Stray Factory

Stray Factory is a Performing arts and Online entertainment group. The group was founded in 2010 by Mathivanan Rajendran as a Theatre and performing arts company before diversifying into Online Media in 2014^[1] The group is seen to have taken a collaborative approach to the arts often collaborating with International and Local artists. They currently produce Theater, Spoken Word, Documentaries and Web Series on their Channel Rascalas and across platforms.

Theatre

After a few scripted plays, the group made a departure from the traditional scripted work to devised theatre. The first of which was seen in their 2011 production of 'Great Indian Blogologues' which took blogs from the public and adapted them to stage.

Stray Factory's biggest achievements have been in the short format, particularly at International Short and Sweet festivals. Their play 'My Name is Cine-Ma' has won Best Actress, Best Director and Best Play awards in Chennai, Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur^[2] Other award winning productions at the festival include Carpouram, Lost Audition, Chairpersons and Maya from Madurai. ^[3][4] In addition to this, the group has performed at Short and Sweet Festivals in Sydney, Dubai.^[5] and at other International festivals such as the Auckland Fringe Festival and Kakiseni Theatre Festival in Kuala Lumpur.

Most of Stray Factory's original writing comes from its in-house writers. These include Naren Weiss and Bhargav Prasad^[6] The group often works with local writers as well. In 2012, At the Metroplus Theatre Festival, local playwright Shreekumar Varma's Ganga at Rishikesh was staged.^[7]

In 2013, The group toured India along with along with Amit Chaudhuri and NH4 with their show 'Osama, Cinema and a Whole lot of Black Money' with The Park Hotels Seventh edition of the The Park New Festival of Contemporary Arts curated by Prakriti Foundation.In March 2014, It produced 'Abridged History of Modern Day India' written by Naren Weiss which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Subsequently, In July 2014 It produced 'Who is Your Osama' at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. In September 2014, The full length version of 'My Name is Cinema' premiered at the 25th Year Celebrations of RDG Singapore, the oldest Tamil Theatre company in the country.^[8][9]In November 2014,In Collaboration with the The Madras Players they Produced Animal Farm directed by Mathivanan Rajendran.

In 2016,The group was awarded the Emerging Artist Award at the Short and Sweet Festival in Hollywood, California.

A number of Stray Factory's members have forayed into films including Pooja Devariya Mathivanan Rajendran and Venkatesh Harinathan. Director M. Manikandan developed short theatre scenes by improvising with the group and represented a fictional version of the group in Andavan Kattalai. Performers who have worked with the group have transitioned to film like Hiphop Tamizha Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, Rishi Raj, Amzath Khan, Ma Ka Pa Anand and Vidyullekha Raman,

Online Media

Stray Factory launched Rascalas on YouTube in 2014 in partnership with Culture Machine to focus on South Indian Content. The first video was launched on November 4th 2014 and subsequently garnered 2 million views and is widely recognized as the first viral video from South India.

In 2016, It produced One of South India's first Web Series with Black Sheep (2016) and first Non Fiction Web Series Stray Stories. These shows and other content have been syndicated to several OTT platforms including YuppTV and TVF Play

Footnotes