Asmita Summer Theatre Festival 15 May -11 July 2010

Asmita Summer Theatre Festival 15 May -11 July 2010

• Rajesh Kumar’s “Ambedkar aur Gandhi”
on 15th may 2010 7pm
Sri Ram Center, Mandi House, New Delhi

• Mohan Rakesh’s “Lehron ke Rajhans”
on 16th may 2010 7pm
Sri Ram Center, Mandi House, New Delhi

• Ashok Lal’s “Ek Mamooli Aadmi”
on 22 & 23 may 7:30pm
at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

• Dario Fo’s “Operation Three Star”
based on ‘An accidental death of an anarchist’
on 29 & 30 may 7:30pm
at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

• Mahesh Dattani's “Final Solutions”
on 5th & 6th june 2010 7:30pm
at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

• Swadesh Deepak's “Court Martial”
on 12th & 13th june 2010 7:30pm
at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

• Harsh Mandar’s “Unsuni” that has been scripted by Mallika Sarabhai
on 19th & 20th june 2010, 7:30pm
at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

*27th June - Ashok Lal’s “Ek Mamooli Aadmi”a 7pm
Sri Ram Center, Mandi House, New Delhi

*3rd July -Mahesh Dattani's “Final Solutions”
7:30pm at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

*4th July -Swadesh Deepak's “Court Martial”
at 7:30pm at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

*10th & 11th July - G P Deshpande's Raste at SRC- new play

All plays Directed by Arvind Gaur.

Contacts-
9911013630 (Viren Basoya),9540656537 (Shilpi Marwaha),9555558812 (Pankaj Yadav),9899650509

Mahesh Dattani 's Final Solutions at Epicentre,Gurgaon

Asmita theatre Group presents
Final Solutions
Written by: Mahesh Dattani
Director: Arvind Gaur
Translated by: Shahid Anwar
Music: Sangeeta Gaur

20th & 21st September,2008, 7.30pm
Epi centre, Apparel House, Sector 44, Opp.
Power Grid Residential Complex, Gurgaon
Contact-9899650509,9911013630

asmitatheatre@gmail.com

Starring
Susan Brar, Amita Walia, Rashmi Singh,Viren Basoya,

Bajrang Bali Singh , Samina & Shilpi Marwaha

About the Play
"Final Solutions" has a powerful contemporary resonance as it addresses as issue of utmost concern to our society, i.e. the issue of communalism. The play presents different shades of the communalist attitude prevalent among Hindus and Muslims in its attempt to underline the stereotypes and clichés influencing the collective sensibility of one community against another.

What distinguishes this work from other plays written on the subject is that it is neither sentimental in its appeal nor simplified in its approach. It advances the objective candour or a social scientist while presenting a mosaic of diverse attitudes towards religious identity that often plunges the country into inhuman strife. Yet the issue is not moralised, as the demons of communal hatred are located not out on the street but deep within us.

The play moves from the partition to the present day communal riots. It probes into the religious bigotry by examining the attitudes of three generations of a middle-class Gujrati business family, Hardika, the grandmother, is obsessed with her father's murder during the partition turmoil and the betrayal by a Muslim friend, Zarine. Her son, Ramnik Gandhi, is haunted by the knowledge his fortunes were founded on a shop of Zarine's father, which was burnt down by his kinsmen. Hardika's daughter-in-law, Aruna, lives by the strict code of the Hindu Samskar and the granddaughter, Smita, cannot allow herself a relationship with a Muslim boy.

The pulls and counter-pulls of the family are exposed when two Muslim boys, Babban and Javed, seek shelter in their house on being chased by a baying Hindu mob. Babban is a moderate while Javed is an aggressive youth. After a nightlong exchange of judgements and retorts between the characters, tolerance and forgetfulness emerge as the only possible solution of the crisis. Thus, the play becomes a timely reminder of the conflicts raging not only in India but in other parts of the world.

Reviews

Mahesh Dattani's final solutions in its Hindustan avatar sound and look much better than it did in the original English. Translator Shahid Anwar and director Arvind Gaur have made major improvements – and not merely of the cosmetic kind – to reveal the communal passions that scar our collective subconscious…the plot is straightforward.
Mobs are on the rampage in the city in the aftermath of an attack on a rathyatra passing through a Muslim locality…in a daring departure, Arvind gaur invites the audience to participate in a debate at the end of the play. And people have been staying backing large numbers to discuss the communal aspect of the drama…though there are the usual status quoits, strong voices have been raised for and against the treatment of the "guilty" majority and the "persecuted" minority.
With the screaming, stomping, sinister mob in thebackground of this high charged interplay, we have a dramatically explosive play on boards….Arvind Gaur pitched and kept the action at a level on high tension. .....
-Kavita Nagpal (Hindustan Times)

Final solution was first performed in Bombay under Alyque Padamsee's direction. It evolved through a workshop after the Ahmedabad riots, and gained relevance post the Mumbai riots; it has consistently been associated with them. Written in English final solution found an audience that normally chose to disassociate itself with the harsh realities of life and pretend that certain situations did not exist.
An audience that went to the theatre to be entertained was suddenly confronted with its own reality…there was a negative anger with the audience. It was an anger towards being made to feel apologetic for one's own being, one's faith. There was resentment at being portrayed as "the enemy"…Shahid Anwar has translated the script in to a simply written but highly forceful and evocative Hindustani script for Asmita. Directed by Arvind gaur, the first Hindustani version of final solutions premiered in September 1997. an intense play it confronts a situation where Hindu Muslim animosity develops in to chaos…what eventually come across (apart from the larger fact of communalism) is that all the characters are victims of circumstances and social conditioning and what was a personal experience for them , gains the enormity of a larger perspective.
The chorus is something that drew a lot of comment … here the design is straightforward. Its continual presence, its hovering proximity and its occasionally threatening, occasionally silent almost oppressive nearness, constantly comments upon and envelops the action inside the Gandhi household. Shifting from the two communities it also comments upon the fact that a mob has no name, no loyalty. If the price is right so is the cause. The play is powerful, the production intense, the subject difficult, the response good.
- Smita Nirula (Review)

Play, that looks at India - now and henceforth; both forceful and relevant…communalism? One community hates another. One community is in the majority, the other is in the minority. Consequently, the two communities are at loggerheads, living in a atmosphere of conflict and acrimony. The 1990's have seen a number of films, plays and dissertations, which have tried to lift the cover off this contemporary scourge. And some where in the volley of questions and answers. There comes forth a reductive analysis, which reduces a complex phenomenon to a series of cause and effects. Rarely do we come across serious attempts that go beyond the superficial lesions and talk about the problem with all its complexities.
Mahesh Dattani's is that rare look at the socio-political problem that defines all final solutions. In Dattani’s view, Hindus and Muslims are not just two cardboard communities who clash when a procession is stoned, a pooja is disrupted, a mosque is dismantled. These for him, are just the jagged tips of an ominous iceberg. One that threatens to freeze the entire landscape into polarized communities that live by intolerance and hate in place of harmony…more important is the iceberg an amorphous mass that glorifies the credo of unity in diversity without actually understanding the meaning of diversity…the play looks straight in to the heart of fundamentalist and the liberal and tears down the prototypes…
Asmita's Hindustani adaptation of the play (by Shahid Anwar) , under Arvind gaur 's competent direction, managed to retain the philosophical import of the text, without losing out on the visual appeal . The inter-cutting passage through time was handled innovately by keeping all the three generations of the Gandhi family on stage for the play. The constant presence of the shadowy mob at the back with its hysterical chants represents the ongoing scourge of communalism, which has persisted since partition. Intense, topical, artistically mounted, Asmita's final solutions brought back memories of Habib Tanvir's rendition of jis Lahore nahin dehya and Saeed Mirza's Naseem, two other meaningful attempts to address the issue of communalism.
-Nikhat Kazmi (Times of India)

Good play , good acting…finds a chord with the audience…Mahesh Dattani’s 'final solutions'( a title derived from Nazi pogroms) is a commendably bold play in that it closely studies the communal virus which took centre stage in Indian society culminating in the Ayodhya demolition and the horrific bomb blasts in Mumbai. Though the Bangalore based Gujrati playwright had Ahmedabad extended spells of communal violence in mind when he wrote " final solution' his analysis of the problem was tellingly applicable to the post-Ayodhya situation…Asmita and Arvind gaur did well to pick up the thread from Padamsee with a fine Hindustani translation by Shahid Anwar…gaur's forte is powerful crowd scenes accented with physical action and emotional dialogue calling for histrionic and declamatory skills of a high order the play has plenty of both. A yelling menacingly muscular chorus line is the ugly face of majority communalism. It also doubles as the more subtle but also more sinister visage of minority fanaticism…in all an enjoyable play worth every minute of it. Mahesh Dattani script adhered to faithfully, adds to the pleasure.
- Drama critic.

Something to reflect upon…Asmita's production is simple and intense. The feeling of a pro-Muslim or a pro-Hindu bias was happily not there. The director invited the audience to stay after the play and conduct a dialogue with the team. Some of the responses from the audience were humbling. Two elderly gentlemen felt that they has given them something to reflect upon and had proved that there was hope for the future; Babban's last line "if you are willing to forget, am willing to tolerate" gave them food foe thought. When asked about biases, the audience was quite clear in its response: "the production is balanced "…chorus drew a lot of comment… shifting between the two communities, it also comments upon the fact that a mob has no name, no loyalty. if the price is the right , so is the cause, cash is king…that the Asmita company has worked very hard on this not-so-easy production is obvious…communal angle comes across loud and clear…something you can take home with you to think about.

The play is powerful, the production is intense, the subject difficult,the response good..

-Smita Narula (The Pioneer)

Off with the language barrier…proved its mettle Dattani is India's leading contemporary English language playwright…final solutions bares the ugly face of communalism. It took moral courage , in the immediate after math of the Babri masjid nightmare, on the part of Dattani to write the the play…mercifully the communal temperature now a days is more normal… nonetheless , staging of the play has moral merit and Asmita can take justifiable pride in maintaining its tradition of socially relevant theatre …final solution moves from partition to present day communal tension…the Asmita production scored over padamsee's English original in that power dialogue came across as more realistic and authentic…gaur's innovation of a background chorus by turn , violent Hindu and Muslim mobs are effective.
-G. George (The Statesman)

A show not to be missed…final solution makes a point: look for communal hatred not on the streets but deep inside ourselves…Dattani’s best play so far and as in some of his other plays, he takes the family unit as his locale and "moves between the past and the present."
The playwright takes three generations of a middleclass family as his base and through undercurrents that effect its members , explores the psyche of his characters in these days of communal strife…quite a few plays have been written on the communal theme but 'final solutions" is perhaps the only one so far which, instead of moralizing and raising hollow slogans for communal harmony , examines the issue from the point of view of a sociologist and says "communal hatred is located not out on the street but deep inside ourselves," the play holds a mirror to the society we live in…the director Arvind gaur has done away with hackneyed masks or other paraphernalia to identify the mob for they are lumpens – sometimes Hindus ,sometimes Muslim.
We recognize them only through there slogans and war cries their comments and questions. It is money that collects the crowd, and as the mob outside the house disappears: Javed says" may be they aren't paid overtime"…what a beautiful play, beautifully translated, and beautifully directed…"final solutions" is a demanding play and the cast as a whole tries its best…the response was overwhelming, particularly from the younger generation .the message had gone down well.
The play holds a mirror to the society we live in. …
-Romesh Chander (The Hindu)

On a more contemporary note, Mahesh Dattani's FINAL SOLUTIONS directed by Arvind Gaur easily stood out as one of the few truly satisfying experiences of this eleven day treat (9th national theatre festival, Nehru Centre,Mumbai) for the senses. As the dramatic tension (neatly orchestrated by a chorus) rises in the play, the subterranean psyche of each character is laid bare.Abuses are hurled, raw passions are evoked, attempts at reconciliation are made and prejudices and fears are acknowledged The beauty of the script indeed lies in its ability to relentlessly and sensitively question. Its urgent need to use 'dialogue' as a remedy for a socially pressing issue such as communalism, is the play's underlying theme. Arvind Gaur's direction is commendable. While the front of the stage is peopled by the principal characters who are psychologically exorcizing themselves, the back part of the stage has a chorus whose role is as symbolic as it is instrumental in furthering the action in the play when required.

In Retrospect: Select plays of the 9th National Theatre Festival,Nehru Centre , Mumbai

-Deepa Punjani,Editor, Mumbai Theatre Guide

Solution’ has successfully highlighted the partition-related malaise, which is not just prevalent in our society until today, but fast spreading its tentacles. It raises all those questions, which either remain unresolved or have not been addressed so far…. An honest effort towards actually restoring communal harmony has yet to be made…Summing up, the play was successful in holding the interest of the spectators and keeping them involved.
-Vikram Prajapati (Navbharat Times)

Acrobatic performance…Communal frenzy knows no bounds.

It can touch any extremes; yet human compassion holds high n stays aloft. This truth has been depicted by Mahesh Dattani’s English play ‘Final Solution’, translated into Hindi by Shahid Anwar…The storyline is quite deep and touching and forces people to think many times and truly shows a new and relevant path.

-Jag Mohan ( Dainik Hindustan Times)

Successful staging of final solution…Arvind Gaur directed play ‘Final Solution’ depicts the travails of a middle class family after the communal riots. The riot scenes were quite impressive.
-Nagar Samvadata

Experimental direction…Final Solution has been a presentation, which is not just seen in the auditorium, but the issue stays with the viewers, to be taken home and pondered & mulled over… Arvind Gaur’s pragmatic direction casts its spell on the viewers. For those who have not seen ‘Final Solution’, it is like an opportunity gone by….
- Gulush Swami (Deshbandhu, Jabalpur)

Its dark reflections hover in the thought-strands, movements, perceptions and rationale. Mahesh Dattani’s ‘Final Solutions’ is a play that presents such a nightmarish phase, which haunts in different forms all through the life…The roots of communalism are not just entrenched in the society, but have also rooted/lodged themselves as decisive elements in our psyche/thought processes. Though the characters have pointed out at the causes that disrupt the peace and harmony and lead to unrest, through their expressions and body-language, Arvind has projected the socio-psychological tides and trends/dynamics through the use of chorus, which is magical with its harmonious blend of sounds and dialogues…Shahid Anwar’s Hindi translation of ‘Final Solution’ is based on the background of Gujarat riots.
The entire gamut of its dramatic possibilities has been well projected by Arvind Gaur, during its recent presentation at India Habitat Centre…Revolving around three generations, the events in the play unfold at a swift pace, weaving the post-independence partition riots, with the communal riots of today in a common strand. Memories are the focal-point of the play…
Arvind’s experiments with the technique and fabric have been much appreciated. He is quite a matured and visionary theatre personality. Overall, the flawless presentation, direction and performances draw you to the play over and again & give it a repeat-value.
-Rashtriya Sahara

There come those moments, when situations compel an individual to introspect, understand and restrain oneself so-as-to avert disastrous consequences…all this is brought out by Asmita’s recent presentation ‘Final Solution’, directed by Arvind Gaur. Asmita and Arvind are synonymous and thus inseparable…
The play moves at a furious pace, and comes to a point where man is forced to introspect, for communalism is not outside but within. One needs to feel and understand this. If each individual of every community thinks right then he would know that communalism germinates and blossoms within. The weed of Communalism eats us inside out, and benefits none. It is like a wild growth in a field, which eats up the crop itself…Various possibilities and strains emerge on watching this play. Events unfold fast, keeping the viewer completely hooked. The team of seasoned artists, add to the natural flow & fluidity. The direction is taut and none escapes the director’s keen eye. The set was handled, by Tribhuvan.
-Dr Prem Sharan Sharma (theatre review)

Mahesh dattani opens up a lively debate on communalism in the play final solutions, translated in to Hindi by Shahid Anwar… fine performances and a powerful chorus added to the play force.
- Indian express

Promoting theatre of substance…aesthetically innovative and socially relevant theatre…"final solution has a powerful contemporary resonance as the central issue of communalism is of the utmost concerns of our society," says Arvind Gaur the director. Presenting different shades of communalist attitudes prevalent among Hindus and Muslims, the play attempts to underline the stereotypes influencing the collective sensibility of one community against another.
Moving from partition to the present day communal riots.
Final solutions examines the attitudes of three generations of a gujrati business family…he says, ' memory plays an important role in the play as reminiscences of the characters develop the plot. I have used a chorus to perform the visual element and images. Not only that, the chorus also turns into props or represents society or becomes the audience with in the play."…" all the characters stay on stage throughout.

There is no formula of entry and exit," explains Arvind. "This is a technique of alienation as the actors not involved in the action stand in one corner to divert attention and alleviate the audience response to the stage activity."…

Arvind does not believe in using theatre as a medium to merely titillate or incite revolution but as a means to increase awareness…he says, "I don’t want to impose my biases on the audience. let them as they are aware, decide for themselves…
Asmita is known for long post performance discussions with the audience and also for incorporating the suggestions in subsequent stagings…naturally, continuous training and development is Asmita's major concern…the concept of a born actor is being eroded, directors realize that training is indispensable…we may be celebrating fifty years of freedom but theatre is still not free" says Arvind…"serious theatre exists and so does the will to carry on which is evident in the number of productions coming up, not only by professional groups but also by college dramatics societies."

-First city magazine

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Director's Note

'Final Solutions' touches us, and the bitter realities of our lives so closely that it becomes a difficult play to handle for the Indian Director. The past begins top determine the outlook of the present and thus the earlier contradictions re-emerge. No concrete solutions are provided in the play to the problem of communalism but it raises questions on secularism and pseudo secularism. It forces us to look at ourselves in relation to the attitudes that persist in the society. Since it is an experiment in time and space and relates to memory, it is a play, which involves a lot of introspection on the part of the characters in the play and thus induces similar introspection in the viewers. I have attempted to experimentwith the chorus. It has been used in a style, which I would like to call 'realistic stylisation'. The chorus represents the conflicts of the characters. Thus the chorus is a sense is the psycho-physical representation of the characters and also provides the audience with the visual images of the characters' conflicts. There is no stereotyped use of the characterisation of the chorus because communalism has no face, it is an attitude and thus it becomes an image of the characters. The sets and properties used in the play are simple. This has been done to accentuate the internal conflicts and the subtext of the play. Theatre for 'Asmita' and me isa method of reflection, understanding and debating the contemporary socio-political issues through the process of the play. We hope the play will also have a lasting impact on the audience.

Madhavi solo play by Rashi Bunny

MADHAVI
Solo By Rashi Bunny
directed by Arvind Gaur
based on Bhishma Sahni's play

Solo play Madhavi By Rashi Bunny

Why Madhavi
A story based on character older than 5000 years. And still alive…
A Madhavi, who lives in a society that thrives under the auspicious umbrella of ever-forgiving religion and traditions. The norms, the rules of a society that have only changed names from Madhavi to Mansi or Mona. Theories not documented on paper but in the closed minds of society, and practices only made modern but still the same. Daughter is wedded and father performs the sacred rites of “Kanyadan”. Still a “Daan” or donation. Yayati gives away Madhavi because that’s what his “duty” binds him to do. Madhavi stands amidst the keen stares of men in King Haryasch’s court where the kingdom’s astrologer weighs upon Madhavi’s body - her statistics, skin, shapes… How different is any matrimonial add of today’s national news papers? Lecherous Divodas accepts Madhavi because she is prolific son–generating machine. A son is still considered a choicest choice. Galav markets her professionally and stoically.
A woman of beauty and intelligence born with unique gifts and special abilities spends her entire life in abiding by and standing for the secret promises, vows, desires and aspirations of the man who fathered her, the man she loved and men whom she consummated without marriage. Each man utilized her for his selfish interests in the name of “Dharma”. They framed her youth, beauty, sincerity and devotion and painted the colors of their desires and ambitions on the canvas of her fading individuality. They used her boons to avail their interest and she kept on giving and yielding and sacrificing for the sake of respect, love or plain duty. “Dharma” is, you see, the umbrella under which all wrongs will be shielded because it has got a sky above it, large and valuable of the scriptures written by men and rules created by men.
We may call ourselves an evolved post-modernistic world but is there a woman who at a certain age or stage in life, did not sacrifice for a man who thought his ambitions and wishes more important or more noble or more sacred than her dreams?? Madhavi still lives - more conventional and easily identifiable in rural set ups and more masked in the metropolis.
Late Bhisma Sahni was a writer of the masses and not classes. His characters and stories, like Chekov, are based on triumphs and traumas of a common man; not very well known characters but people with great sensitivity, sensibility and zeal for life. His plays have a whole panaroma of varied character who even in their stereo-typical presence convey various shades of “man”. Wound with its own wit and humor, the plays are essentially tragic.The content, the theme, the treatment of the issues in his plays are socially relevant and progressive even if they have historical or mythological base. With great sensitivity and panache, the tragic tale of a simple dutiful girl is told who is merely a victim of an inherently flawed system, created by man himself.
Unlike classical or Greek tragedies where the grand tragic end of the character was determined by his height and status in royal hierarchy here the playwright relies on destiny as much as making the special talent of the protagonist as the cause of his/her own disaster while restraining from making the play slogan-based.
Madhavi is not a myth, she is a reality. Madhavi has not been vanquished by history, sadly like the legend of Gaea, she still lives either in the self-imposed glory of her sacrifice or the heart-rending solitude of her abandonment…

THE MAKING OF MADHAVI
Madhavi is a result of an agitated exploration that continued to pose questions again and again about the presentation, representation and performance. A 3-act full-length play with more than 16 characters written by an eminent writer like Bhishma Sahni to be converted into a Solo performance? So many characters - all old stereotypic chauvinistic male except one - all to be performed by a young girl? That too a girl whose parentage, bringing up and urban modern education made her almost odds with the female character Madhavi, on whose life and destiny the play is written. The text was opened layer by layer and discarded completely line by line to explore the basic essence of the script. As that became clearer through brainstorming and discussion and fierce argumentation between the actor and the director, Bhishma Sahni’s script was picked up again and it was inventively interpolated so as to make it available for a solo performance.
From text one moved to images. What sort of visual landscape could we create so as to not just depict the life of Madhavi but also take the audience as a participant in the journey through her life? Almost magically cloth canvasses encompassed in vividly shaped light bamboo structures emerged that not only aesthetically excited us but also had promise in terms of flexibility of movement by way of Solo performance to depict many locales, time periods and psycho-physical spaces of various characters. We thought of collaborating with modern imaginative painters to render symbolical images on these canvasses. As usual, the lack of funding forced us to be resourceful and
we discovered something, what lead to us to an absolutely unexpected thrilling journey. We discovered during the first performance that the use of colours on the canvas by the actor during performance, almost invented a new language in performance. The selection of earth colours like turmeric, henna, sindoor, clay etc was natural. The bamboos, canvasses and wheat-flour, rice and color powders on stage at one moment brought the royal galore of the kings and kingdom, forlorn peace of Ashram, harrowing heights of long journeys in jungles and a sudden transition into neutral platform for narration.
Now the painting at the opening and during the performance became a play of colors for the performer that was not at all aimed to represent the psycho-emotional state of the character. What came as a wonderful welcome surprise was that what one was touching a dangerous area - the sub-conscious of the actor during the performance. For, it was realized that through the coloring of the canvasses the boundary between the actor and character was blurring and sharpening recurrently. Although since the process was more or less a continuum and to pinpoint was hard, mostly the result was actually the sub-conscious response to the sub-
text of the play MADHAVI. So many characters (real, fictitious and from the play) merged and forged their individuality, the actor maintained the alienation of an actor and journeyed with them, a facility imposed by the design of the play as a solo performance. And the idea was to take the play as Story-telling (katha-vachan style) by a modern urban girl talking of the life of a fellow member of the same species, many a times the narrator told the story while the body acted a character and many such interpolations were experimented on!
ABOUT THE ACTOR ...Rashi Bunny
Rashi Bunny ( राशी बनी) is an Indian Theatre and Cinema actor. She is known for her Solo plays Bhisham Sahni's Madhavi ,Manjula Padmanabhan's Hidden Fires and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince with director Arvind Gaur.Rashi Bunny was selected as "one of the 50 Icons: Emerging personality of India" by Sahara India group with Rahul Gandhi. Acted in Duvidha film. Her solo Hidden Fires was invited for Queen's Award Project (UK) for Communal harmony. She also worked with Living Theatre Academy under Ebrahim Alkazi She is guest faculty at National Institute of Fashion Technology(NIFT) and has lectured widely in schools, colleges and institutes of repute in India and abroad.Rashi also organized theatre workshops for children in schools and worked with different NGOs on social issues.

Rashi pursued her training in Theatre Arts and Design at the University of Alabama and Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.She is a recipient of Young Artist Scholarship & Junior Fellowship from department of Culture, HRD and Ruby Llyod Artistic & academic Excellence award and Best International Student Scholarship Award. She acted as lead in many plays, such as Beth Henley's Abundance and Jules Feiffer's Feiffer's People and worked with directors like Karma Ibsen, Ward Haarbauer and Anne Carmichael.
On her return to India,She worked with Arvind Gaur to explore the new language for solo performances.Rashi acted in many plays with Asmita theatre.

Acting.Bhisham Sahni 's MADHAVI, her first solo, directed by Arvind Gaur won accolades all over India and abroad.Manjula Padmanabhan's Hidden Fires was Rashi’s other solo directed by Arvind Gaur that has been selected by SKP as one of the best plays of year. It was also performed for Queen’s award project ( UK ) for Communal harmony. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince(French: Le Petit Prince),solo by Rashi Bunny directed by Arvind Gaur .It is only solo performance of The Little Prince in the world .It's being done in Hindi for the first time ,adapted by Capt.Rigved and for the first time a single actor is using multimedia puppetry to tell this world classic fable.Walking Through the rainbow, her latest solo directed by Arvind Gaur premiered in Chennai and deals with domestic abuse and other NRI issues.
She also acted in Mahesh Dattani's Tara & Final Solution, Vijay mishra's Tatt Niranjana, Swadesh Deepak's Court Martial and Sabse Udas Kavita, Munshi Premchand's Moteram ka Satyagrah, Rajesh Kumar's Me Gandhi Bolto .She also acted in many street plays.
These plays have been performed for various Theatre festivals, Institutions and NGO's in India and abroad including NSD, SKP, Nehru Centre, India Habitat Centre, Darpana Academy (Ahmedabad), IIT Kharagpur,Old World Mahindra festival(India Habitat Centre),British Council, Vivechana National festival, Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh Natya Samaroh, World Social Forum, Satta Festival, Jawaharlal Nehru University, IILM, PCVC, Stella Maris College (Chennai), University of Delhi, Jawahar Kala Kendra, ActionAid, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Armmono-II (ITI Unesco) and Nizhnevartovsk Theatre Festival.
Rashi has conducted theatre workshops for Engineering and management students, children, Youth and adults from all kinds of background and judged many drama competitions in Bengal, Delhi and Rajasthan. For,India Habitat Centre she has conducted Theatre workshops and was the coordinator for the Platform theatre. She is guest faculty at NIFT and has lectured widely in schools, colleges and institutes of repute in India and abroad.As Founding Director of Banjara Theatre Group at IIT Kharagpur, she also has designed and directed Many plays .
Critics' remarks
* It was a delightful solo performance by Rashi Bunny, as she brought to fore a range of human emotions in Bhisham Sahni's MADHAVI... it is an experiment both in its presentation by the director Arvind Gaur and its enactment by the actor Rashi.The Set and its use to my mind is indeed creative bordering on the genius. - The Hindu
* The play was among the very rare meaningful theatre we get to watch in our city. Thought provoking, overwhelming, it left so many fighting their tears. Each person present would have identified with the double standards of our society, each person sitting there would have felt guilty of having reduced the existence of a woman to a mere object, a commodity. Each woman would have relived some part of her life.- Hindustan Times
* All women will be able to see a part of themselves in it. The relevance of the issue makes the time setting immaterial.Even though the play is based on mythology, Madhavi. It was a delightful solo performance by Rashi Bunny, as is contemporary in its presentation and style...- India Today
* Its 'an actor's play'... The Kathavachan style has been adopted and the actor Rashi relates to the audience in day to day baat cheet…an intense and intimate theatre experience. -The Pioneer
* The solo performance is an experiment. Its like taking people through a journey.Even the set design is very experimental. There are blank canvasses on the stage and different colours placed in earthen pots,that symbolize the different colours of life.- First City
* The complex story of Madhavi, her trauma, tragedy and conflicts were portrayed with great sensitivity by Rashi Bunny.The simplicity of set design, use of bamboo structures, canvasses & helped audiences to extend their imagination to grasp the diversity and multi dimensional directorial interpretation of the play.- Navbharat Times
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi_Bunny