On June 8, 2010 @ 8pm...
I showed my latest work, hot hot hot off the presses. Thanks to 2g and the cast & director/designer who made this into an exciting adventure!  Stay tuned for more on this play...

Lonely Leela by Rehana Mirza
directed by Meiyin Wang
with puppets by Spica Wobbe
with Jackie Chung, Sanjit De Silva, Jon Hoche, Kyle Knaupf, Angela Lin, Debargo Sanyal, and Nitya Vidyasagar 

Leela’s boyfriend has disappeared. So she goes into the Internet to find him. An Alice in Wonderland type adventure where malicious codes and white knight bloggers meet in a shifting world of everything’s at your fingertips but you can’t quite find what you’re looking for…

I was one of 12 writers in this awesome project, conceived and directed by Ari Laura Kreith and put up by Jackson Rep (www.jacksonrep.org).  It just ended a completely sold out run in Jackson Heights, and may get an encore at Queens Theater in the Park in October... wait and see...

My short play (now short film) Zamir & Preeti aka Love Story 2002, was part of The Love Experiment, a fundraising evening for Jackson Repertory Theater. There were some really awesome folks involved, and some good songs, performances, and one-man show snippets to be enjoyed by all!

On Saturday, January 30th I spoke at Montclair University on a panel for Art & Social Change, during a 2-day conference brought to us by our friends at SAALT.  I think I probably learned more from the experience than the folks participating -- it really made me question what kind of change can I make through my art, when I write plays that no one in the mainstream hears?

Nearly all the large, publicly funded institutions that dedicate themselves to new playwrights rarely produce more than one South Asian playwright in their lifetime (if that) and there's simply not a lot of advocacy around South Asian American stories in the mainstream and at an institutional level. 

Rather than this be a bitch session (which to be honest, I allow myself to indulge in much too often), I'd rather take a hard look at why this is, and what policies seem to be in place to support the exclusion of South Asian Americans (I'm not talking Bollywood here folks) in the larger theater and media landscape.  To start, South Asian isn't even a category in the last census; S. Asian falls into the category of Asian American, and let's not get into the number of debates that I get into on what is Asian American and not.

Plus, according to the SAALT site:  "A recent report states that ”Forty-three percent of NY’s South Asian population not registered with the Census Bureau.” This statistic has been attributed to the high density of immigrants in areas such as Queens, Jackson Heights, Flushing, etc. who are afraid to disclose their information on Census forms. The Census Bureau 'stressed that the census data will neither be shared with the FBI nor used for any other purpose, and called upon immigrants to actively participate in the census exercise for the greater benefit of their communities.' It is of utmost importance to realize that the fact that these populations remain uncounted and unrepresented results in lack of services including schools, roads, hospitals, and access to translated services. We urge you to not only fill out and return your Census form but help others in your community do the same! Let’s work together to make sure South Asians count in Census 2010!"

I suppose if South Asians are not even being represented in school programs and community issues, then how the hell are we going to even make a dent in theater? 

HIDING DIVYA screened (my debut feature film as writer and director) at the Wang Center, Stonybrook University, on Nov 17th!  The Wang Center is absolutely beautiful, and the Jasmine eatery had some of the best samosas ever.  Some of the students were doing a compare and contrast essay between HIDING DIVYA and THE NAMESAKE.  I took a look at the guide questions, and was pretty impressed.

And can I just say, I had a total geek out moment when I found out that the Physics department at Stonybrook was founded and run by Professor Yang and I replied, oh as in the Yang & Mills scientist who wrote up the initial paper on inconsistencies in electro-weak relations?  When the reply was a surprised yes, I actually yelled out, "OH MY GOD, I KNOW PHYSICS!"

I probably could have played that better.

So it's all done, yaar.

I've been theater zombie for two weeks straight... and you know what, being a zombie aint too bad if all your friends are zombies too.

My reading of PARTICLES OF PAKISTAN helped to shine the light towards where it needs to go... so special thanks to the fantastic crew who helped me to hear it -- Debargo Sanyal, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Sanjit De Silva, Anita Sabherwal, and Andrew Guilarte! And of course, thnx Ali Khan for stage directions, as well as the very damp, cold audience who trekked their way out to the East Village for a little bit of Pakistani science play action.  If only I had the chai waiting for them...  next time!

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I failed with Facebook. I failed with Twitter. So I am back in full circle, to where my updating the world via technology failures first started. The blogging.   This is not going to turn out like the sit-ups I was supposed to do for all of 2005 and the vitamins I was supposed to take all of 2009.  No.  

AND, this is going to be our little secret.  Just between me and you.  Just us.  So shhhh.... just listen.