Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Gaurav Kripalani wears many hats: artistic and managing director, and now stage actor, with a leading role in SRT’s latest production. The theatre impresario talks about making a return to the stage on his 20th anniversary with the company.

We know him at the urbane artistic and managing director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT), but lately, Gaurav Kripalani has been wearing a different hat—that of a stage actor. 

He first got his feet wet last November with Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s one-man show White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, where the actor reads the script for the first time on stage. That experience rekindled his passion for acting, and when one of the actors in SRT’s staging of Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced this month had to bow out, Gaurav stepped up to the plate.

“It’s my 20th anniversary at SRT and I wanted to set myself a new challenge. Disgraced was the perfect play. It’s an important play for Singapore and is one of the cleverest scripts I've ever come across,” says Gaurav.

One of the most staged productions in the US this year, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning play discusses race relations in the country post-9/11 and “has taken on a whole new resonance since Donald Trump’s election campaign. Some of the vitriol Trump spouted about minorities takes on a whole new significance when you watch this play”, Gaurav explains.

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Above Gaurav Kripalani (left) as Amir in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced.The play confronts our identities, prejudices and fears.

He plays Amir, a successful South Asian lawyer in New York—with an American wife—who has worked hard to achieve the American Dream. His life however, begins to unravel at a celebratory party with friends, when dinner table conversation leads to a fiery clash about his culture and identity. 

What many may not know, while this is Gaurav's first full-fledged role on stage in a while, the theatre graduate, who trained in acting, has appeared in SRT’s productions of Sing to the Dawn and Hamlet in the 1990s. He also guest appeared in an episode of the television series Under One Roof and had a bit part in the film, Rogue Trader, alongside Ewan McGregor.

“Going back to acting after so many years is one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I have loved every minute of it. This experience has been terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time,” he enthuses. “The audience response has been amazing. This is probably one of the most powerful and important plays ever to be staged in Singapore. The talkback sessions after each show, shows how theatre brings people together in a shared experience and supports an important dialogue.”

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Above Disgraced is play about individuals with distinct points of view. 

This is what is most gratifying for Gaurav—knowing that SRT has played a part in growing the arts scene in Singapore. For him, some of the highs of his 20-year tenure include “taking a show to Broadway; opening our own 380-seat venue, the KC Arts Centre, at Robertson Quay; staging Forbidden City at the opening of the Esplanade; working with the likes of Ian McKellen and Kevin Spacey; growing The Little Company into the foremost children’s theatre in Singapore”.

“Going back to acting after so many years is one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I have loved every minute of it. This experience has been terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.”

On how he wants to write the next chapter of the SRT story, Gaurav says, “We have exciting plans for SRT (which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018): you will see more original works and more amazing international collaborations. We are strengthening our educational programmes as well as our capacity building platforms that the industry, not just SRT, benefits from.”

And how will Gaurav Kripalani, the actor, be part of this story? More than just the current one-a-year production, a full-on comeback to acting maybe? “Stay tuned!” came his tongue-in-cheek reply. Well, judging from the response to Disgraced, we definitely would.

Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced runs until December 4, at the KC Arts Centre – Home of SRT.

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