Fall Play: The Vetala Tales

This year’s fall play will be an unusual experience for audiences. “The Vetala Tales” will be a night time outdoor performance set in an ancient, North Indian burning ground. 

The play, a set of linked stories, is narrated by a ghoulish character, perched in a tree. The tales are well known and date back to 11th-century India. 

“One thing that really appealed to me was the stories’ range,” said Director and Upper School drama teacher Andy Spear. “Some are light and funny, others take unexpected turns, and some are serious and quite moving.”

Continued COVID protocols mean the play will need to be staged outdoors on the South Campus, like it was last spring.

“It was really exciting to do a play outdoors on the South Campus last spring,” Spear said, but he hopes this year’s production will be “classier” because of new Tech Theater teacher Russell Champa. 

“We have to create it from the ground up, like we did last spring,” Spear said. “We’ve got ideas for how to do it in a slightly different fashion that will be specific to the needs of this show, and should make for a really cool setting outdoors that I think will suit the graveyard at midnight flavor of this play nicely.”

Spear also noted that one great advantage to this year’s production is Champa’s tech experience: “It’s great to have Russell here because he is, after all, a professional theater artist.”

Spear’s excitement extends to other members of the play. “I’m pumped because Russell wants to do lighting,” said crew member Liz Rosenbaum. Because the show will take place at night, Champa hopes to create outdoor lighting. 

The Vetala Tales is very much a play made by the School’s community as well. A group of students at the School wrote the first script in 2013, with the help of two teachers. 

However, other groups have added their voices to the play as well. For this year’s production, the cast and crew are working with members of India club to adapt the tales to a 21st-century audience, while upholding and celebrating the culture they come from.

Cast and crew are still in the early stages of rehearsal, but Rosenbaum is confident, “It’s gonna be fire.”