Ancient
Epic of India Gets Contemporary Interpretation in "Promise"
The Ramayana is retold in Aikya
Param's new play,
presented in a New York staged reading May 5th and 6th
New
York, March 27, 2000: What makes a good national leader? "In the U.S. this question is still
open," says playwright Aikya Param. Ms.
Param is the creator of Promise,
a verse play based on the classic Indian epic Ramayana
(The Story of Rama). Ramayana tells about a
national leader whose key strength is satyam
-- integrity: knowing, thinking, speaking and living the truth as he understands it.
Promise,
a "poetic drama," is being presented in New York in a staged reading format at Pulse Ensemble Theatre on May 5th and 6th,
directed by Chirag Cary Steiner. "Ramayana
is for everyone," says Steiner, former artistic director of Actors Recovery Theatre. "The story belongs to the world, and Promise holds special meaning
in America at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The play entertains while subtly reminding us who we are, as Ramayana has done
around the world for thousands of years."
Promise
will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 5, 2000 and Saturday, May 6, at Pulse
Ensemble Theatre, 432 West 42nd Street in New York City. Tickets are $21 in advance and $25 at the door. Reservations and information can be obtained by
calling 516-352-8375. The official Promise
website is at http://hindu_online.tripod.com
The
reading is being produced to raise funds for a new Dhyanyoga Center in upstate New York. Information about Dhyanyoga Centers is available
at http://www.dyc.org. "This is an opportunity for us to bring this
play to a New York audience, and to help build a permanent East Coast center for my
spiritual teacher, Shri Anandi Ma."
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