A life in theatre

In a career that spans almost four decades, Daraka Wongsiri, 62, has penned more than 30 plays and musical books with well-rounded characters, on up-to-date situations, and with an underlying social commentary. Many of these works are now being studied in drama classes nationwide.

Thai theatregoers my age and older grew up watching such representative dramas as “Kulab si lueat” (“The Crimson Rose”, 1988), “Sut sai plai rung” (“Where the Rainbow Ends”, 1991), and “Phinaikam khong ying wikoncharit” (“A Madwoman’s Will”, 1994). Audiences who prefer satirical comedies will recall how hard we laughed at her “Thuenthuek” (“Old Maids”, 1992), “Khunmo kha taewa man maichai” (“Doc! But That’s Not…”, 1995), and “Sam sao sam sam” (“Three Misbehaving Women”, 1996). 

Daraka has also written stage adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen” (“Nangphaya Hima”, (1991) and the Chinese folk tale “The White Snake” (“Nang phaya ngoo khao”, 1999). 

Musical lovers have been delighted too by her book and lyrics for such works as “Rai saen suk” (“The Happy Farm”, 1986), “Khu Kam” (“The Doomed Duo”, 2003), “Mae Nak” (2009), and “Pritsana” (2012) which was honoured with the first IATC Thailand award for best book of a musical. Her most recent work, staged two months ago, was “Mom”, which she adapted from MR Kukrit Pramoj’s short story and which met with success and critical acclaim.

Daraka also translated “Dreamgirls: The Musical” in 2012 and Agatha Christie’s “Go Back for Murder” into “Roi Rak Roi Khattakam” (2013). And as an example of how Thai people love adapting, not adopting, her most popular work is “Onlaman lang ‘Ban Sai Thong’” (“Mayhem behind ‘The Golden Sand Mansion’”, 1999). A hybridisation of British playwright Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” and Ko Surangkhanang’s best-selling novel “Ban Sai Thong”, this international behind-the-scenes farce was restaged in 2000, 2003, and 2005, and toured to Chiang Mai (1999) and Khon Kaen (2000) for a nationwide total of more than 100 performances, a record for a Thai play.

In short, I don’t think any professor would want to put the question “Who is contemporary Thai theatre’s most prolific playwright?” in an exam. Likewise, when any foreign critic or producer colleague asks me about contemporary theatre, Daraka’s works are always part of our conversation.

A graduate of Chulalongkorn University’s Department of Dramatic Arts, Daraka says her decision to work professionally as a playwright in the 1980s, which was as unique back then as it is now, was due to her professor, National Artist Sodsai “Khru Yai” Pantoomkomol.

“At the Faculty of Arts, I wasn’t really an academic type of student. I preferred practical work and that’s why I chose to major in dramatic arts. I also studied fundamental classes in acting, directing and design but I found my true passion in playwriting. I was an introvert: I still am. The best way to express myself is through the written word. The criticism Khru Yai gives to my works has always been constructive. She often says, ‘This is what I think and you may agree or disagree.’ She did this in my college years and still does it now. I always send her my scripts and she writes her notes on them. When she was healthy she would come to watch my plays and musicals,” Daraka says. 

“I learned from her that we should have a firm grasp on the basics and only then can we be more experimental. She taught me and continues to remind me not to completely believe in what she says and she gives me enough freedom to develop my own work. She’s always encouraging and open-minded; I think that’s a rare kind of teacher.”

After graduation, Daraka wrote scripts for the Ministry of Education’s radio dramas. “I performed in them as well but that’s okay – nobody saw me,” she laughs. 

The success of the charity musical plays “Rai saen suk” and “Aphinihan Maemot Faet” (“The Miraculous Twin Witches”) led her to another “crazy” idea of starting a theatre company. DASS Entertainment was formed in 1990 and takes the first two letters of her first name. Daraka explains, “I quit my civil servant job because I didn’t want to get into the whole system of bureaucracy. After working as an assistant magazine editor for a year, I decided that in my early 30s I should start doing only what I want to do. And with many like-minded friends and supporters, we thought we could pull this off.”

With a few productions a year at the AUA Auditorium, MBK Hall, and later their own Bangkok Playhouse as well as Chalermkrung Royal Theatre and upcountry venues, DASS Entertainment, with Daraka as resident playwright, has certainly succeeded in pulling it off.

Working in Theatre 28’s Thai production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” in 1985, Daraka met a new friend who would became a lifelong collaborator, namely the director of all her plays and musicals, Suwandee Jakravoravudh, a drama graduate from Thammasat University. 

“We’ve been working together this long because of our sheer respect for each other’s role in every production. In interpreting my plays, she’s always careful, and when the director is careful, so are her cast members. In this healthy collaboration, we have discussion as well as arguments.

Daraka puts part her playwriting skills down to her love of reading.

“I’ve been an avid reader all my life,” she says. “This may sound like an overstatement but it’s a fact: I even read what’s on ‘thung kluai khaek’ (fried banana recycled paper bags) and merchandise catalogues. I observe everything around me and like listening to people from all walks of life. When I see, for example, a sad-looking cleaning lady, I talk to her and our conversation, mostly about her life, later inspires my writing.” 

And now in the age of social media, she says, “I read everyone’s Facebook posts. I also write long posts, many of which are as long as short stories; Twitter is not for me! When I’m interested in something, I’m really curious about it. I’m now interested in Donald Trump and Syria – I even read from Syrian websites and then use the translation function to access primary sources of news.”

When DASS became Dreambox in 2001, Daraka added the role of producer to her work, saying, “I have to learn how to keep the company’s accounts book too.”

And that, along with the company’s additional work in television and special events, explains why she’s not as prolific now as she was in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

“The theatre-going public here is limited and the run of each production, unlike that in other countries, is not very long. Sometimes we’re drained after working on a few productions every year so we decided that we needed to slow down,” she says,

In honour of Khru Yai and to support the career of aspiring playwrights, she also initiated the Sodsai Awards, Thailand’s only playwriting contest for university students. 

“Of course we need to take into consideration their young age and the fact that their interests are quite common. Many of them are writing about teen romance and are not deeply delving into issues,” she says of her young colleagues’ works. 

“And so it depends on each writer’s keen eye for the details. Many of them are afraid of making mistakes or going further than what they’ve been taught in classes. Some works are quite outstanding, though, like last year’s winner ‘Thritsadi maiyamok’ [later staged at “Take Off Festival” at Thong Lor Art Space] which was written by a first-year student in Communication Arts.

 

 NO STAGE FRIGHT