On Sept. 25., the Department of Theatre’s New Play Reading Series presented “Made in USA with Imported Materials,” a play written and directed by Kinjal Potdar ‘26. It explores familial tensions that emerge as the family celebrates Diwali, the Festival of Lights.
The Sophian sat down with Potdar to discuss her creative process, the inspirations behind the play and its exploration of identity and belonging.
AC: Could you describe the creative process of writing your play “Made in USA with Imported Materials”?
KP: I see the creative process as being split into three major parts. I start with world building: creating characters and a fundamental understanding of the conflicts between them along with themes I want to explore. Then I write an outline that maps, very roughly, the arc of the story. Finally, I use that outline to write the script and edit.
This was my second time writing a full-length play and I learned a lot from my last experience that I wanted to implement. For instance, last time I was very rigid with my outline and didn’t start writing the script until I was done with the outline. But I found that the story changes so much as I begin to write. So this time, I was constantly hopping between the outline, script draft and even the world building, letting the process be organic and all-consuming.
AC: What was your inspiration for writing the play? What drew you to explore the South Asian community in this light?
KP: In early May, I was on a walk listening to an interview with the author and activist Glennon Doyle who told an intriguing story that inspired the initial idea to write this play. She was talking about how she’s almost 50 and sick of having an eating disorder, but it’s become her struggle, her thing since she was 10 years old. And she has continuously been getting help but it just keeps coming back relentlessly and it will probably always be her thing. She then mentioned that a woman responded to her newsletter where she described this experience, commenting that Glennon should know about humpback whales. Glennon then explains that humpback whales are born with one tone, one song that they’re meant to sing every single day of their life from the time they’re born to the day they die and that’s their only song.
I was immediately struck by this fact and wanted to look more into it. For some reason whenever I see a fact like this about a wild animal I feel like human experiences are validated. So I looked it up on the internet to learn more and saw that in other interviews she has said that a humpback whale’s song comes from its parents. And I thought that was too cool to be true because wouldn’t every humpback whale sing the same song then? So I searched “do humpback whales sing the same song their whole life” and lo and behold they don’t!
My immediate resonance with humpback whales based on this fact I thought was true and the reveal it wasn’t inspired me to explore generational issues. Specifically, the experience of an immigrant child being the first born in America among an ancestral lineage rooted in a vastly different country and culture along with the problems and joy that come with that.
AC: How did you collaborate with your team – such as actors – throughout the development of the play?
KP: Casting the play was initially quite overwhelming because I needed to find four South Asian student actors at a predominantly white institution. I’m grateful to Thank You, Five (Smith’s POC theater organization) and EKTA (Smith’s South Asian student group) for their support in helping me connect with such a talented group of student actors.
It was wonderful to work with Miraal Burney, Lucy Camera-Murray, Sharmila Green, Onamika Dey, Keerthana Vekataraman and Amrita Chaturvedi. Each of them brought so much dedication and heart to their roles in just one rehearsal. As a first-time director, I felt incredibly supported by their commitment and generosity. They brought the play to life so beautifully.
AC: Your play both challenges and embraces common stereotypes of South Asian characters in mainstream media. How did you approach breaking and conforming to those stereotypes in your storytelling?
KP: Throughout the writing process, I was very aware of how non-South Asian audiences might perceive the South Asian characters. In American mainstream media, where South Asian representation is limited, the few characters that do exist may be seen as representative of the entire community. I tried to push back against that by creating multiple South Asian American (specifically Indian American) characters who have distinct, nuanced experiences.
AC: The twists in the story really stood out. How did you come up with them and what was your process for weaving them into the narrative?
KP: Thank you. I knew very early on in the process that I wanted Priya and Liz to break up at the end of the play, but I didn’t know how or why. To discover why I created a list of reasons why Priya would break up with Liz. Some of them were truly insane like Liz steals a cow from a nearby farm and ends up in jail and others were much more reasonable in the world of the play. These reasons led to the creation of the twists which all revealed information about Liz that made Priya want to break up with her. To weave them into the narrative, I worked backwards from the reveals, creating scenes to plant set-ups, clues, for what was to come.
AC: What do you hope audiences – both South Asian and non-South-Asian – take away after watching your play?
KP: I hope audiences connect with the characters and see how loving family relationships are strained by the need to preserve and embrace two, at times, opposing cultural identities. While this journey may be extremely difficult, navigating and finding your space between these two identities can be a powerful source of perspective and strength.
