The rest of the details are given below (and in the poster). A rough map is attached, and shows you how to get to the auditorium from Anil Kumble Circle on MG Road.

For bookings
to reserve/block call 99806-44552
or
drop in a email at merchants.of.drama@gmail.com.
Tickets are also available at Crossword on Residency Road, and at the Alliance Française Café.

For more information, visit our blog:

http://merchantsofdrama.blogspot.com

We invite you to come and watch what we guarantee will be a riot of laughter. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Merchants of Drama

We're on!!

2007-05-21T14:43:00.000+05:30

Finally, we're on. The hall has been booked, the actors ready and geared to go. It's time to get on stage. But as always, the poster first!

-Aashish

And we're done

2007-04-17T19:00:00.000+05:30

This is a long overdue post, and we apologize to everyone who has been waiting. We went back to college to watch our juniors perform on stage (yes, yes, we are very zendimendal about these things) and I'm happy to say that they did a wonderful job of keeping the Thespian flame alive. After that we just didn't feel like getting online and typing things out. You know that feeling - keyboard.. typing.. and suddenly you develop imaginary finger cramps..

Excuses, excuses. I know.

We had a great response for the two auditions and though we would love to take all the people, we are not millionaires. We were expecting to get flayed for the semi-formal atmosphere and the non-existent seating arrangement, but everyone who came was surprisingly accommodating and auditioned quite enthusiastically. We thank you profusely for being such sports.

For those not on stage, all is not lost. We have a production team that's still half-full and if you send us a mail, we'll remember to get back in touch with you at the right time.

Right now, we've got to get back to practicing. And we'll see you around sometime...

Round two...

2007-03-27T17:30:00.001+05:30

Nope... No boxing, and no Rocky Balboa for fragile ol' me anyway. There's going to be another round of auditions this Sunday (and we hope this will be the last round). Here's the critical information:

1. Venue: same place as the last time (look here)
2. Time: same time (yawn... office is tiring)
3. Date: Aha!! The all important change! It's on the 1st of April, 2007. And we're not joking, because we're looking forward to inducting some people this Sunday.

I failed to heed my own warning about the flu and was caught totally off-guard when I caught it*. Now that I have recovered partially, I shall advise all prospective actors** to have a few cups of hot chai before bed every night and to come flu-less to the audition. For more tips than just the hot chai, please contact my mom. For the rest of the information, please read the posts below...

-Aashish

* Looks like I'm better than the Indian team. Talking about the Indian team, the latest funda I have heard is about the root cause of the inglorious exit of our "boys with blues". Apparently it's Indira Gandhi, because if she hadn't created Bangladesh then we wouldn't have lost. Please remind me to put that in a script somewhere...

** TOI does not discriminate based on the gender of the performers anymore, so neither shall we. We like to be as politically incorrect as TOI.

[Update] Call for auditions

2007-03-23T10:10:00.000+05:30

The audition will be held on Sunday (25 Mar 2007), between 3pm and 6pm. For the lack for a better place to hold it, it will be held on the terrace of my building. The address is:
Number 1, ground floor
House number 13
5th cross, NR colony (opp kempfort)
Murugeshpalya
Airport road

If you have any trouble finding the place, just give me (Aashish) a buzz on 99452 80487. The easiest way is to land up opp kempfort and then give me a call. I will try to make sure that the afternoon heat will not be too much of a bother, but if it is then we'll keep you well fed and hydrated and wish you the best for a well developed tan. The session will be informal, so there is nothing that you should prepare for. We do keep emphasize on a strong voice, so watch out for the flu that's been running around :).

If there are any issues with the date, the time, or the place, just let us know and I'm sure we can find a way to help you out. Any other questions? - Just give me a ring.

This is just the first round, and it will go on till we're able find all the people we need. So if you're not able to make it this Sunday, send us a mail and we'll try to arrange something to your convenience.

Call for auditions

2007-03-22T22:25:00.000+05:30

Looking for a chance to act/ be a part of the stage?
Merchants of Drama is looking for actors (male and female) and a production team for their maiden production - which happens to be a sketch-based comedy. Compensation will be great, loads of fun is assured and we promise not to hit on any of the girls, guys or animals. MoD believes that their production (scheduled to be held in the month of April/May) will be the biggest rip-roaring, in-your-face, rolling down the aisles comedy of this year, narrowly beating it's closest competitor - the Ash-Abhishek wedding.

About Merchants of Drama:
Merchants of Drama is a Bangalore based theatre group which remains deeply committed to some vague and undefined ideals of ethics, and has a passion for excellence and the music of The Backstreet Boys. MoD has been founded by two members who are bound by a common interest in theatre and a mutual hatred for the software industry. One of MoD's long term goals is to touch and feel two Golden Globes sometime in their lifetime. They hope to win some awards as well.

Disclaimer:
MoD is an equal opportunity organisation and we do not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, gender, political leanings or the kind of clothes you do or do not wear.

If any of this interests you, mail us at merchants.of.drama@gmail.com or to:
Aashish: aashish.ramdas@gmail.com (Ph: 9945280487)
Praveen: krishnan.praveen@gmail.com (Ph: 9900212387)

Also visit our blog, which is rather unfinished but it does manage to keep the important information in one place: http://merchantsofdrama.blogspot.com

Act 1- Scene 1

2007-03-11T18:42:00.000+05:30

Every blog starts with fundas, and then either gets better or dies out. Actually, the last statement itself was a huge funda in itself, and I’d rather not get into self-loops of fundas. It’s time for the story of the birds and the bees… and why we are here (and a lot more fundas).

1. Who are we?
We are a bunch of software engineers. That’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. On the side however, we attempt to stage plays.

2. And what are the names of these software engineers?
Ah… Aashish and Praveen.

3. Well… what about them?
The good part is that we make a great team together. Praveen has years and years of writing behind him – scripts for plays, articles for newspapers (ET and Khaleej Times) and magazines (Young Times), and many successful attempts at defaming Aashish and others in college. Aashish, on the other hand, has four years of acting and directing to his credit, along with immense experience in imitating professors and Praveen.

Together we have done some moderately successful plays and won a few awards along the way (Saarang, Unmaad). It just makes a lot of sense for an actor-cum-director and a scriptwriter to stick together…

4. Merchants of Drama?
At the time we were thinking of names, we couldn’t come up with anything catchy. Out of sheer desperation, we decided to go the Steve Jobs way and keep our name as anything we thought of at the deadline. Of course, engineers that we are, our deadline was 2:30 am. Praveen was half-sleeping and I was watching this lovely movie called “Thank you for smoking”, and we both really loved the funda of MOD squad in the movie.

Aashish: “hey man… let’s call our troupe ‘The MOD squad’”
Praveen: “hmm… (snore)… hmm.. we sound like a bunch of geeky fashionistas trying to sell people clothes instead of tickets”
Aashish: “yeah… but the funda is cool, you know. ‘Merchants of death’… awe-inspiring… ”
Praveen: “aye, stop using GRE words man. And anyway, why would you name a theatre group ‘Merchants of death’?”
Aashish: “point.. point.. hmm… merchants of death.. M - O - D.. merchants of…"
Praveen: “Drama!”
Aashish: “brilliant!”

There you go. Simple. Sweet. An we can still call ourselves “The MOD squad” and be geeky.

But beyond all the chaat, the fundas, and the name is who we are and what we are trying to do. We believe that theatre should be fun, enjoyable and profitable for everyone involved – the audience, the actors and of course, the sponsors. And our faith in the capitalist system and ourselves to deliver the best of all worlds to you reflects in our name.

We aim not just to bring you theatre, but good theatre.
We aim not just to bring you theatre, but correctly priced theatre.
We aim not just at paying our troupe, but at paying them well.
We aim not just at selling some tickets, but at being profitable and successful.
We aim not just at putting up a show, but at being entertaining.
And we believe completely in theatre.

See you around sometime…

Merchants of Drama

Night of January 16th : 25/26 March, 7 PM @ KH Kala Soudha

What happened on the Night of January 16th?

We went missing...

Dhan te nan... Dhan te nan... Ok, that's enough!

Planning to stay PUT at home this weekend? Think again...

T minus 100 hours

An Apt Pupil !!

Quid plug quo..

New Logo!

The Final Countdown

Rehearsals aka 'Battle without Honor or Humanity'

Teaser Poster!

Suno suno gaaon waalon!!

Auditions! 16 March 2008, 5 PM

Auditions!

Photos: poster signing and other timepass

Photos: The sketches

Photos: Playing Along 3 June 2007

Stop the press!!

We're getting reviewed..!

Pictures of Playing Along, 27 May 2007

Blocking your tickets

Oh yeah.. the ticket price

The way to Yavanika - the road less travelled

le marketing gimmicke

We're on!!

And we're done

Round two...

[Update] Call for auditions

Call for auditions

Act 1- Scene 1

What happened on the Night of January 16^th?