Seventy-seven Minutes of Comedy: Curtain Falls on Desipina

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Raj recaps Desipina & Company's Seven.11 Convenience Theatre

The curtain falls on fusion arts company, Desipina & Company's Seven.11 Convenience Theatre after seven fun-filled years. Ably run by sisters Rehana Mirza, Artistic Director and Rohi Mirza Pandya, Producing Director, Desipina's mini-productions were a labor of love that cast seven talented actors and seven playwrights this year and ensured an audience that celebrated South Asian and Asian Pacific genres. Says, Rohi, "It's been an incredible journey but we are ready to close up shop for good since we're shifting priorities."

Adds Rohi, "In part, our artistic aspirations have moved beyond what can be done in 11 minutes, with all of our artists, including ourselves, running the store with little to no funding. We want to be able to end on a high note with Seven.11, while also turning an eye towards a future where South Asian and Asian American theater is valued to the point where it has as many donors as other mainstream non-profit theaters."

Last week's inaugural show of seven sketches (each lasting 11 minutes) set in the American 7-11 convenience store at Centerstage in Manhattan were hilarious, and excelling were Kavi Ladnier (versatile bundle of fun, the woman cannot stand still -- Color Me Desi), Andrew Guilarte (his professionalism and experience showed), Cindy Cheung (wild and restrained in turns in What's in Store, written by Rehana), Tim Cain (the big-made clerk, who appeared dangerous, yet sensitive, when provoked in One Dollar Box), Jay J. Lee (as Old Su in Closing Up Shop), Sam Ghosh (who continued to surprise in Soonderella), and Christopher Larkin (as convincing nerd in Closing Up Shop).

Admirable writing was the hallmark of the skits and scribes have used positive and unusual stereotypes that New York city offers, to maximum advantage. While occasionally the rhymes and music didn't resonate perhaps because of inadequate acoustics controls the ultimate effect didn't suffer too much.

Character names such as Chandrakant Scroogewala, Soonderella (desi "Cinderella"), Foffatlal were obvious giveaways and it is creditable that Desipina executed these witty plays with professional aplomb. Kavi was a riot in Soonderella with Cindy (Helen Anti), an able foil and Foffatlal (Sam Ghosh). Addressing Prince Charming Singh (Andrew Guilarte) as "You are my Taj Mahal" Cindy's spoof line had a charming touch. It was obvious, most of the actors loved the challenge of playing outside of their own skins.

To a question by the writer about how difficult or easy it was for her to manage a diverse group of actors with multi-racial identities and fusion lifestyles in the plays, Rohi said, "Everyone brings to the table drastically different perspectives, which only helps to create a livelier discussion, which shows on the stage. One of the main reasons why we created Seven.11 was to show the broad spectrum of the Asian American experience, and to show that there is not just one story that encompasses it all. The fact that everyone is so unique and has such different backgrounds precisely proves our point. We love to mix the pot up and show that there's no need to be afraid to stick everyone on one stage together." The diversity of the ensemble, and of the playwrights actually helped. Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri had their writing and music cut out for them in A Very Desi Christmas with Andrew, the ideal scrooge. Sanjiv served as dialect coach, Rishi Chowdhary phonetically wrote out some of his Guyanese dialogue for Kavi in Color Me Desi.

The seven actors of the multi-cultural chorus that belted out the final "Om jagadeesha harey" would have brought tears of joy to the NOA (Network of Anti-gees), a clever take on well-meaning real life "aunties" from back home and from Edison, New Jersey. Only the obligatory flame and incense stick were missing.

About future plans for Seven.11, Rohi confided, "We would love to share a theater space with other innovative Off-off Broadway companies such as Youngblood or Vampire Cowboys, so that we can focus more on the art that we want to create rather than the woes of producing on a shoestring budget in somebody else's space."

Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York-based trend writer, reports on the art market and has contributed to publications in the U.S., Canada, Republic of Korea and India. Email: raj.rangarajan@gmail.com.