After the students of Wellesley College Theatre concluded their two-day run of “HARK!” on April 26 and 27, I sat down with Akasha Brahmbhatt ’25, cast member and principal scenic designer, to discuss the process of creating a play from scratch for audiences of all ages. 

Ivy Buck: How did the idea to make HARK! come about? 

Akasha Brahmbhatt: [In the winter] we all registered for Devising Theatre (THST 355), and we [the registered students] went in with the understanding that whatever came out of it would be the mainstage production. THST 355 has an open-ended schedule; we knew we would have show dates in April, and we knew the theme would be the environment or climate change, and we knew we would be the people to write, perform and design the play. But we didn’t know exactly what “HARK!” would look like. We started with various assignments and skits that we would write and eventually perform –– sometimes they would be only a few minutes long, sometimes it would be a movement piece [or] sometimes it would be a game.

Buck: What was the experience like of creating a show with all ages in mind? 

AB: This was something I had never done before, but it was really interesting because I got to tap into my inner child and remember the performances that I enjoyed as a kid, but most importantly decide what messages we wanted to send out into the world––especially in this day and age. There was a lot of pressure, but we did some workshops with the WCCC (Wellesley Community Children’s Center) and Wellesley Elementary School. 

Buck: Yes! I heard you got to perform in a school… 

AB: Yeah! We workshopped some of our pieces [for “HARK!”] there, and it was very formative; the kids were super responsive to what we had. We developed a song that framed the show, with the message “do I want to go outside?” and “what can I explore outside?” More of a question, than a statement, so it would hopefully spark some inspiration [amongst the kids.]

Buck: As an actor who has had previous experience doing scenic design for WCT, how did you envision this for “HARK”? 

AB: I got my inspiration from the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival in January. Actually…I was looking around the other students’ props and set poster boards, and one person’s props were made entirely out of cardboard. I was really inspired by that and brought the idea back to Wellesley. As we were developing the show, I thought it would be really cool to use recycled materials, and try to build a world as we build our show together. We got a bunch of cardboard from the dumpster and from each others’ delivered packages, and a lot of our set ended up being constructed from that cardboard. Throughout the process, when we were developing a narrative around a tree and rebuilding something as a community, we thought about rebuilding a tree in the center of our stage. We constructed boxes [to eventually form the tree] and as the show progresses, our props fill these boxes to create a “patchwork quilt” situation at the end. 

Buck: As you approach graduation, how do you think this experience of acting, producing and set-designing all at once will serve your future interests? 

AB: As someone who would love to have a career doing something creative, this has been a more valuable experience to conclude my Wellesley College Theatre education than a traditional scripted play, because I got to tap into all of my [theatrical] training. To create something from scratch is really incredible, it was a feeling I will take with me no matter what career I have or what I do after Wellesley. It’s been awesome to see all of these skills come together to create something out of nothing, with primarily a six-person team. It’s really inspiring! 

Buck: Describe “HARK” in five words or less…

AB: Hilarious. Adventure. Really. Killer. Exclamation point!