NetIP St. Louis, Winner of Best Cultural Awareness Event at the Boscars
This year, NetIP St. Louis decided to become a part of something revolutionary. A nascent theater group called “The South Asian Theater Company” decided to take its first production, “Birds, Bees, and Biodata,” to the stage in St Louis. Such an enormous task entailed a large amount of risk and the promise of countless hours of work.
“Birds, Bees, and Biodata,” is a comedy originally written and performed by “Princeton South Asian Theatrics” in 1999 (primary authors Sachin Shah and Karthick Ramakrishnan, modification in 2008 by Sanjiv Bajaj). The final product is a 2 ½ hour comedy about relationships and conflicts in South Asian families in America and about arranged marriages. The play touches on serious themes such as dating vs arranged marriage vs arranged introductions, premarital sex, child autonomy, and changing notions of family roles. It does so against a comedic backdrop, encouraging the audience to enjoy the play as they deal with these difficult issues.
NetIP St. Louis initially helped in recruiting many members of the cast. It then helped in publicity (using several media) and funding for the endeavor and finally lent manpower for the production crew. In the end, NetIP St. Louis’s involvement was critical to the great success of the production. The Black Cat Theater in St Louis has seating for 145 people and the first show seated 195 (with extra seats brought in) and had extra guests standing in the back!
Most of all, the production brought a new consciousness to the St Louis community that the arts could provide a valid vehicle for showcasing important issues in South Asian culture. It stood out against a landscape populated by many Diwali shows and talent shows. The South Asian Theater Group is currently writing its next production and will be putting it on in the coming year in collaboration with the St Louis chapter of NetIP, highlighting a unique collaboration that adds cultural depth to the South Asian cultural scene and the broader theatrical milieu in the city of St Louis.
