Thursday 9 April 2009

Monday, April 6th, 2009

A Drama

Durban, South Africa

I come here yearly to participate in the Chariot Festival where I lead chanting kirtans, deliver classes in Bhakti Yoga, and spend the greater percentage of time engaged in drama presentations with the local actors and aspiring actors from the community. To my satisfaction I have a Zulu native of South Africa who has a background in acting. He has played major roles such as Othello on the professional stage. Reggie told me that he would spend three months working on a piece with acting companies before the presentation to the theater.

I apologized to him for our quick assembly of drama. “We have four days before we step on stage,” I said. He was fine with that and graciously accepted a script I gave him for the first day. I had not pre-sent it because the organizers and I were not quite settled on the second play to be presented at this year’s festival, known historically under the name Ratha Yatra.

The piece Reggie had agreed to take the lead role in is the drama “Nandulal” which highlights the story of the blind Vilvamongala. It is a play written and adapted for the stage in 1981 by Andy Fraenkel, also known as Sankirtana Das. It’s a touching story about one person’s way of dealing with personal lust.

5 km

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