Borrowed Plumes

Submitted By: Megan Higley

Life imitates art, so the axiom cautions. When MITA (40s), an Asian Indian-American actor, auditions for a role before a casting agent in New York, she realizes to her horror that she is the woman in the part.... A woman clawing at the fabric of a judgmental and pigeonholing society, struggling to embody the person she authentically aspires to be. Vacillating between her dual identities as a progressive American and a traditional Indian, Mita fears rejection and ostracism by both cultures. Mita intimately understands the role in her audition, but she doesn’t hit the mark. Bearing the hangover of a humiliating audition, that evening at dinner with her American-born, midwest-groomed husband, RAJIV and her son, SIDDHARTH, the eating of traditional Indian food with Western utensils strikes a nerve and becomes a “thing.” That thing that has Mita so reviled, she spirals into a crisis of consciousness. Mita realizes that her frustrations with her husband’s and her son’s lack of pride for their Indian heritage is reflective of her own loss of self-worth. Inspired by advice offered in a debate judging session by Siddharth, Mita recognizes her fate is in her hands. In a moment of defiance, she refuses to reinforce the stereotypes of the casting process. Boosted with a sense of comfort in her skin, infused with pride in her roots and the knowing of the world in which she lives now, Mita confidently nails the audition. Now an embodiment of the best of all her worlds...she is the totality of her being. Her art has become her life.