The October instalment of the Playwrights Workshop Trinbago (PWT) Monthly Readers Theatre Series (MRTS), will feature the cold reading of a new play, Heliport by Vandana Maharaj. This virtual event will take place on Wednesday October 2nd at 7:00 PM (GMT -4), and will be held exclusively via Zoom.
About The Play: Heliport shows a place, a system, an operation and the corruption that runs through it all. A naive social worker discovers the horrors and realities of the trafficking crisis in Trinidad.
About the Playwright: Vandana Maharaj is a Trinidadian-Canadian creator who is currently in her fourth and final year of a joint specialist degree in Theatre and Drama Studies, between the University of Toronto and Sheridan College. She is an actor, writer, singer and dancer , and although she currently lives in Toronto, she is passionate about continuing to highlight Trinidadian and Caribbean stories.
In a statement to the T&T Performing Arts Network, Maharaj shared that the idea for Heliport stemmed from the experiences of a relative who worked in the Ministry of Social Development during the COVID – 19 pandemic. At that time, the heliport was being used as a quarantine facility/holding bay for Venezuelan victims of sex trafficking. Maharaj reflected, “After doing my own research on the horrors that occurred around these situations, I felt compelled as a young woman to make a statement on the abuse faced and the implication of protective structures in the exploitation process.”
After responding to a call for scripts by the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NDATT) on Instagram earlier this year, Maharaj admits she was both surprised and excited when Heliport was selected for the reading. “I’ve never shared this script publicly before—it’s always been for me. Being chosen felt like a huge step toward sharing my work as a playwright.” She describes Heliport as a visceral piece and looks forward to seeing how audiences respond to her writing style and its challenging subject matter, in order to inform how she continues to develop the work.
PWT invites actors, playwrights, directors, producers and the general public to join us on Zoom to listen to the cold reading and participate in the discussion to assist the playwright with the further development of the script. The event will be held on Wednesday October 2 at 7 PM (GMT-4).
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87922949498
Meeting ID: 879 2294 9498
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PWT reads new stage, screen, and radio plays on the first Wednesday of every month. Plays read in 2024 for the Monthly Readers Theatre Series will qualify for workshopping, staging and award consideration at the New Play Festival 2025. For further information or to submit a script for reading in the MRTS, email playwrightsworkshoptt@gmail.com; call/text/WhatsApp (868) 351-6293; find us on Facebook and Instagram @playwrightsworkshoptt; or on NDATT’s website https://iamndatt.org.tt/playwrightsworkshoptt/.
The Trinidad and Tobago Performing Arts Network 