Joanna M. Sherman, Artistic Director ■
Michael J. McGuigan, Managing Director
Bond Street Theatre
2 Bond Street, New York, NY 10012 USA • 212-254-4614, fax 212-460-9378 •
www.bondst.org •
info@bondst.org


Secretary
Bandel Arohee
Bikramnagor, Bandel Station Road
Dist: Hooghly, West Bengal, India 712103
Dear Colleagues:
It is a great pleasure to submit our recommendation for Bandel Arohee and their outstanding Director, Ranjan Roy. Our experience working with this professional theatre company has been tremendously enriching, and anysupport you can give their request will result in a project of real value to the community.We were introduced to Ranjan Roy and Bandel Arohee through Amitava Bhattacharya of Banglanatak in Kolkata.During 2007-08, Bond Street Theatre conducted an arts exchange project across India with support from the USEmbassy, aimed at collaborating with local artists and reaching underserved communities. Over the two years, wehad the pleasure to work with Ranjan and his professional troupe of actors and observe their creative theatre
artistry, their workshops for young aspiring actors in the Bandel community, and their outreach to the least servedchildren and populations in the area.
We have been very impressed by Ranjan’s sincerity and dedication to the theatre craft and the professionalattitude and skills of his company as they manifest on the stage and in working with the community in Bandel.Ranjan and his team were our collaborators on a performance project with twenty Patachitra painters from the area which culminated in performances in Bandel and Midnapore. During that time, we also enjoyed an exchange of theatre techniques and teaching skills with Bandel Arohee actors, as well as workshops for localBandel youth and children. Ranjan and his team members arranged this project with professionalism and care,
including all performances, lodging and transportation needs. Ranjan also accompanied us on the follow-upevaluation visit to the Patachitra villages to assess the impact of the performance project.
In all these projects, our work was a combination of professional development and exchange between thecollaborating artists and creative outreach to rural and underserved communities. Our company still appreciatesthe experience and learning which has come from our association with Ranjan Roy and Bandel Arohee.

Bond Street Theatre is a professional theatre company founded in 1979 and based in New York City. Our mission is to create performances, collaborations and exchanges with artists and arts organizations around the world for the purpose of sharing culture and creating mutual understanding. We created a version of Romeo and Juliet with
Theatre Tsvete of Sofia, Bulgaria, which toured throughout Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia, and since 2002, have been collaborating with Exile Theatre of Kabul, Afghanistan. The resulting co-production, Beyond the Mirror, was performed in Afghanistan (2003), New York and Tokyo (2005), and California (2009).
Working with Bandel Arohee has added tremendously to our wealth of experiences. Ranjan’s expertise as a community leader and theatre practitioner was invaluable to the success of our projects. Bandel Arohee is well qualified to implement and complete any project they design. We believe their work is most worthy of your support.

Warm regards,

Joanna M. Sherman
Michael McGuigan
Artistic Director Managing Director