Theatre
Theatre
Murder on the Ganges
In 2014, I was commissioned by the Anjali School of Dance—which at the time was based in Portland, Oregon—to write an Indian dance-drama adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Murder on the Ganges offered audiences a glimpse into the history and culture of important landmarks on the Ganges river, while staying true to the plot of Christie’s murder mystery novel.
The play was performed in Portland in September, 2014.
Featured: Erik James.
Directed by Anita Menon.
Photograph by David Kinder.
Featured: Sukhita Aiyar and Ashish Joshi.
Directed by Mahesh Dattani.
Photograph by Nikhil Bagore.
The Date[d]
The Date[d] started off as a college scriptwriting assignment back in 2013, but was later developed into an hour long play. The Date[d] was first performed by the Playpen Performing Arts Trust in 2015 at Mumbai’s BlueFrog lounge. In 2018, playwright and director Mahesh Dattani incorporated The Date[d] into a showcase titled Dance Me to the End of Love, which first premiered at Harkat Studios in Mumbai in September 2018.
Chitra: The Girl Prince
Chitra: The Girl Prince was my first creative collaboration with the Northwest Children’s Theater in Portland, Oregon.
Chitra is a children’s adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Chitrangadha—which is itself a re-telling of a tale from the Mahabharata. The story tells of a warrior princess whose sense of duty and identity are called into question when she meets the famed Prince Arjun of Hastinapur.
The play opened in February, 2018.
Featured: Alisha Menon, Ken Yoshikawa, Sudipta Majumdar, Heath Hyun and Zero Feeney.
Fight choreography by Kristen Munn and Alwynn Accuardi. Costumes by Mary Eggers and Suvarna Menon. Set design by John Ellingson. Lights by Carl Faber. Projections by Andres Alcala.
Directed by Sarah Jane Hardy and Anita Menon.
Photograph by David Kinder.
Featured: Ajai Terrazas Tripathi
Costume by Mary Eggers and Suvarna Menon. Set design by John Ellingson.
Directed by Sarah Jane Hardy and Anita Menon.
Photograph by David Kinder.
Tenali: The Royal Trickster
My second collaboration with the Northwest Children’s Theater opened in April, 2019.
The play was inspired by the Indian folk tale character Tenali Raman, and included various popular characters from the stories—albeit stylised and adapted to suit a Western audience.
I am currently contributing long-form articles to the Nita Mukesh Ambani Culture Centre website and Aadyam’s Theatre Ink blog.