Asian Theatre Journal

Prologue

The Morrisville, NC, fire department was already on the scene when the explosion lit up the chilly October sky (see Fig. 1). The towering effigy trembled with the force of the blast, and the gathered crowds gasped in awe as the flames reared into the darkness. The figure's staring eyes, outspread arms, and extra heads were eerily highlighted against the North Carolina pine forest surrounding the parking lot before they began to blister, wilt, and fall into the conflagration. Above the inferno fireworks sparkled and crackled sending showers of multicolored sparks over the heads of the audience. Many adults had small children in their arms or on their shoulders, and older children pressed up against the yellow police tape. In the crowd a glowing constellation of cell phones were held aloft.

Just inside the yellow tape, Ram, Lakshman, and Hanuman, promenaded triumphantly. Ram still clutched his home-made bow, the

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Figure 1.

Lord Ram shoots the arrow that ignites the Ravan effigy, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

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Figure 2.

Lakshman (Ramesh Kalagnanam), Ram (Lakesh Khullar), and Hanuman (John Caldwell) in the parking lot during the burning of the effigy, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

bow from which moments before he had let the fatal arrow fly, piercing the Demon King's navel and giving the signal for ignition (see Fig. 2). Ram and Lakshman walked barefoot, naked torsos gleaming in the firelight, seeming impervious to the colder than usual autumn temperatures. Their saffron dhotīs (wrapped lower garments), black wigs, bows and quivers, garlands, and jewelry made a strange contrast to the four thousand people in the audience with their jackets, caps, and gloves. Even more egregious was Hanuman, the monkey god and devotee of Ram, whose excited gestures, lively demeanor, and long red tail set him apart from Ram and Lakshman's placid nobility. Dancing around, swinging his mace, Hanuman led the audience in choruses of "Jay Srī Rām !" (Victory to Lord Ram!) and "Jay Sītā-Rām !" (Victory to Sita-Ram!). When the fireworks began to taper off, the crowd began to turn its attention to the next item of business: selfies with the cast of the Ramlila (Rāmlīlā).

This Ramlila has been performed for the past ten years, on the occasion of Dussehra in the suburban town of Morrisville, North Carolina (population approximately 25,000). Dussehra falls on the [End Page 202] tenth day of the Hindu month of Ashwin, typically sometime in September or October. It marks, among other things, the triumph of Lord Ramover King Ravan at the climax of the Ramayan, and is the occasion for the symbolic re-enactment of this victory—and often other episodes from the epic—around the world in diasporic communities of Hindus. In India, Ramlila can take many forms, from an elaborate, month-long production, to small, local ones. Beyond India, there are famous annual Ramlilas in Trinidad, Fiji, London, South Africa, and other places. Beginning at least ten years ago Indian-Americans in many cities and towns in North America have been creating Ramlilas of their own.

What motivates a diasporic community to mount an ambitious program like Ramlila? How is this American Ramlila different from other Indian and diaspora Ramlilas? In our participant-ethnographic study we examine how the Ramlila story has been adapted for the Triangle audiences by looking at the evolution of the dramatic structure of the Morrisville production and some of the controversies that have arisen in the process. In this essay we argue that not only does this drama play an important role in forging cultural identity among North Carolinian Indians, but also reflects the context and assumptions of one particular diasporic Hindu community.

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Figure 3.

Afroz Taj as Ravan, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

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This is a participant-ethnography. By way of disclosure, we the authors, Taj and Caldwell, have played the roles of Ravan and Hanuman, respectively, since 2010. (See Figs. 2, 3, 7, 8 and 11.) We have also been involved in editing and producing the sound files for the characters' dialogues. Initially, we were recruited for this production as actors, not as academics, prior to beginning our ethnographic work on the production.

Many Ramlilas

In the book Many Rāmāyaṇas Paula Richman presents a series of essays by various scholars that discuss different tellings of the Ramayan (Richman 1991). Each telling is informed by its own set of assumptions and is dependent on a particular ideological and social context. The essays in Richman's volume explore how various tellings of the Ramayan take differing approaches to the events and themes of the story (Richman 1991: 10–12). In the introduction, she hypothesizes the Ramayan as a "pool of cultural signifiers" into which each "teller" dips to produce a "crystallization" that becomes a particular telling (Richman 1991: 46). We would argue that the notion of crystallization is somewhat misleading: each oral and written text has many many lives and often many authors (Lutgendorf 1991). Moreover, the Ramayan is perhaps more often performed than written, not only as Ramlila, but also as Yakshagana (yakṣagāna), Kathakali (kathakaḷi), Bharatanatyam (bharatanāṭyam), Kuchipudi (kūcipūḍi), as well as in films and television serials. These performances, which involve many individuals in their production, do not "crystallize" their subject(s) but rather incorporate many divergent and conflicting objectives and interpretations. We will investigate how the Morrisville Ramlila is similarly dependent on sets of assumptions and social and ideological contexts.

Diaspora Ramlilas tend to differ from Indian Ramlilas in several important ways. From a brief YouTube survey we observe that unlike their Indian counterparts,¹ North American Ramlilas are usually presented more as community cultural activities and less as extended acts of worship. This bifurcation of purpose is itself a significant feature unique to the diaspora performances. Diaspora Ramlilas are also generally more compressed in format, lasting hours instead of days, and are often more inclusive with regard to participants. For example, many include women playing the women's roles, something still fairly uncommon in productions outside of Delhi, and children playing all or some of the important roles, something mostly limited to amateur productions, and that too with children mostly serving as extras, in India.

Looking at the other Ramlilas and Dussehra observances around the United States, we can trace correlations between the socioeconomic [End Page 204] composition of the South Asian community in a given city and the style of its Ramlila. Ramlilas tend to take place in areas where large numbers of South Asians have settled, for example in the suburbs of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, New York City, and of course northern New Jersey. They largely seem to be temple-based, and range from amateur productions featuring children's pageants and dances, to professionally produced dance-dramas. Some more effectively capture the informal, chaotic style of Ramlila in India, while others seek to emulate Broadway shows. But where wealthier diasporic communities live, Ramlila productions tend to be more professionally produced, intellectually engaged, and dramatically nuanced.

Our article is informed by other studies of diaspora Ramlilas, particularly those on Ramlilas of Trinidad (Richman 2010; Riggio 2010; Mahabir and Chand 2018) and London (Richman 1999, 2007). In Richman's 2010 article "We Don't Change It, We Make It Applicable," she discusses various controversies that have emerged in Trinidad's century-long history of Ramlila, and argues that differences of opinion are an inevitable part of the process of adapting Ramlila for an evolving diaspora community. Such questions have concerned the materials used to construct the Ravan effigy, the language used, whether Ramlila can be performed "out of context" in a regional arts festival, the caste of the performers, and the name for the genre itself (Richman 2010: 77 ff.). Despite their very different historical trajectories, North American Ramlilas share the dynamic and negotiated nature of Trinidad's Ramlila productions.

Milla Riggio's study investigates how the performance spaces of Trinidadian Ramlilas are laid out physically and spiritually, as well as the role of darśan, the divine seeing of God, in the performance (Riggio 2010). She argues that the journey of Ram in exile maps into both spiritual and geographical space, and that the Indo-Trinidadians use the annual Ramlila to rebuild a new Ayodhya in the land of their exile, thus accomplishing an allegorical "return."

Mahabir and Chand trace the evolution of the Trinidad Ramlila from the 1880s to the present, with special attention to how the Ramlila contributes to Trinidadian Indian society (Mahabir and Chand 2018). They argue that the annual performances help sustain "family-like" bonds within the Hindu community, while inculcating Hindu moral values and behavior (Mahabir and Chand 2018: 68). Further, the performances have always attracted spectators from the Muslim Indo-Trinidadian community and thus serve to break down religious boundaries. The authors go on to discuss how the content of the Ramlilas have evolved to suit new social realities, and cite Bridget Brereton's observation that the character of Sita has changed to be [End Page 205] more "assertive, [and] morally self-directed" (Mahabir and Chand 2018: 68). In our own study we will demonstrate that the Morrisville Ramlila also includes an assertive, empowered Sita, albeit within the framework of the traditional story.

Beyond her work on the unique environment of Trinidad, Paula Richman's overlapping studies of Ramlilas in London shed important light on questions of context and interpretation. In her article "A Diaspora Ramayana in Southall, Greater London," Richman describes how a feminist group called the Southall Black Sisters created a Ramlila in response to the experience of racism against immigrants in the United Kingdom (Richman 1999). In her article "Ravana in London," Richman points out the connection between the notion of exile in the Ramayan and the immigrant experience in England (Richman 2007: 166). Richman also introduces the concept of "multivocality" with respect to Diaspora Ramlilas:

As a performative act, staging a Ramlila in the diaspora can express many experiences, all the way from feeling alienation from the host community to asserting the value of one's cultural roots. The play can be multivocal, conveying one meaning to insiders and another to those outside the community. Diasporic performances of Rama's story tend to include reinterpretation or additional commentary, in order to mediate between an ancient story and its new setting.

(Richman 2007: 166)

In this article, Richman discusses how the character of Ravan is a locus for this multivocality, and how he can be "semiotically refashioned" to represent a range of social evils. For example, in the Southall production, Ravan represents embodied racism. Other instances of such "semiotic refashioning" include Ravan as Fijian plantation owner, and as the Muslim other, citing the work of John Kelly (2000), Sheldon Pollock (1993), and Richman (2007: 168). This latter claim by Pollock is particularly resonant in the Morrisville Ramlila in which Ravan is played by a Muslim actor (author Taj). While the Morrisville production does not explicitly portray Ravan as Muslim, the identity of the actor is no secret, and in an era when communal awareness is on the rise both in India and the diaspora, the irony is not lost on the audience. But while Ravan is dehumanized in Pollock's formation, it is important to note that the Morrisville production humanizes him and brings out his complexities.

The Context

The Triangle region of North Carolina is home to one of the largest and fastest growing Asian Indian communities in the United States. The "Triangle" is defined by the three cities of Raleigh, Durham, [End Page 206] and Chapel Hill. Each city is the site of a major research university as well as a number of smaller universities and colleges. The estimated population of individuals of Indian origin in the Triangle is now over 100,000 (Carolina Demography). According to recent census data, some of the smaller bedroom communities in the Triangle region boast fairly high percentages of Asian Indians: the population of Morrisville is now extrapolated to be twenty-seven percent Asian Indian while neighboring Cary is over ten percent (USA.com).

The Morrisville Ramlila, since it was first performed in 2009, has been a project of the Hindu Society of North Carolina (HSNC) in collaboration with the Hindi Vikas Mandal (HVM) or the Association for the Development of Hindi. The HVM-HSNC collaboration is essential for the Ramlila's success since it allows the production to be packaged as both a religious and cultural event. The HSNC positions the Ramlila as a cultural performance within a spectrum of dance, music and theatrical offerings presented in its Cultural Hall, recognizing that for many Indian-Americans, the performance is not automatically understood as an act of worship, as it would normally be in India, but as an opportunity to learn about and celebrate Indian culture. As we will see, the bifurcation of religion and culture is a peculiar feature of diaspora Ramlilas and one that derives from their performance contexts.

The production of the Morrisville Ramlila is informed by the objectives of the two sponsoring organizations. The HSNC provides the venue and helps with publicity, while the HVM provides the funding and the volunteer labor. The HSNC mission statement reads: "HSNC is an umbrella organization for the various Hindu and allied religious communities in [the] Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) in meeting their religious, cultural and spiritual needs." It goes on to state that it provides "a place to worship and practice the religion," and that its members "arrange, support and encourage activities that fulfill [the] religious, cultural, linguistic and spiritual needs of current and future generation[s], and promote India's rich heritage" (Hindu Society of North Carolina n.d.).

The Morrisville Ramlila supports these goals in several ways. It is a religious festival, similar to other events organized by the HSNC for Hindu holidays, and it also reinforces the cultural connection between North Carolina and the homeland by imitating, with concessions to Indian-American tastes, the way Dussehra is observed in India. By design, HSNC's Ramlila offers an opportunity for new generations of Hindus to learn about their heritage, and for non-Hindus to learn about Hinduism and Indian culture. It is not like most Indian Ramlilas, however, in that it is received predominantly as a theatre piece, and not [End Page 207] so much as an extended act of worship. It does not include explicit elements of Hindu worship like darśan or ārtī.

The Ramlila venue itself reflects the emphasis on the cultural over the religious. The first Ramlila with adult actors was performed in 2010 on a temporary stage set up in the HSNC parking lot but all subsequent ones have been performed on the indoor stage of the "Cultural Hall" of the HSNC, which is a separate building from the actual temple which houses the mūrtiyāṃ (images) of the deities and is used for worship services. The burning of the Ravan effigy still occurs in the parking lot.

One reason for the shift of emphasis is that the umbrella aspect of the HSNC's mission has changed. There are now five additional Hindu temples in the Triangle area, and despite some collaboration between them, they serve different communities. The Sri Venkateswara Temple, for example, has become the religious focus of a large South Indian community, for whom Dussehra has different resonances and for whom Hindi is not the language of preference. Nevertheless, the HSNC glosses over regional differences and presents Dussehra as a family-friendly community event and festival, with the result that a fairly diverse audience attends.²

The objectives of the HVM diverge somewhat from those of the HSNC. Its website states: "Hindi Vikas Mandal is a non-profit, and volunteering organization that is situated in the RTP area that encourages the study and the appreciation of the Hindi language. This organization aims to promote Indian culture and heritage. HVM has a special outlook for the youth to help preserve Indian culture and heritage as well" (Hindi Vikas Mandal n.d.). While both the HSNC and the HVM share a commitment to inculcating youth with Indian culture and heritage, the HVM's primary thrust is toward teaching Hindi in weekend schools and organizing Hindi literary events.

For the producers of the Ramlila, this raises questions about which language and register they should use, as they navigate the dual priorities of promoting Hindi and engaging a linguistically diverse community. The author of the script, Sudha Om Dhingra, has chosen to make the Morrisville Ramlila as "literary" as possible, using śuddh Hindi (Hindi with a Sanskritized lexicon) and carefully curating the language through pre-recording. When we interviewed her about the production, Dhingra stated that she explicitly chose to create the Ramlila in "nātak vibhā" (dramatic form), rather than the traditional folk theatre genre (Dhingra 2019).

Dhingra also denied that she used any pre-existing version of the Ramayan as a model for her script. Nevertheless, Dhingra's script seems inspired by Tulsidas' retelling of the Ramayan, the Rāmcaritmānas, [End Page 208] but uses the highly Sanskritized register promulgated by Ramanand Sagar in the television serial version of Ramayan (Ramanand Sagar 1987–1988). The result is that for many non-Hindi speakers, the dialogues of the Ramlila are not fully comprehensible. When we asked Dhingra about this, she argued that most people know the story, the master of ceremonies provides synopses in English, and the Ramlila itself provides the audience an opportunity to learn literary Hindi. She further asserted her objective was to use the drama of the story to captivate young and old alike, such that they would be drawn into the linguistic world of the Ramlila and hence exposed to literary Hindi.

Speaking further about the language of her script, Dhingra said: "I attempted to capture the language of that time, the language of the narrative used at that time. I tried to employ the gentleness, the dignity, the choice of words, the way of speaking. … I didn't draw inspiration from anyone. I did my own research" (Dhingra 2019). Her use of the phrase "of that time" is somewhat unclear: of which time is she speaking? Perhaps she has in mind the timeless "semiotic pool" referred to by Richman, but in another sense, she seems to be invoking the period of early modern Hindi, her language being similar—but not identical—to that employed by Tulsidas in the Rāmcaritmānas.

The Morrisville Ramlila differs from most Indian Ramlilas in several ways. In addition to the devotional content, Indian Ramlilas tend to emphasize action, spectacle, flashy costumes, and dramatic dialogues. Comedy and musical interludes are common, with Nautanki (nauṭaṅkī)-style dancers sharing the stage with performing gods.³ Also, audiences there do not generally sit quietly throughout the performance, but rather, come and go, doze and snack, as the mood strikes. The HVM conception of the Ramlila does not strive to recreate the Indian experience, but rather to create a work of Hindi theatre.

The Morrisville Ramlila seems to be unique in presenting the material in this way. In our aforementioned survey of other American Ramlilas, we discovered that most are relatively informal stage plays with live dialogues, often involving children. Out of twelve sample YouTube clips, only four had spoken Hindi dialogue and these were performed by adults. In contrast, two or three were full-fledged dance-dramas set to pre-recorded music, and several others interposed dances between sections of dialogue. Perhaps in an attempt to evoke the eclectic atmosphere of Indian Ramlilas, one American Ramlila included a bawdy dance interlude in Ravan's court set to the 2010 Bollywood hit, "Sīlā kī javānī" (Sheila's youth) (FIJI Sun TV USA 2013).

As other diasporic Ramlila studies have made apparent, the demographics of the audience impact the production choices. In the Triangle of North Carolina, Ramlila participants and audiences alike [End Page 209] are, for the most part, highly educated professionals. In the cast we have professors, doctors, software engineers, and business managers, and the composition of the audiences is similar. There is a sense among the cast and production team that we must create something high-brow because our audiences are high-brow, and we should strive to both entertain and educate them. Moreover, first-generation Indian immigrants tend to be concerned that their children and grandchildren are losing touch with religion. Promoting Indian culture, including dance, music, and theatre, is an alternate way of passing along traditional values.

Another assumption informing the Morrisville Ramlila is that the audience is composed of thinking spectators who want to understand each character's logic, weaknesses, and motives, especially with respect to modern sensibilities of fairness and gender relations. Dhingra's script gives prominent roles to both negative and positive female characters, spanning Sita, Kaikeyi, Manthra, Shurpnakha, and Shabri. (See Fig. 4 for a scene with Manthra and Kaikeyi, Fig. 5 for one with Shurpnakha, and Fig. 6 for one with Shabri.) Sita, in particular, is a

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Figure 4.

Manthra (Usha Bajpai) convinces Kaikeyi (Viral Trivedi) to call in her two boons, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

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Figure 5.

Priya Juneja as Shurpnakha, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

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Figure 6.

Shabri (Usha Bajpai) offers Ram (Lakesh Khullar) her fruit while Lakshman (Ramesh Kalagnanam) looks on, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

[End Page 211] problematic character to present on stage since she must play her role as an ideal, virtuous wife while satisfying the expectations of twenty-first century audiences. The cast of the Ramlila has often discussed Sita's role in the context of the Ramayan story and debated how she should play various scenes. Dhingra justifies an assertive, strong Sita based on her interpretation of the Ramayan narrative. Dhingra said that "to write Sita's dialogues, I had to go back to that era. I have today's thinking, but for every scene, I had to set my modern thinking and attitudes aside, so I could write about how a woman of that time was, how she used to think. … Sita was not submissive, but the social structure, the family structure in those days was such that women had to be docile … but she was never lacking in strength" (Dhingra 2019).

The Production

The Morrisville Ramlila is divided into three formal sections. The first section is a dance-drama about the childhood of Ram and his brothers, portraying their early training, their first encounters battling demons, and Sita and Ram's marriage. This dance-drama provides a summary of events from Ram's birth up to his interrupted coronation. This section has no spoken dialogue, but is instead kinetically "told" by youth from one of the local classical dance academies. The second section is the Ramlila proper, the dramatic performance of several key scenes from the Ramayan, as given in Table 2. This section, which we primarily focus on in this essay, uses live actors and pre-recorded dialogues, music, and sound effects. The third section is "Rāvaṇ-dahan" (the burning of Ravan).

The personnel who produce the Morrisville Ramlila include the following:

Writer-Director: Since the Ramlila's inception, Sudha Om Dhingra has been the primary artistic force behind the creation and implementation of the production. She wrote the script, and regularly directs, organizes the crew, and has final decision-making authority whenever questions arise. Originally from Jalandhar, Punjab, she is a well-published journalist and writer of prose and poetry, and she has long experience on the stage as an actor and director.

Assistant Director: Usually this role is taken on ad hoc by one or more of the experienced actors in the production.

Actors: Generally these have been hand-picked by Dhingra without an audition process. Some of the actors have remained constant throughout, while others have been more short-term. Those [End Page 212]

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Table 1.

The sequence of scenes at the Morrisville Ramlila, as they were gradually added

playing Lakshman, Manthra/Shabri, Ravan, Kaikeyi, and Hanuman have been with the production since their roles were debuted. Perhaps surprisingly, the roles of Ram and Sita have been taken by different actors each year. Shurpnakha, Dashrath, and other smaller roles have also changed actors, but less often.

Supporting Team: this includes the people who help with makeup, costumes, props, scenery, sound and light tech, and who function as stagehands during the performance. These are usually, but not always, members of the HVM. There is a separate effigy team that creates the Ravan effigy for the third segment; this team also consists largely of HVM members.

The Morrisville Ramlila began humbly in 2009 with only the "Rāvaṇ-dahan." Ram, Sita, Lakshman, and Hanuman appeared "in character" in the HSNC parking lot; they processed through the crowd toward the Ravan effigy, and then Ram shot arrows at the effigy until the fire was ignited by a hidden fireworks operator. For the first few years the Ramlila grew "backward": organizers first began with the climactic battle scene in 2009 and then slowly added other scenes. See Tables 1 and 2.

As the table shows, the biggest changes occurred in 2013 when the Dashrath and Shabri scenes were added (see Figs. 4 and 6), and in 2018 when the Ashok Vatika scene was added (see Fig. 7). The scenes were selected to provide the crucial junctures of the plot, but also to give the actors challenging and rewarding roles. For example, in 2013 "Manthra" asked Dhingra to add the Shabri scene so she could assay both roles, and in 2018 "Hanuman" asked Dhingra to add a new scene with a speaking role for him. [End Page 213]

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Table 2.

The setting and synopsis of each scene, in chronological order

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Figure 7.

Hanuman (John Caldwell) visits Sita (Nina Rai) in her forest captivity in Lanka, 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

The Script and Sound Recording

The recording script for the Morrisville Ramlila is written in Devanagari. Dhingra created an original script but was inspired by many pre-existing versions (Dhingra 2019). Looking at the script, one senses that Dhingra followed Tulsidas in her choice of themes, turns of phrase, and lexicon, and often for the overall flow of a scene. Take, for example, the opening lines of the dialogue between Kaikeyi and Manthra⁴:

(Dhingra 2014, [unnumbered])

Now compare with excerpts from Tulsidas's text:

(Tulsidas 2001, 363)

Likewise, Tulsidas's text seems to be the model for Dhingra's dialogue between Sita and Hanuman in the Ashok Grove. When Tulsidas's Sita sees the ring Hanuman has thrown at her feet, she says the following:

(Tulsidas 2001, 759)

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Dhingra's script has this text:

(Dhingra 2018, [unnumbered])

Looking beyond the script itself, it appears that Dhingra has taken inspiration from the Ramanand Sagar tele-series Ramayan for much of her staging. In many instances, both the stage directions in the script and Dhingra's directions given in rehearsal work to mimic elements of the TV series. Again, the Ashok Vatika scene provides examples: the way Hanuman is hiding in the Ashok tree against which Sita is sitting, the way Hanuman peeks out and weeps to see Sita's plight, the way Sita addresses Ravan's drawn sword Chandrahas, the way Hanuman tosses down the ring, and the way Sita reacts; all of these elements are staged essentially the same way in the Ramanand Sagar series and the Morrisville Ramlila. Of course it is likely that Sagar derived his own staging from earlier staged Ramlilas he had seen, thus connecting the television production to an older tradition of live performance, but the television program is the most proximal visual ancestor of our own production and many others of recent years.

Beginning in 2010, for each scene in the production, Dhingra selected actors with native proficiency and recorded their lines, and then we (the authors) assembled the recordings into a single sound file. The actors typically recorded multiple "takes" of each line and we chose the best one. Dhingra herself provided the voice for both Manthra and Sita. In the process of compiling the audio files, we made some editorial decisions. These included omitting lines we felt were redundant and, in some cases, shortening sentences that we deemed too long. In any case, the final audio files were vetted and approved by Dhingra with regard not only to precise rendering of her script, but for dramatic effect and impact.

The script itself contains long monologues so the use of prerecorded sound files makes memorization much easier for the actors. Moreover, the process of pre-recording gives Dhingra control over the script and its realization. The choice of pre-recording has some important repercussions. On one hand, because of the major effort that goes into recording and editing each scene's sound file, it is prohibitively difficult to make any changes to the script. On the other hand, with each succeeding year, we risk audience and actor "fatigue"; [End Page 217] without changing scenes or making other significant innovations, how long can we keep attracting audiences?

The background music used in the various scenes comes from a wide range of sources. For the Manthra scene we use excerpts from Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" to capture Manthra's deformed body and sinister character, and Kaikeyi's slowly mounting anger.⁶ For other scenes we use an assemblage of music: bhajan (devotional song) recordings, Bollywood singer Mukesh's recording of the Rāmcaritmānas, Indian classical pieces, and some experimental Indo-fusion songs.

Before each new year's production process begins, HVM holds a debriefing meeting in which the Ramlila committee discusses the prior year's production. Since most of the actors in the cast are not members of HVM (including the authors), they are not present at this meeting. As in the other diaspora Ramlilas studied by Richman and others, the organizers sometimes have to tackle objections or concerns raised by members of the community. For example, in the 2017 meeting the issue of Ravan dragging Sita off stage was raised. When rehearsals started, Dhingra reported to the cast that some HVM members were concerned that Sita's chastity and dignity might be compromised if Ravan is shown roughly dragging her across the stage by her arm. Others noted that in most Indian Ramlilas and film and television versions of the Ramayan, Ravan does grab Sita's wrist.⁷ So in our rehearsals for the 2017 production, we tried various strategies to avoid any touching, with Ravan using hypnotic gestures to enchant Sita, and so forth, but none of them struck Dhingra or the group as convincing on stage (see Fig. 9). Finally a compromise was reached where Ravan grabs Sita's wrist until she orders him to let go. After he releases Sita's arm, he then uses hypnotic gestures to conduct her offstage. We feel this is not as dramatically effective as in earlier productions when Ravan dragged a struggling Sita into the wings, but apparently it appeased the objectors in the HVM. (See Fig. 8 for the scene with Sita and Ravan.)

Another topic that was discussed at some of these debriefing meetings was the issue of having non-Hindus act in the Ramlila. Again, we (the authors) were not present at these discussions, and neither of us are Hindu. Dhingra was adamant that non-Hindus should continue to be involved in the Ramlila, maintaining that the quality and impact of the production depended on the talent and commitment of the actors more than their personal beliefs. While some Ramlilas in India incorporate Muslim and Sikh actors,⁸ it is unusual to have non-Hindu actors play the roles of Ravan and Hanuman. Ravan is, as Pollock points out, "other," an enemy who has outraged the morals of Ram and his people (Pollock, cited in Richman 2007: 168). But Ravan is not a thoroughly evil character; rather, he is a wise king, a Brahmin, and a [End Page 218]

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Figure 8.

Sita (Nina Rai) confronts Ravan (Afroz Taj), 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

devotee of Shiva who is conquered by his fatal flaw, his hubris. Meanwhile, Hanuman is not human at all, so perhaps it matters less whether his character is Hindu in real life. All this being said, it is still a major statement for the relatively conservative Hindu community of the HSNC to give such important roles to non-Hindu actors (authors Taj

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Figure 9.

Sita and Ravan rehearse the abduction scene in front of director Dhingra (seated, right), 2017. (Photo by the authors)

[End Page 219] and Caldwell). Part of the reason for this may lie in the fact that the authors have been long-time supporters, collaborators, and promoters of HSNC programming through their weekly radio program and email list serving the South Asian diasporic community.

Planning for the October performance begins over the summer. The first priority is to pin down the actors for the roles of Ram and Sita. Over the years Dhingra and the HVM have generally found a young couple from the community to play Ram and Sita. Formerly, there was a rule that the pair should be married in real life, but finding a husband and wife with the requisite age, dedication, and acting skills proved difficult and so this rule was dropped in the 2018 production. Training a new Ram and Sita has thus become Dhingra's greatest directing challenge each year. Even with pre-recorded dialogues, the actors still have to memorize their lines so they can lip-synch effectively. The role of Ram is especially difficult; in Dhingra's view Ram's expression must never lose its tejas (literally "glory" or "power"), which, in part, entails maintaining a slight smile, something many actors find difficult to maintain. Dhingra also requests that all of the actors remain in character for a month before the performance, to the extent that the actors playing Ram and his family must become—temporarily—strict vegetarian teetotalers.

The rest of the cast has been relatively constant over the years. If a role becomes vacant Dhingra asks the veteran cast members for recommendations, and on rare occasions when she needs to seek new talent, she has auditioned potential actors. Occasionally, Dhingra moves a returning actor to a different role: in 2018, for example, the actor who had been playing Dashrath for several years was promoted to play Ram. Almost all of the cast members are first-generation immigrants from India, and most, but not all, claim Hindi as their first or second language.

Weekly rehearsals start in September, usually on weekend afternoons, but two or three weeks before the performance, rehearsals occur more frequently, often in Dhingra's three-car garage. As rehearsals progress, the props and costumes are assembled; new items are purchased and old items are brought out of mothballs. Many of the costume components and props are brought from India, ordered online, and occasionally, even borrowed from local Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi dance teachers. Conveniently, Dussehra falls just before Halloween, so costume goods are also readily available at local stores.

Publicity for the Ramlila/Dussehra event is channeled through HSNC's listserv and author Taj's above-mentioned listserv and radio show. It is billed as a Dussehra festival of which the Ramlila is only one component, apparently to emphasize the religious-holiday aspect of the event and the organizational primacy of the HSNC. The HVM also [End Page 220]

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Figure 10.

Publicity poster for the Morrisville Ramlila, 2018.

produces a poster each year which it circulates electronically as well as in paper form (see Fig. 10). The poster often includes cartoon drawings, indicating that this is a child-friendly event, thus promoting the didactic purposes of the Ramlila program.

Showtime

On the morning of the performance, the Ravan effigy is erected and moored with ropes by the HVM team. In the afternoon, food vendors set up shop. Spectators begin to arrive around 3:30 p.m. and by 6:00 p.m. the hall is full of spectators.

The male actors report to the Cultural Hall at 3:00 p.m. for costuming and makeup while the women characters do their own [End Page 221] makeup at home. Several HVM volunteers serve as make-up artists, but Dhingra attends to Ram and Lakshman's makeup personally. As in Sagar's TV Ramayan, Ram, Lakshman and Dashrath are unclothed from the waist up but have numerous necklaces and "scarves" to partially conceal their chests. These three characters wear wigs in traditional top-knotted sādhū (holy-man) style, as exiles cum ascetics. Ravan's wig is wilder, and on it sits a large, heavy crown. Hanuman has no wig, but wears a simple crown. He is dressed primarily in red, with a wide waist-band and shoulder-cloth over red basketball shorts and a red T-shirt. Hanuman also has lots of bling: necklaces, arm-bands, earrings, and so forth, not to mention, a substantial tail made from coat-hanger wire wrapped in red fabric and tied to his lower back with thick string.

All characters are made up with foundation, eye-liner, and lipstick, and receive a tilak (forehead mark). Ram, Lakshman, Dashrath, and Hanuman's tilaks are in the "U" shape signifying their Vaishnava allegiances, while Ravan has the three horizontal lines representing his Shaivite orientation. Manthra has a tilak in the shape of a serpent which subliminally adds a sense of menace to her character. Hanuman has special make-up; his mouth is surrounded with a red lipstick circle under a latex monkey nose held in place by thin elastic string. In addition to the main characters, there are a number of extras: servants, maids, demon warriors, and so forth, who have to be made-up

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Figure 11.

The cast of the Morrisville Ramlila with director Sudha Om Dhingra (seated, center), 2018. (Photo by Amrit Photography)

[End Page 222] and costumed appropriately as well. (See Fig. 11 for the cast in costume and makeup.)

Scholars have discussed the phenomenon of svarūps (divine characters) in Ramlilas in India (Lutgendorf 1991; Hess 2006), that is, the ritual viewing and worship of the actors playing the divine leads. There is no ritual viewing or ārtī in Morrisville: indeed, on the day of the performance, we (the actors) are forbidden from leaving the green room until our stage entrances. On the other hand, Director Dhingra encourages us to begin to inhabit our roles as soon as rehearsals begin: for example Ram, Sita, and Lakshman must abstain from meat and alcohol for two or more months leading up to the performance. On the day of the show, Dhingra insists that we remain in character as soon as we are in costume and makeup; for the actors who play Ram, Sita, Lakshman, and Hanuman, this is a means of channeling the divine personages we portray. But for all the actors, Dhingra's advice to the cast is drawn from her own theatre experience. As she told the cast in 2018: "If you can'tstay in character leading up to your entrance, you won't be able to express the proper emotions on stage. Ram has to maintain his tejas (glory, power), Ravan his anger, Hanuman his devotion. It takes time and work to get into the roles so you can't be taking selfies and joking around in the green room."

To begin the event, the master of ceremonies (MC), Bindu Singh, takes the podium and invites Saroj "Auntie Sharma" to come to the stage and give her benediction. Then Singh introduces the first section, the dance-drama, and gives a summary of its action, speaking alternately in English and Hindi. For the second part of the show, the Ramlila proper, Bindu Singh gives a synopsis of the first act, and expresses appreciation to the director, cast, and crew. Between each act Singh returns to the stage to summarize the action to follow. On one hand, these repeated MC interruptions disturb the flow of the drama, but on the other hand, they give extra time to the stagehands for scene changes. Moreover, Singh's synopses facilitate the pedagogical goals of the Ramlila; they help children and first-time spectators who lack command of literary Hindi follow the story.

The climax of the performance is the final battle scene. Martial music swells in the darkened hall. A spotlight comes on just in time to capture Ram, Lakshman, and Hanuman emerge from a side corridor; they march to the stage, then pause. Ram turns to address them, and by implication, his invisible forces of monkeys and bears. "Heroes," he calls, "you are exhausted from battle. Now witness single combat." The sage Vashisht now appears, and Ram, Lakshman, and Hanuman kneel to receive his blessing. They rise, and continue toward center-stage [End Page 223] when Ravan suddenly appears: "Beware!" he cries, with a clap of thunder. Ravan challenges Ram, bragging about his own prowess as a warrior and vowing to avenge Ram's treatment of his sister Shurpnakha and his demon brothers.

Ram listens placidly to Ravan's bravado, smiling gently and omnisciently. After Ravan's third burst of megalomaniacal laughter, Ram replies with a short parable, borrowed from Tulsidas (2001: 903): "There are three kinds of plants: rose, mango, and jackfruit. The rose bears fragrant flowers, the mango yields both flowers and fruit, and the jackfruit gives only fruit. Likewise there are three types of men: those who boast but do not act, those who both boast and act, and those only act but don't speak about it" (Dhingra 2010–2018: 11).

Next, there is a significant departure from Tulsidas. In the Rāmcaritmānas, Ravan merely recites a dohā (a kind of couplet), taunting Ram for spouting parables rather than engaging in battle (Tulsidas 2001: 903–904). But in the Morrisville script, Ravan accuses Ram of outright hypocrisy, citing two instances when Ram acted against the code of honor, specifically in his treatment of Vali and Shurpnakha. These are episodes other Indian writers and interpreters have cited as morally problematic, with one critic, the Dravidian activist and social reformer E.V. Ramasami (1879–1973), even using them to critique Ram as a flawed avatār (incarnation) of Vishnu (Richman 1991: 184–187).⁹ Ravan's criticism of Ram's behavior on ethical grounds seems to be an acknowledgement by Dhingra that there are moral complexities lurking below the surface of Ram's story even if the episodes mentioned above are not included in this particular Ramlila. Those that believe that Ram is infallible can overlook such questions, but the diversity and level of education of the Triangle audience may have motivated Dhingra to include these criticisms of Ram albeit from the point of view of his arch enemy.

Ravan's retreat and defeat is followed by the Rāvaṇ-dahan, which is the first opportunity the audience has to interact directly with Ram, Lakshman, and Hanuman. Dhingra has instructed the actors to remain in character throughout their interactions with the audience, and this is the only place where the actors might be said to assume the role of svarūps. During the Rāvaṇ-dahan, audience members call out devotional slogans like "Jay Hanumān !" and "Jay Srī Rām !" and afterward they encourage their children to receive Ram and Hanuman's blessings, either through traditional feet touching or with selfies.

Conclusion

The Morrisville Ramlila is distinctive in several ways. It is "multivocal," striving to be both a work of serious Hindi-language [End Page 224] theatre and also an educational presentation targeted at the children and grandchildren of immigrants. It brings beloved characters to life and lets them speak for themselves, albeit through dubbing. The characters' motivations are explored in relatively long monologues, and there are gestures toward some of the moral complexities of the story. Most of the female characters a reportrayed as thinking subjects with a large degree of agency. Sita, in particular, is presented as a strong, complex character whose emotions run the gamut from despair to anger. The Ramlila's three-section structure provides something for everyone: dance-drama, formal drama, and spectacular fireworks. Through it, the organizers seek to further the dual religious and cultural objectives of the Hindu community while simultaneously promoting Indian and Hindu culture to a broader audience. The Morrisville Ramlila has been an annual success for almost a decade, but there is always talk about rethinking and recreating the production, in response to internal feedback and comments from members of the community. It remains to be seen how this home-grown Ramlila will evolve in the future.