BHOPAL

by Rahul Varma

Director: Ravi Bhatnagar

Producer: Sindu Singh

Premiering December 3, 2014 on the 30th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster

Co-sponsored by: 
Center for South Asia, Stanford University & Institute for South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley

"On the night of December 3rd 1984, Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, exploded, engulfing the city in a billow of deadly poisonous fumes.  Small children fell like flies, and men and women vainly scurried for safety only to collapse, breathless and blinded by the gas. By sunset, the death toll was 2,500. By the following day, numbers had no meaning. Bhopal had became the largest peacetime gas chamber in history."

- from the preface to Bhopal by Rahul Varma

This intense, poignant play brings to life the human stories within the complex political and economic milieu that created the worst industrial disaster the world has ever known.

CAST

Devraj Sarthi

Basab Pradhan's interest in theatre started at a young age and continued all through his school and college years during which he acted in and directed dozens of plays. Most recently, Basab's notable work has included 30 Days in September, a play about child molestation and rape by Mahesh Dattani in which he played the role of the evil Uncle, Party, a play by Mahesh Elkunchwar in which he essayed the role of the Doctor, a longtime friend of the protagonist Damyanti Rane and the lead role in Go to Your Room, Mother! a comedy about an empty nester couple whose newfound freedom and plans are disrupted by a couple of unruly in-laws.

Dr. Sonya Labonté

Sindu Singh has acted in multiple productions with various Bay Area theatre companies.  Her past roles include Damyanti Rane in Party, Bagheera in Mowgli and I, Sarita in Kamla, Hamida Begum in Jis Lahore Nahin Vekhya O Jammyai Nahin, Bhagwati in Divided Together, Mahil Mama in Indal Haran and Rita Mansingh in Go to Your Room, Mother! among many others.  Sindu founded 'Rangmanch', a South Asian theatre group for the Stanford University community in 2013 and made her highly successful directorial debut with Yoni ki Baat, the South Asian version of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.  She regularly emcees cultural events and has featured in poetry recitations and dance narrations.  She holds a Master's degree in International Finance and Business from Columbia University and loves her current job as Program Coordinator at the Center for South Asia, Stanford.

Jaganlal Bhandari

Ravi Bhatnagar's passion for theatre and film spans over 40 years in India and California.  He has been a part of more than 50 productions in various capacities, primarily as director or actor.  In 1980, he founded a theatre company in Kolkata, 'Proscenium', which is still going strong today.  He was also a professional independent film-maker and created several television series and commercials, corporate films, as well as education and training films.  Here in the Bay Area, he recently played the title role in Vermaji, a film that was selected and screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Izzat Bai

Kamala Subramaniam's previous theatre experiences in an actor/director role have been with Mahesh Dattani's Playpen (Macbeth, The Owl and the Pussycat), North Carolina Professional Theater (Blood Relations, The Private Ear and the Public Eye, Seussical the Musical, The Vagina Monologues), and Naatak (Patol Babu Filmstar, Punishment). Additionally, she has donned several production hats for Naatak. She indulges her passion for theater when she is not busy juggling work and kids.

Madiha Akram

Neha Goyal was only 7 years old when she first acted on stage. She has a few short films to her credit and has featured in numerous plays by Naatak - as Kalidas' queen in Aathva Sarg, Tabaaqui in Mowgli and I, and most recently, as Vidya in Disconnect. A dance enthusiast, she has performed in Bollywood musicals in the Bay Area and continues to pursue her interest in Indian classical dance.  She coached and hosted Naatak's first Improv show. She is an avid traveler and loves to sketch.

Warren Anderson

Paul Costello was a child actor in Chicago. His father was an actor and a founding member of the famed Chicago Playwrights Theater. Paul has studied acting throughout his life, most recently taking master classes in the Bay Area. As a former Press Secretary in U.S. national politics, his acting skills have always come in handy.  Professionally, Paul is the chief communications officer at the Stanford School of Medicine. He and his wife, Rita Beamish, a journalist, live in San Mateo.  They have two daughters, Kelly and Kira. 

Pascale Sauvé

Music and the arts have always been an important part of Phil Wiseman's life. He started his rock cover band Phil 'n The Blanks about ten years ago.  In 2012, Phil got the itch to explore theatre arts, and auditioned for the role of a frustrated lawyer in Death in San Francisco. He got the part and loved the experience of acting on stage.  Since then he has worked in several short films, one feature film (currently in post production), and is involved in several ongoing film and theater projects. All the while, he continues to sing and play guitar in PNTB all around the San Francisco Bay area.

Production Team

Producer

Sindu Singh

Production Designer

Vishalini Vimal

Artwork

Pragya Tiwari

Music

Subhapriya Srivatsan

Dance 

Sharmi Mukherjee

Stage Manager

Vrishali Modi

Stage Hands

Sue Carmichael, Alka Sippy, Atul Chaudhuri, Adrian Booth, Sumit Jain, Vineeta Singh

Sets

Gopi Rangan, Atul Chaudhuri, Alka Sippy

Costumes

Shobana Swamy, Alamelu Subramaniam

Props

Adrian Booth

Makeup

Nidhi Moza

Sound

Vinod Baya

Lights

Nick Kumamoto, Ian Milton

Ticketing

Ashok Malani, Raj Khanna

Marketing

Basab Pradhan, Sindu Singh, Kamala Subramaniam

Publicity videos

Shekhar Hemnani, Atul Chaudhuri, Bhushan Parulekar

Photography

Swagato Basumallick, Ashima Yadava, Sumit Jain

Videograpy

Phani Mahavrathayajula, Shobana Swamy

Program Design

Bernadette White

Ushers

Ranjita Chakravarty, Nayana & Satish Shenoy