Meet Smart Girls Sunita Deshpande and Kate Chamuris: Making Waves Onstage and Off
Waiting around for projects that really clicked with us used to be more of the norm, but thankfully, we’ve come to realize that we can instead take part in creating those works that we really want to see. Women like Sunita Deshpande, an actress who you may recognize from commercials, Broad City and 30 Rock, and the new Amazon Prime series The Ridge, is doing just that.
This year, she wrote her first play, A Sari For Pallavi, which focuses on a culture clash between family members and was recently part of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival — a festival known for its high standards of acceptance. Kate Chamuris saw the innovation and brilliance in Deshpande’s work and the two are now collaborating to take the play, and turn it into a short film.
These two Smart Girls sat down with us to talk all about the importance of creating your own work and how to keep going on your own motivated accord.
SMART GIRLS: What’s “A Sari For Pallavi” about?
Sunita Deshpande: It is a story about two Indian cousins, one grew up in America, a big party girl, very outspoken, does things her way. And then her cousin comes to visit her from India and she’s very traditional, so they get into a big fight about what the American cousin is going to wear to a wedding, since she wants to wear an American dress. The cousin from India wants her to wear a traditional sari to the wedding. It’s kind of a fight I always had in my head especially growing up in a very conservative Indian family and wanting to fit in with American style. Fashion can feel so defining.
SG: Why was it important to tell this story?
SD: The reason I wrote it was to get a funny fight out of my head and my heart. The traditional characters are based a lot on things my mom would say to me. I was told I couldn’t do or wear things because I was Indian and those things were for American girls.
Kate Chamuris: Even though the story has a lot of specifics of Indian culture, it really has been touching people universally. People can really relate to that conversation with a more traditional mother or family, who has a really strong view of what they think you should be doing as an independent woman in this century.
SG: How did you two decide to collaborate?
KC: Over a catch up coffee, Sunita was telling me about the play she wrote, but also how other roles she was playing, many of them weren’t fun for her. So she really wanted to be creating her own work and I said, “Well, then why don’t we make this play into a movie.” That day is also when she found out about being accepted into Samuel French.
SD: Yes, I got the email that I was a finalist as I was leaving Kate’s apartment!
SG: [How has the response been so far?]
SD: It’s my first play and I’m so happy that it’s resonated the way it has. People have come up to me and asked me to turn it into a longer piece. I’m very happily surprised by all this. Theater directors have reached out about performing the piece at schools, which is great because I remember being in school and feeling like nothing was written for me.
SG: Do you have advice for aspiring young actresses, writers, playwrights?
KC: I would say be humble. Check your ego at the door. For me it’s all about putting the focus on the other person. If you think about this as a community, how can you connect two people that you know? All of the insecurities about yourself go away because you’re focusing on making someone else better — this is actually a basic improv rule.
SD: … If this is your dream, stick to it. Always. Put in 100%, work hard and be kind, eventually something is going to crack. It has to. Also I’d say fall in love with failure. That was my hardest thing. Coming from an Asian American community, you are not allowed to fail! I would take it really hard. Just don’t worry about trying to look cool, keep creating, it might be horrible at first and that’s ok. I could be terrible at something ten days in a row and then nail it on the eleventh and that’s the honey that keeps you going.
Keep up with all that’s happening with “A Sari For Pallavi” on Facebook and Twitter!
Photo furnished by Kate Chamuris
