HATEF**K To Star Kavi Ladnier & Sendhil Ramamurthy; Performances Begin March 3

WP Theater, in partnership with Colt Coeur, announces that Kavi Ladnier ( Just Add Magic, Heroes ) and Sendhil Ramamurthy ( Heroes, Covert Affairs ) will star in the World Premiere of the 2017 Kilroys List play Hatef**k by Rehana Lew Mirza. WP Lab Alum and 2018 Lucille Lortel Visionary Director Award winner Adrienne Campbell-Holt (WP's What We're Up Against) returns to WP Theater to direct this bracingly insightful new play, which begins Off-Broadway previews on Sunday, March 3, 2019. The four-week limited engagement through Sunday, March 31 will celebrate its official opening night on Wednesday March 13 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway).

Passions ignite when Layla, an intense literature professor, accuses Imran, a brashly iconoclastic novelist, of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. But as their attraction grows into something more, they discover that good sex doesn't always make good bedfellows. Conflicting cultural identities collide in this thornily clever antidote to a meet-cute romance.

The creative team for Hatef**k features scenic design by Anshuman Bhatia (Ordinary Days, Little Rock), costume design by Sarita Fellows (Selki, Yellow Card Red Card), lighting design by Barbara Samuels (Hurricane Diane, Dance Nation), and sound design by Joanna Lynne Staub (Mother of the Maid). Casting by Kelly Gillespie, C.S.A.

Tickets for Hatef**k are on sale now via www.wptheater.org or by calling (212) 352-3101. The Performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday-Thursday at 7PM, Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2 & 8PM, and Sunday at 3PM.

Kavi Ladnier (Layla) a New Yorker living in LA is thrilled to be back in NYC to work with Adrienne Campbell-Holt & Sendhil. ANON(YMOUS) (The Public); Tulpa (Target Margin); Crosscurrents (UBU Rep) Regional: Pentecost (Yale Repertory); Rehana Lew Mirza/Mike Lew's Child of Colonialism (Lark Theatre) & The DNA Festival (La Jolla Playhouse SD). LA: A Midsummer Night's Dream & Henry V (Kingsmen Shakespeare Company,) The Vagina Monologues. Other NY theatre: SEVEN.11 Convenience Store Theatre (Desipina & Co.). Television credits include recurring roles on Amazon's Just Add Magic , NBC's Heroes , ABC's General Hospital . Other TV included: Future Man , Good Game , Criminal Minds , CSI NY , CSI Miami , Law & Order , Las Vegas & Cosby . Kavi co-produced and starred in the feature film Boris and The Bomb which is premiering this Spring. Other film credits: Cold Pressed, Low Budget Ethnic Movie (2019) Karma Calling; the Indian National Award-winning feature film Janani, various short films and the web series And Boris . She has also lent her voice to narrate several international health, water and education campaigns.

Sendhil Ramamurthy (Imran) can currently be seen recurring on the new NBC hit series New Amsterdam and is best known for his lead roles in Tim Kring's NBC sci-fi dramas, Heroes and Heroes Reborn . Sendhil's extensive film and television credits include Amblin TV and NBC's drama series Reverie , opposite Sarah Shahi and Dennis Haysbert; Hannah Marks and Joey Power's romantic comedy After Everything (2018) with Marisa Tomei and Joe Keery; Stan Lee's Sky television series Lucky Man opposite James Nesbitt; the USA series Covert Affairs ; a memorable arc as Mindy Kaling's love interest on the final season of NBC's The Office ; Bravo's Odd Mom Out ; Liz Garcia's The Lifeguard opposite Kristen Bell; and Gurinder Chada's comedy It's A Wonderful Afterlife, which premiered at Sundance in 2013 and 2010, respectively. He is currently shooting Magic Hour opposite Miriam Shor and directed by Jacqueline Christy. In theater, Sendhil starred in the RSC production of Carlo Goldoni's A Servant to Two Masters in London's West End, Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink at the Soho Repertory Theatre, and Ayub Khan-Din's East is East at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Rehana Lew Mirza (Playwright) Rehana Lew Mirza's play Hatef**k was on the 2017 Kilroys list and has been previously developed by Colt Coeur and WP, as well as Playwrights Horizons, New Group, Ma-Yi, and Primary Stages. Her other plays includes Ladybits (readings: Lark Playwrights Workshop, Local Lab); A People's Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now (workshops: Primary Stages, PH School, Tisch); Soldier X (productions: Ma-Yi; Brooklyn College; 2015 Kilroys; NYSCA/Lark commission); Neighborhood Watch (NNPN/InterAct commission); Lonely Leela (workshop prod: LPAC); and Barriers (productions: Desipina, Asian American Theater Company). Her musical Bhangin' It (with collaborators Sam Willmott and Mike Lew) has been workshopped through Project Springboard, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat/3R, Goodspeed, Orchard Project, and at La Jolla Playhouse where she and Mike Lew are Artists-in-Residence. She and Mike also share a Mellon Foundation National Playwright residency administered in partnership with Howlround at Ma-Yi Theater. Additional honors: HBO Access Fellow, Colt Coeur artist residency, Lilly Award (Stacey Mindich Go Write A Play ), and TCG/New Georges Fellowship. MFA: Columbia University; BFA: NYU Tisch.

Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Director) Adrienne is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur and the recipient of the 2018 Lucille Lortel Visionary Director Award. Upcoming: world premieres of Hatef**k by Rehana Lew Mirza (WP/Colt Coeur), and We Are Among Us by Stephen Belber (City Theater). Recent world premieres/productions: Downstairs, by Theresa Rebeck (Primary Stages), Thirst, by C. A. Johnson (Contemporary American Theater Festival), Z rich, by Amelia Roper (Colt Coeur/NYTW), What We're Up Against by Theresa Rebeck (WP Theater), Empathitrax by Ana Nogueira (Colt Coeur), Cal in Camo (co-pro Rattlestick & Colt Coeur), Theresa Rebeck's The Nest (Denver Theatre Company), One Child Born (Oberon at American Repertory Theater), How to Live on Earth by MJ Kaufman (Colt Coeur), Chiara Atik's 52nd to Bowery (EST Marathon), Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (Colt Coeur), Reunion by Greg Moss (South Coast Rep), Everything is Ours by Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur), Recall by Eliza Clark (Colt Coeur), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur), and Seven Minutes in Heaven by Steven Levenson (Colt Coeur). Adrienne is currently developing the new musical Other World with Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Ann McNamee & WETA Workshop, as well as Afterwords, with Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmarek. BA Barnard College, Columbia University. She is also the director of #makeitfair.

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