Shekinah Jacob

Early life

As she stated in her interview (http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/her-plays-go-places/article5092888.ece) in The Hindu dated 14 September 2013, playwriting came naturally to her at a very young age. Her first tryst with writing was in school when she won a national short story writing competition. In her high school in Vellore, Ida Scudder School, she wrote a musical for the annual play production, finding it easier to write one than to find an appropriate play in the library as her principal had initially suggested.

She graduated from Women's Christian College, Chennai. It was here that she began to explore this gift further…being an all women's college, they had no male actors and so she wrote a play titled Seven for a Secret that had an all-women cast. It went on to win the Best Script prize and the Best Audience Response at an inter-collegiate theatre festival.

She worked as a reporter in Bangalore doing food and play reviews. She then did an MA in English Literature at the University of Madras. She worked as a copywriter and then as a technical writer.

Life as a playwright

When she scribbled her first script on the back of a notebook in school, it was simply her idea of what she thought a play should look like. Yet, she says, the form came naturally. She wrote her second full length script while studying at Women's Christian College. But she learnt the fundamentals of playwriting during a workshop by Mahesh Dattani and was later trained by the Royal Court Theatre in London.She says about her experience in her interview with 'The Hindu' "I learnt how drama is action. Cause and effect. Your left brain and right brain have to work together.”

In WCC she had to write a play with no male actors in it. So she wrote a play with 7 girls in it titled "Seven for a Secret "and it was this play that got her into a workshop with the Royal Court Theatre, London. The play was performed in Chennai and it won the Best Script prize and Best Audience Response prize. She participated in a playwriting workshop by Mahesh Dattani and the play she wrote at the end of this titled 'Only Women' had a rehearsed reading at the British Council.

She also wrote a monologue titled 'We are Water' that was aired on BBC radio in Sept 2003.

After taking up various other jobs, she realised that her passion was in theatre, especially writing scripts. So she approached the Royal Court Theatre again. This time she sent them a play that she had been working on. It was the original draft of 'The Long Way Home'. 'The Long Way Home', found its way to the country's most prestigious stages, from NCPA and Prithvi in Mumbai to the Museum Theatre in Chennai, last year. She had become a mother by then, and so she explored the dynamics between a mother and daughter." The play evolved as she realised her strength was dialogue.

The play 'The Long Way Home' was produced and staged by Evam entertainment and directed by Karthik Kumar. It starred the talented dancer-actor Anita Ratnam. The role was so authentic that every performance ended with people walking up to her and saying, "You're just like my mom". The play was shown in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. Shekinah says, "I realized that even if I'm writing about the small world I know, a domineering south Indian mother isn't too different from a mother at the other end of the world. As playwrights we have to fall in love with creating believable characters."

Her biggest and most acclaimed work till date has been the hugely successful "Ali J".

Ali J began with a real story. Her brother is a lawyer who works with a human rights organisation in Mumbai. He told her about a young man who was imprisoned because drugs were planted in his bag. The man spent 10 years in a Mauritius prison, and then was moved to Mumbai. He's still in prison. Around the same time, evam asked her to write them a monologue for 'The Fringe'. "They originally wanted one on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and realizing how little Indian history she knew, she began to read extensively on the subject." After six months of reading, she decided to morph the two subjects. "The actual writing took just as long as it took her to type.”

Ali J, produced by evam entertainment premiered at the recent Edinburgh Fringe Festival and ran for 25 days garnering rave reviews and a four star review from The Scotsman. It will open the NCPA Centrestage Festival in Mumbai next, after which it will tour the country.

The story works on two levels. It's about a guy in his 30s imprisoned in a cell in Chennai who is on death row for a crime he did not commit. It's about how circumstances and people shape his vision. She adds, "The point is to capture the idea that a single event can change the course of your life. All of us are acted on by so many influences – childhood, love, jealousy…. Great historical figures were no different. Their decisions are so influenced by personal egos, ambitions, and little distractions.

Ali J by evam premiered at the recent Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and ran for 25 days garnering rave reviews. It will open the NCPA Centrestage Festival in Mumbai next, after which it will tour the country.

Talking about her inspiration in her interview with "The Indian Express" on 25 October 2013 Jacob says, "I read as widely as possible– my favorite playwrights include Alan Bennet for the brilliant way in which he captures miniature shifts of mood and the textured dynamics of relationships, also Tom Stoppard and David Mamet. And of course the immortal Shakespeare," she says. According to Jacob, good theatre is like a good democracy, 'by the people, of the people, and for the people'. She writes what she would like to watch as an audience. She enjoys watching plays that are rooted in her world. Theatre should be like an ongoing dialogue between the audience and the actors.

Shekinah Jacob began her own theatre group called Open House Productions, mainly to combine her two loves- entertaining, thought-provoking theatre that also generates income for charitable causes. The uniqueness of this theatre company is that operates on a Robin Hood model, funded by corporates and well-wishers, while most of the revenue from ticket sales go to deserving local NGOs in every locality that they perform in.

Open House Productions feel that artists should be rewarded for their time and talent and they try to pay every performer as generously as possible. In an interview in 2015, playwright Naren Weiss told India-West that his play Censored came to him after Jacob's Ali J had been banned in multiple cities across India. The play was later shot as a sketch by the Stray Factory and went viral in India.

Two years ago Shekinah Jacob won the Charles Wallace Scholarship and acquired a Masters in Writing for Performance with a Distinction at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her course and exposure to cutting-edge theatre on London's stages was a huge learning experience and she has brought all of that back to the second innings of Open House Theatre Productions that was on a brief break during her years in the U.K. They are now back with The Christmas Shootout, a comedy for the festive season, beginning a national tour in December 2016 in all the four metros. They are also going international this year with an eighth show in Dubai, to reach a total audience of over 5500 people.

Play Ali J

Part Bollywood romance, part social commentary on the after-effects of the partitioning of India, this perfectly pitched play by Shekinah Jacob, produced by Evam Theatre, never lets the weighty issues it tackles overshadow a heartfelt personal story. The writing is rich with humour and humanity, and TK Karthik's engaging performance brings Ali's warm and welcoming character to life.

The Scotsman – "Hot show pick..." 4 stars

The play is both heartfelt and cerebral as it paints a picture of an India still living in the wake of brutal partition following independence, simultaneously telling the story of one man and millions of people. The writing is never simplistic but always open, and uttered with a joy of life that can only come to those facing death. Sublime.

Three Weeks -"Heartfelt and Cerebral" – 5 stars

No Borders – "Beautifully written script ... Excellent performance" – 4 stars

The Stage – "Impressive demanding performance"

Fringe Review -"Highly recommended show"

The National, Fest – 'It's a powerful, often surprisingly humorous production, astutely illustrating the emotional shifts such a character can undergo, from naive hope to radical intensity. Our emotions become heavily entwined with a figure who, if he chooses a particular path, would be widely demonised. It raises intriguing questions" – Sir Hawkins, The National, Fest, Independent.co.uk

WhatsOnStage – Top 18 picks of the Edinburgh Fringe

Asian Age -Mention of Indian Element at the Fringe

British Theatre Guide – "A rarity ... unique" – 3 stars

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