Kalyani Nagarajan
Actor
You're Invited
Written By Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis
Indians throw crazy parties.
Heard of Diwali? A million lamps floating on a river and fireworks to wake the dead.
Heard of Holi? An explosion of colour and joy and massive dry cleaning bills.
How about Onam? It could be the craziest of them all!
Indian Ink continues to bridge cultures and expand boundaries with this utterly disarming new comedy that seats the audience around the dining table and at the kitchen bench in the back room of Krishnan’s Dairy.
Now her son is grown up Mrs Krishnan is thinking of selling the shop. It’s Onam, a time to celebrate life, death and rebirth and Mrs Krishnan has to throw the party of her life.
This joyous, heart warming show picks up the story twenty years on from the production that started it all – Krishnan’s Dairy. Its premier season sold out and in January and February 2019 Mrs Krishnan’s Party heads to Vancouver’s The Cultch, and Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady (USA). Watch this space for domestic touring in 2019, including Schools’ performances. For more information contact jude@indianink.co.nz
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Private Show Information
What do you get?
The Company brings lighting, set, costumes, and props to your selected venue (e.g. home or office) to create a truly magical occasion for your invited audience. There is no limit to the number of guests you can invite - as long as there's enough space for them and the performers. The Artists are Arts Laureate Jacob Rajan and talented young musician Adam Ogle, supported by our stage manager who will ensure that all technical and production elements happen without a hiccup. The performance lasts 80 minutes and as an added bonus, if you wish it, Jacob is happy to chat with your guests after the show.
What does it cost?
The all-inclusive fee for this wonderul and unforgettable experience is only NZ$6,500 including GST.
What's Been Said
Laugh, cry, dance, eat Stuff Taranaki
Heartwarming hilarity, excellent characterisation, wonderful energy Lindsey Catherine - KUWNZ
Marvellously freewheeling evening of theatre Christopher Moore, CHCH Press
Cast & Crew
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Kalyani Nagarajan
Kalyani Nagarajan is a graduate of Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. She has studied in France with Master Clown Philippe Gaulier, where she performed Mask, Moliere and Melodrama. Productions for Indian Ink include The Pickle King and most recently Mrs Krishnan’s Party. Other performance credits include Auckland Theatre Company’s POLO, TV series, Brokenwood Mysteries, The International Comedy Festival as well as touring The Gruffalo around New Zealand and Australia. Kalyani is very passionate about her culture and representing her background in the arts industry. She practices bharatha natyam (Indian classical dance) and has a flair for accents, with many down her sleeve including Cantonese, South African, Indian, Boston and more. She wants to devise work and create comic yet heart-warming pieces that can give life and dignity to ordinary characters we usually ignore in society.
“The best performance though is provided by Kalyani Nagarajan, with her mixture of the whimsical and pragmatic approach to life. She comes across as the only real, three-dimensional character in the play with sensitive naturalism” John Daly, NBR.
Justin Rogers
Actor
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Justin Rogers
Justin Rogers graduated from Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School in 2015. Previous roles there include the Prince in Into The Woods directed by Cameron Rhodes, Petrell in Pains of Youth Directed by Shane Bosher and the short film Jigsaw directed by James Ashcroft. Since graduating, Justin has enjoyed performing across New Zealand stage and screen including playing Jamie in the musical The Last Five Years directed by Jon Hunter and musical direction by Mark W. Dorrell. In 2016 he toured the show Matariki with the Court Theatre which performed to ten thousand kids across Canterbury. With Auckland Theatre Company he toured the show Maui Me Te Ra and most recently played Dr Ropata in Shortland Street the Musical. Justin also continues to pursue his work as a magician and magic consultant for theatre. He is a proud equity member.
Justin Lewis
Writer, Director
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Justin Lewis
Company Director, Writer & Artistic Director
Justin is a founding partner of Indian Ink and collaborated with Jacob Rajan to create the company’s works: Krishnan’s Dairy, The Candlestickmaker, The Pickle King, The Dentist’s Chair, Guru of Chai and Kiss the Fish. Indian Ink’s productions have won numerous awards including two Edinburgh Fringe First Awards and Three production of the Year Awards in New Zealand. Justin has produced numerous national and international tours. He is Deputy Chair of Q Theatre and has been heavily involved in its development from the beginning. In 2008 he received a Kaupapa Oranga Award for his services to theatre. Justin is a graduate of the John Bolton Theatre School and University of Auckland.
Jacob Rajan
Writer
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Jacob Rajan
Company Director, Writer & Performer
Jacob is an Arts Foundation Laureate and founding partner of Indian Ink. He collaborated to create Krishnan’s Dairy, The Candlestickmaker, The Pickle King, The Dentist’s Chair, The Guru of Chai and Kiss the Fish and has performed them throughout New Zealand and internationally.
Jacob won “Best Actor” in the 2010 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for ‘The Guru of Chai’. He has also received an accolade for acting excellence and was nominated for the Stage Award for Best Actor at the Edinburgh Fringe. Jacob has featured on New Zealand TV series (Outrageous Fortune and Shortland Street). In 2013 Jacob was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the New Year’s Honours List.
Jacob’s family originates in Kerala, Southern India. He was born in Malaysia and immigrated to New Zealand at the age of four. Jacob has a degree in microbiology, a teacher’s diploma and is a graduate of Toi Whakaari – The New Zealand Drama School.
Murray Edmond
Dramaturge
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Murray Edmond
Dramaturg
Murray has been dramaturg on all of Indian Ink’s productions. A poet and founder of Town and Country players (NZ), Murray has recently retired from his role as Professor of Drama at Auckland University where he headed the Drama course.
Andrew Potvin
Production & Stage Manager
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Andrew Potvin
Andrew is the Director of Andrew Potvin Designs Ltd which specialises in tour management, business development and lighting design. He has a professional theatre portfolio spanning eighteen years across New Zealand and his homeland of the United States of America. Andrew started his New Zealand portfolio in Auckland as Technical Manager of the Basement Theatre (2011), and has gone on to work with companies such as Q Theatre, Indian Ink Theatre Company and Auckland Theatre Company, mainly in design and production roles. With Tour-Makers he has co-produced national tours of The White Guitar, Triumphs and Other Alternatives, The Book of Everything, Modern Maori Quartet, Daffodils, Live Live Cinema’s Little Shop of Horrors and The Mooncake and the Kumara. Recent design credits include Auckland Theatre Company’s Guys and Dolls and Opera Factory’s The Medium.
In 2019 Andrew hits the road with Indian Ink Theatre Company as Production and Stage Manager for their international and national touring of Mrs Krishnan’s Party.
Andrew is a member of ETNZ, EVANZ and MTNZ .
John Verryt
Set Designer
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John Verryt
Set & Costume Design
John has worked on all of Indian Ink’s productions to date. With over 30 years experience he is one of New Zealand’s leading performance designers with an extensive portfolio of work including designs for NBR New Zealand Opera, Black Grace Dance Company, Douglas Wright and Auckland Theatre Company.
Fiona Nichols
Costume Designer
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Fiona Nichols
Fiona has previously worked with Indian Ink as assistant to John Verryt making costumes for The Dentist’s Chair.
She has worked in the costume department on a large variety of productions including Star Wars Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in Australia, Spartacus, local telefeature Jean, The Westside TV Series and numerous theatre and opera productions.
Fiona recently costume designed the short film 21 Points.
Jane Hakaraia
Lighting Designer
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Jane Hakaraia
Lighting Designer
A designer with a degree in product design but her first and longest love is lighting for theatre. This year Jane has toured Daffodils with Bullet Heart Club, designed the set for a TV game show, lit Hikoi for Auckland Arts Festival and Eight Gigabytes for Silo Theatre and is currently working on a veggie garden for Aotea square.
Liam Kelly
Sound Designer
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Liam Kelly
Liam Kelly is a 21 year old theatre maker and musician from Wellington. He has acted, directed and written music for various shows in Wellington over the last 3 years, including shows such as Fred is Cold, Suddenly! A Musical and SUPER CLEAN in the 2017 Fringe Festival. Liam is currently a part of Playshop, where he often musos, and in the past has been a part of Long Cloud Youth Theatre, with whom he went to Canberra for the STAB show Dead Men’s Wars. He is currently studying his Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Practice at Victoria University.
Ankita Singh
Content Producer, Photographer
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Ankita Singh
Ankita has recently graduated from AUT with a Bachelor in Communication Studies and is ready to take on the world armed with a passion for the arts and a copious amount of caffeine. Ankita is a multi-disciplinary photographer and filmmaker specialising in digital media. She worked as the Marketing Intern for Indian Ink in 2017, producing the marketing campaign for “Mrs Krishnan’s Party” and is back as Concept Designer for “Welcome to the Murder House”.
Bala Murali Shingade
Assistant Director, Videographer
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Bala Murali Shingade
Inkspiration
- Jacob & Justin's Notes
For the uninitiated “Krishnan’s Dairy” was the name of our very first play. A love story set in a corner shop, the power of which caught everyone by surprise – including us. That shop has kept its doors open for 20 years, touring the length and breath of these shores and beyond and becoming as loved and cherished as a child. The story you’re taking part in tonight picks up 7 years after that original tale left off. Don’t worry, you don’t have to have seen “Krishnan’s Dairy” to enjoy the party. All you need is here, in the strangers that surround you and the imagination that abounds within and the wonder of what’s going to happen next. That moment of not knowing, of being lost and confused, excited and a little scared is really what tonight is about: change. Something has to die in order for something to be renewed. It’s a tough lesson but a constant, existing at every stage of life and extremely present for us in a world that seems to be spinning ever faster. But rather than bemoan how hard it is to get to grips with all this shifting sand we want to celebrate the new castles we will build from it. That first step into the unknown is terrifying for the characters you’re about to meet but necessary for them to grow. We hope you’ll enjoy reassuring them that they’re not alone.
Party on!