Friends James West and Ramesh Thiagarajan at Rang De! Color Me India! presented by MainStage Irving-Las Colinas in association with thinkIndia at the Irving Arts Center in Irving. (Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor)

It began with a friendship between two men, which led to a friendship between two theaters. Now the theaters are hoping for a friendship between two audiences with Rang De! Color Me India!, a MainStage Irving-Las Colinas show produced in association with thinkIndia.

Ramesh Thiagarajan and James West are engineers who worked together for years at Bell Helicopter in Hurst. Thiagarajan, a longtime supporter of thinkIndia, which produces Indian-themed shows to support charity, invited West to his daughter's Indian dance recital in 2012.

"It was amazing," West says, sitting beside his friend in the lobby of the Irving Arts Center. "The music and the passion was just outstanding. I was blown away."

The cast of Rang De! Color Me India at the Irving Arts Center in Irving. (Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor)

West, a longtime member of MainStage Irving-Las Colinas, asked Thiagarajan to see him perform in Neil Simon's Fools at the Irving Arts Center in 2013. Thiagarajan loved it and started going to more shows by the community theater which, like thinkIndia, is run by volunteers and features local talent. Thiagarajan noticed that his family was one of the few Indian families in the audience.

(from l-r) Vrashank Shukla, Anusha Sanjay, Aarthi Ramesh and Yasmin Misra perform in Rang De! Color Me India!, presented by Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas in association with the thinkIndia Foundation at the Irving Arts Center in Irving. (Mike Morgan)

Soon Thiagarajan and West wondered if bringing their two theaters together could help bring their communities together.

It took a few years, but MainStage Irving-Las Colinas is presenting thinkIndia's Rang De! Color Me India! as the first production of its new season. The show will introduce patrons to culture, languages, religions, art and food of India, with more than 40 local singers, dancers and actors performing skits, classical music and Bollywood numbers. When people exit, they'll find the lobby transformed into a market.

West has enjoyed helping out behind the scenes and watching the show develop.

"When you see the human experience from a different point of view, it refreshes your spirit," he says. "It changes you inside. It inspires you."

Thiagarajan says he's enjoyed using MainStage's actual rehearsal space and set-construction shop instead of having to resorting to living rooms. He's also enjoyed having the extra workers that came from combining the two companies. "They're taking the level of our performance a notch up."

The cast of Rang De! Color Me India! at the Irving Arts Center in Irving. (Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor)

Clayton Cunningham, president of the board at MainStage Irving-Las Colinas, says he'd never heard of thinkIndia before West and Thiagarajan brought the idea to him. Now he hopes that this show will be the beginning of a more interwoven relationship between the organizations. "This time next year we might do another show with thinkIndia. We're hoping we get a whole new audience sitting in the seats and coming to our auditions and taking part in our regular season."

Main Stage and Irving Las Colinas President Clayton Cunningham and thinkIndia Foundation President K.K. "Ravi" Srinivasan at the Rang De! Color Me India! rehearsal at the Irving Arts Center in Irving. Srinivisan's daughter, Anisha Srinivisan, is directing the show. (Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor)

Anisha Srinivisan, co-artistic director of thinkIndia, is directing the show. A graduate of Plano West and Rice University, she has studied Indian classical, modern and contemporary dance. She also works in finance and data analytics and is drawn to her company's "really strong passion for the arts and a faith in its power to unite people."

Working with MainStage Irving-Las Colinas helps thinkIndia in its mission to bring people together, she says.

"We want to create a show that's entertaining and fun and makes the South Asian audience leave feeling they reconnected with their roots. We also want people who come from other places to leave feeling they've experienced a little of India and want more. We hope that these two nonprofit volunteer organizations that believe so strongly in the arts can bring people together, will bring communities and cultures together."

Because thinkIndia was founded as a charitable organization, 75 percent of anything earned over the cost of the production will be donated to nonprofit organizations. The remaining 25 percent will go back into the MainStage Irving-Las Colinas budget to support future shows.

For West, there are happy parallels between the work that brought him and his friend together and this new project.

"In engineering and production, there is a satisfaction in assembling an aircraft with the precision that enables it to fly. We're looking forward to seeing this design fly."

Plan your life

Through Sept. 23 at the Irving Arts Center, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving. $21-$28. irvingartscenter.com.

Updated at 1:20 p.m. Sept. 15: An earlier version of this story said that patrons would have a chance to practice bartering in the lobby after the show; organizers have changed their plans.