{"id":12993,"date":"2016-06-21T12:24:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T19:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=12993"},"modified":"2016-06-21T15:15:23","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T22:15:23","slug":"finding-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/finding-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"FINDING INSPIRATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

A view of the landscape at Alum Rock Park, managed by Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority.<\/p>\n

\n

On a breezy morning, a group of friends gather at Alum Rock Park to discuss a play they are about to produce. All are nature guides or docents for Bay Area parks. But they are also members of America\u2019s biggest Indian theater, Naatak (naatak.com), which produces and performs several plays and musicals each year in the Bay Area. Their mission is to combine their two passions \u2013 nature and theater, plays and parks. \u2013 #Lifestyle #ParksandRecreation #Siliconeer @Siliconeer #SantaClaraValleyOpenSpaceAuthority #SCVOSA #Naatak #AtulChaudari #AnkarJain #SoumyaAgastya #KIAopenroad #KIA #AlumRockPark #SierraVistaOpenSpacePreserve<\/p>\n

\n

Atul Chaudari, an avid bird watcher, says he grew up near a park in Mumbai and the outdoors have always been part of his life. \u201cA lot of people think of parks like zoos, with animals in cages. To me parks are about open space and wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ankar Jain, an executive in the tech industry, talks about leading a meditation workshop around a picnic table at Alum Rock.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The \u201cNaatak\u201d group at Alum Rock Park. (Derek Newmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Soumya Agastya, a costume designer and musical director for Naatak<\/i>, the parks are a great classroom for her son, who is a junior ranger. \u201cBiography, geography, history \u2013 all this can be taught through nature walks,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cAnd there is such biodiversity here \u2013 the red-legged frog, the tiger salamander, the golden eagle, the bobcat, the gray fox \u2013 all thriving just a stone\u2019s throw from San Jose\u2019s downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the group wends its way from Alum Rock up to Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve, a favorite trek which takes them from the verdant valley nestled in the Mt. Diablo foothills up to panoramic views overlooking Santa Clara Valley, they discuss staging future productions in a park setting to draw more people in their community to the outdoors. Maybe a rock band to attract young people, or a traditional musical with lots of dancers to draw older community members. And why not adapt a Shakespeare play, Indian-style?<\/p>\n

\"PAGE-NAM-OPENSPACE-04-SCVOSA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For scenes of the Nataak theater group visiting the Alum Rock Park and Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve, be sure to catch Kia OpenRoad with Doug McConnell, the weekly program on NBC Bay Area Channel 11 on Sundays at 6:30 p.m., or visit the OpenRoad website on nbcbayarea.com\/openroad.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

View the Alum Rock\/Sierra Vista episode online\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view of the landscape at Alum Rock Park, managed by Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. On a breezy morning, a group of friends gather at Alum Rock Park to discuss a play they are about to produce. All are nature guides or docents for Bay Area parks. But they are also members of…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1648,1644,1643,1647,1646,1642,446,1640,1641,1649,1645,237,147],"class_list":["post-12993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-alumrockpark","tag-ankarjain","tag-atulchaudari","tag-kia","tag-kiaopenroad","tag-naatak","tag-parksandrecreation","tag-santaclaravalleyopenspaceauthority","tag-scvosa","tag-sierravistaopenspacepreserve","tag-soumyaagastya","tag-lifestyle","tag-siliconeer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}