A mammoth production to enthral New Zealanders
Supplied Content
An Indian-Australian woman is on a mission to prove that there is more to Indian performing arts than Bollywood.
Aarti Bajaj is the Owner and Artistic Director of Wild Dreamer Productions, a ground-breaking Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) based production house committed to pushing boundaries beyond the social norm.
‘Meera,’ the brainchild of Ms Bajaj, is the ambitious first offering from Wild Dreamer Productions.
The stage spectacular will play six shows at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland on May 31, June 1 and June 2, 2019.
(Picture by Helen Selmeczy)
‘Meera’ made its debut and world premiere in a spectacular fashion to a full house of 1100 people at the Gold Coast Home of the Arts in November 2018.
A select few of the Australian cast and crew of more than 300 will tour with the production to Auckland, with auditions completed in the City of Sails from January 17 to 20, 2019.
Bold Love Story
Ms Bajaj said that ‘Meera’ is a bold love story from 16th Century North India about a Royal Princess who believed in her love for Lord Krishna (a Hindu God) to such a degree that she was willing to go against the norms of society for her love.
“This is a story of love, passion, betrayal and every emotion of human experience to make or break a person. ‘Meera’ has it all,” she said.
During the writing process, Ms Bajaj altered the interpretation of ‘Meera’ to fit the wider audience.
“I wanted to take all of the religious aspects out and focus only on the pureness of love in the story. Love is common for every living being, we all can have different religions and beliefs, but we all have one common expression, and that is love,” she said.
“Everyone can recognise this theme when they walk into the auditorium, no matter where they come from, or what they believe,” she added.
Music and Dance
“In ‘Meera,’ there are eight dance forms; Indian Classical, Indian Contemporary, Tap, Jazz, Ballet, African Contemporary, Aerial and Pole. You will see Pole in a different light in this production. We are also aiming to include Maori Haka.”
In regards to other performing arts featured in ‘Meera,’ there is drama, narration incorporating opera singing and 2D and 3D projection mapping.
“The music has been created from scratch from music composers from four different countries, using multiple genres,” Ms Bajaj said.
“Costumes and jewellery will be custom-made for the cast. It is about the true story of ‘Meera,’ written by me and scripted by two Western professional scriptwriters on the Gold Coast to give a globally palatable feel to the production.”
Major motivation
Another major motivation for Ms Bajaj is to create a platform where she can give different artistes the opportunity where they do not need a profile to share their talent. If they have talent, she intends to bring the platform to them.
“My ultimate goal is for ‘Meera’ to see all the beautiful stages and audiences across the globe, to sing out beautifully and loudly so everyone can get involved.”
Future Productions
Apart from creating ‘Meera,’ the vision of Wild Dreamer Productions is to present multiple unsung or not very well known stories from around the world.
Ms Bajaj said that her goal is to break different boundaries using globalisation and modernisation, to shine a light on different cultures and art forms.
“There is so much more to Indian dance, it is not properly propagated or spread in the wider world. Indian Arts is more than just Bollywood. Being professionally trained with a degree in dance, I am really passionate to bring real colours out to the world,” she said.
“The primary vision and ethos of Wild Dreamer Productions is to bring local talent together wherever the production goes,” said Ms Bajaj.
Learn more about this exclusive production here:
Meera: Preview 2018 Gold Coast Production
Meera: Interview with Aarti Bajaj (Creative Director)
Wild Dreamer Productions Website
Meera: Facebook
