Building a “Kingdom of Cards” From Text to Tableau
By Julia Halprin Jackson Photography by Robert C. Bain
Prologue
By the time a theatrical production opens, with actors in makeup and costume, the set designed and built, lighting cued to highlight the dramatic entrance of the hero or the villain, months (if not years) of hard work have already been invested into the show’s success. While a performance may be two hours of a theatergoer’s time, to the director, playwright, stage manager or ensemble member, the time onstage represents far more. It is a culmination of preparation, study, rehearsal and creative problem-solving.
During the 2025-2026 academic year, San José State artists had the unique chance to get in on the ground floor with an original translation and adaptation of “Tasher Desh” [“Kingdom of Cards”] a play by renowned Indian playwright and Nobel Prize-winning polymath Rabindranath Tagore.
The production in progress, “Kingdom of Cards,” is the result of a unique partnership with the South Asians in Silicon Valley initiative at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, where Community Engagement Librarian Mantra Roy aims to record, preserve and share the South Asian legacies in the Bay Area.
In summer 2024, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Sukanya Chakrabarti performed a “Rabindrasangeet,” from a vast oeuvre of songs written by Tagore, at “Sounds of South Asia,” a community event Roy hosted at the King Library as part of an accompanying exhibit. By then the initiative had received a major gift from an anonymous donor passionate about Tagore’s works. A conversation between Roy and Chakrabarti organically led to this exciting partnership on the “Kingdom of Cards” production.
“‘Kingdom of Cards’ is a very relevant play, and adapting it for today’s audiences is very important,” says Roy. “The fact that Tagore can speak across generations is powerful. The more his works get performed and showcased in different locations, the more one can see why voices like his from 19th century India still continue to resonate.”
She adds that Chakrabarti’s translation and adaptation sheds light on another facet of South Asian culture that doesn’t always get the spotlight.
“The fact that this production is coming through the South Asians in Silicon Valley initiative is essential, because South Asians are almost 20% of the San Francisco Bay Area, demographically speaking,” she says. “And yet we don’t see as many of us represented in public records and mainstream spaces, where people who are not South Asian can ‘see’ and understand the community. I hope that the exposure of South Asian [people’s] lives through music, theater, journalism, food, and even the history of South Asians on our campus, can help dispel stereotypes.”
As the home to thousands of physical and digital books, as well as art exhibitions and community collaborations, the King Library is a natural partner for this initiative, given its connections to both the university and the City of San José. In tandem with the opening of “Kingdom of Cards” at the Hammer Theatre, Roy opened an exhibit on South Asian theater at the King Library’s Jennifer and Philip DiNapoli Exhibit Gallery on April 20.
Act I: “Tasher Desh”
Sukanya Chakrabarti remembers performing in a production of “Tasher Desh” as a child in Kolkata, India. Written in 1933 as a social critique on the rise of fascism, the play opens when
a prince and a merchant are shipwrecked on an island inhabited by lifelike playing cards. It doesn’t take long for the human characters to challenge the rigidity and authoritarian inflexibility of the so-called “Kingdom of Cards.”
“I played one of the cards,” says Chakrabarti. “I’ve been doing theater since I was a child, and I don’t think that even in my wildest imagination I’d ever thought that one day I’d be directing Tagore at San José State with our students.”
Not only is Chakrabarti directing Tagore’s classic, but she has translated the text from Bengali (Bangla) to English and collaborated with Matthew Spangler, chair of the Department of Film, Theatre, and Dance and playwright behind the 2007 theatrical adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” to adapt the play for American audiences in 2026.
The script.
Actors perform an initial staged reading in December 2025. Photo: Julia Halprin Jackson.
“This is a way to decolonize theater, because if we constantly center the American theatrical form, then we are disregarding every other kind of theatrical form there is. Sometimes we have to honor other ways of telling a story.”
— Sukanya Chakrabarti
Act II: Translation and Adaptation
Chakrabarti began translating the play in summer 2025, sharing pages with Spangler to interpret together.
“Tagore is among the most prominent writers coming out of India within the last 150 years,” says Spangler, who visited Kolkata twice last year while researching the playwright’s legacy. “This particular play deals with themes of authoritarianism; he wrote in response to the rise of fascism in Germany. That feels like an important theme to address in the United States today. For those two reasons, the play really spoke to me.”
While translation is focused on the linguistic equivalents from one language to another, adaptation addresses the cultural, social, economic and literary contexts of a certain work.
“Bengali is my mother tongue, and I’m very familiar with the cultural and linguistic context of this play, which makes me well-positioned to translate it,” she says. “[Translating] also gives me a certain autonomy or freedom with the text.”
Chakrabarti and Spangler recognize that Tagore’s dramaturgical style deviates from many of the accepted norms of Westernized theater taught in American schools. For example, the play’s two main characters are the prince and the merchant, who arrive at the island in the first act and more or less fade into the background as the cards themselves take center stage.
“Contemporary American theater expects a certain form from plays, whereas Tagore wrote plays in a culture and in a time when it was not necessarily in alignment with what ‘good theater’ is considered,” says Chakrabarti. “[While adapting the play], we had to constantly ask, ‘How much do we respect the form that was meant to be, which may or may not be relatable to a contemporary audience?’ This is a way to decolonize theater, because if we constantly center the American theatrical form, then we are disregarding every other kind of theatrical form there is. Sometimes we have to honor other ways of telling a story.”
Case in point: There are a few dance interludes in “Kingdom of Cards,” moments when the protagonists appear lost in thought as they debate their purpose in the universe. When the prince and the merchant show up on the island, there is little mention of their lost boat, nor does Tagore show their efforts to either leave or stay. Instead, the play shifts focus to the cards, who are so shaken by the humans’ presence that they experience true transformation. While in the original the prince and the merchant are absent for several scenes, Chakrabarti and Spangler slipped in a few lines of dialogue to keep the characters present while letting the cards — and Tagore’s intended focus — dominate the story.
“We’re aware of these structural anomalies in terms of Western theater, but they are not anomalies in terms of theater globally,” Spangler says. “This is the way Tagore wrote it; it’s a different way of doing theater, and we’re hoping to bring that to the Hammer stage.”
Sukanya Chakrabarti and Matt Spangler at a read-through of "Kingdom of Cards" in February 2026.
Act III: Teaching Tagore
A play starts on the page, but it comes to life on the stage. Thanks to support from the College of Humanities and the Arts’ Artistic Excellence Programming Grants (AEPG) and the South Asians in Silicon Valley initiative, Chakrabarti designed two semesters of close study on “Kingdom of Cards” that involved SJSU students in every aspect of the creative process. Starting in fall 2025, her students read many of Tagore’s texts, watched film adaptations of his work, and watched in real time as Chakrabarti and Spangler revised the script.
Raymundo Salazar, ’27 Theatre Arts, enrolled in the course last fall and was cast as the King of Cards. An Army veteran, Salazar transferred to San José State from Fresno City College after completing nearly a decade of military service. Chakrabarti’s class offered the chance for him to reconnect to his identity as an artist and actor.
“On my education journey so far, I’ve never had a class like this, where the professors are not just feeding me information and asking me to memorize things,” Salazar says. “They actually want us to be a part of the production. [Professor Chakrabarti] made a point of reminding us that there are no right or wrong answers, and that they are looking for our actual input because that will go into the final piece. That’s why this class is so unique to me; they want us to be in the moment.”
Salazar describes the King of Cards as a “cartoonish tyrant,” an ignorant dictator who is very out of touch with the needs of his constituents. In one memorable scene, the king asks one of the cards, who serves as the editor of a card newspaper, to define “culture.” None of the cards can provide an adequate response.
The fall semester concluded with a staged reading of the play in Hugh Gillis Hall’s black box theater, where students assembled to read aloud. Audience members stayed after to share their feedback after the performance, a key part of the play development process.
Raymundo Salazar, who plays the King of Cards, at a read-through in February 2026.
L-R: Actors Meghan Stuart, '28 Forensic Science; Charlotte Foster-Davis; Violeta Sedillo, '27 Theatre Arts; Kaitlyn Lacap and Yasmeen Abuayed.
“I’ve been teaching university-level theater for 30 years, and I think this class that Sukanya is teaching is really, really special. ... To engage with one of the most respected Indian writers through a yearlong study is incredible; I’m not sure if there’s another academic course doing what this one is. It’s been remarkable for me to watch this class evolve.”
— Matthew Spangler
Act IV: Performance
Chakrabarti and Spangler returned to the script before class resumed in the spring semester. On the night of their first table read, the actors sat in a rectangle on the Hal Todd Studio Theatre stage.
Kelechi Maduako, ’27 Radio-Television-Film, circled the readers with a video camera, capturing B-roll for a documentary in progress led by Barnaby Dallas, ’00 MA Theatre Arts, director of film and theater production at SJSU. Dallas, who has led productions at SJSU for more than 25 years, says his one professional regret was never documenting the play development for Spangler’s adaptation of “The Kite Runner” in 2007. As a theater professional who witnesses the creative transformation of such projects on a regular basis, Dallas sensed that “Kingdom of Cards” has a similar potential to take off.
“I’m making this documentary because I learned the hard way,” says Dallas. “When we produced ‘The Kite Runner,’ I didn’t think to document it — and it went on to international success. I don’t want to miss that moment again. ‘Kingdom of Cards’ has that same potential, and this time, we’re capturing it.”
The spring performances of “Kingdom of Cards” will take place at the Hammer Theatre April 24 to May 3. So many more elements of the production will come together: SJSU students enrolled in set design and costume classes will build sets and create costumes for actors. Even after the first show, it is likely small changes will be made, though the play’s central message will remain the same.
Chakrabarti adds that turbulent political times, including 1933, when Tagore wrote the play, are “the most necessary times to make art.”
“The role of humor, satire and comedy create openings that become avenues of transformation,” she says. “I believe in this work so much, not only because of how fun and playful it is, but for its message. Theater is a medium to tell the truth through comedy and satire. Artists are truth tellers, and I think we really need that right now.”
Salazar is eager to take the stage at Hammer Theatre.
“The fact that we are doing a translation of Tagore by our professors right here at San José State makes it such a unique production,” he says. “It’s going to be something you’ve never seen before, and I can’t wait.”
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