This petite young woman is 23 going on god-knows how-many-years and has four full length plays under her kitty. While her first play, ‘A Whole Lotta Love’ was a roaring success, her second ‘Addams Family’ didn’t exactly go as planned. “There were make-up problems, lighting problems, sounds problems. One tall guy on stage actually hit his head on the overhead mike — it was swinging like a pendulum all through the duration of the play,” she shudders dramatically. And for a 21-year -old stepping into the world of Chennai theatre, it turned out to be a very expensive lesson. “It took us two years to recover, mentally and financially,” she says. That’s why, when they decided to stage another play, Smrithi and her colleagues spent months poring over the right script. “We froze on ‘Murder Me Always’. We’re all very proud of the way it turned out,” says Smrithi. ‘Murder Me Always’ then led to the eight-sketch, ‘Entertaining Mr Bigelow’, staged in May.
She says directing older people in ‘Addams Family’ was a bit of a juggle. “I didn’t know how to put across ideas or drive them to their best. But then, you’re in a position where can push people to their limits,” she says. Smrithi prefers her chair to the spotlight. “I’d say it is much easier being in the backstage. As an actor, you get to do only one thing – concentrate on their character. But I get to have my fingers in many pies,” giggles Smrithi.