Hypokrit and Junoon Re-Imagine Two Indian Classics, Starting Tonight at Theater for the New City

The Congressional Award honoree Hypokrit Theatre Company and Junoon Performing Arts, are pleased to present DEVDAS (The Lover) choreographed by Swarali Karulkar, and CHOKER BALI (The Passion Play), written by Dr. Partha Chatterjee and directed by Arpita Mukherjee.

Two Indian classics re-imagined and running in repertory at The Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10003), November 4th, through the 20th, 2016. Opening Night is tonight, November 4th, 2016 at 7:00pm (Devdas), and 8:30pm (Chokher Bali).

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DEVDAS (The Lover)

The iconic Indian tale has always had a man at the center of it - Devdas - the symbol of love and loss. The story of the tragic hero is told from the point of view of the women that loved him in this ballet set in modern India. Through the use of original music composed by Aalap Desai and innovative Indo-contemporary choreography by star choreographer Swarali Karulkar, Hypokrit Theatre Company brings to the stage the oldest Indian love story, as its never been seen before, where women rule, and love and loss is just a transaction.

Featuring Shivani Badgi, Adam Bourque, Francesca Genovese, Rehan Qureshi, Chandan Hingorani, Swarali Karulkar, Devon Lubar, Aditya Madiraju, Sharayu Mahale, Sonia Mukherji, Mally Reber, Irene Sivianes, and Ruby Verma.

DEVDAS plays the following regular schedule through November 20th, 2016: Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:00 pmSaturdays at 2:00 pmSundays at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pmThere is one Monday performance Nov 7th at 7:00pm

CHOKHER BALI (The Passion Play)

An exploration of the life of widows in 20th century Calcutta and one widow in particular, Binodini, who finds herself entangled in a forbidden love triangle. Adapted by Dr. Partha Chatterjee from Rabindranath Tagore's novel, this story about female desire in the domestic sphere is adapted as a Greek tragedy. With the use of world music and movement by renowned choreographer Rujuta Vaidya, director Arpita Mukherjee presents Tagore's most daring tale as an alive and present, contemporary work of art.

Featuring Kabir Chopra, Morgan DeTogne, Alisha Desai, Gautam Gurnani, Vaibhav Jain, Gerrard Lobo (Master of None), Maryan Newbury, Shubhra Prakash (Monsoon Wedding), Matthew Provenza, Mahima Saigal, Monique Sanchez (Drunk Shakespeare), Zenobia Shroff (Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Little Zizou), Rupi Sood, Rita Suri, and Sarah Suzuki.

CHOKHER BALI plays the following regular schedule through November 20th, 2016: Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:30 pm; Saturdays at 3:30 pm; Sundays at 3:30 pm and 8:30 pm. There is one Monday performance November 7th at 8:30pm.

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Tickets for Devdas and Chokher Bali are $50.00 ($70.00 Combo Price available) and can be purchased at www.hypokritnyc.org/nov2016rep. Performances play Theater for the New City, located at 155 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10003.

DR. PARTHA CHATTERJEE (Playwright, Chokher Bali) is Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York and Honorary Professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Among his many academic books are Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World (1986), The Nation and Its Fragments (1993), The Politics of the Governed (2004), and The Black Hole of Empire (2012). He has also published three volumes of essays in Bengali. He has written seven plays in Bengali that have been produced by various theatre groups based in Kolkata. He has won several awards for his plays. sound design and music composition. His play Chokher Bali, based on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, has been performed at the national festival organized by the National School of Drama, New Delhi. The play was performed in English at Barnard College in New York under the direction of Mahesh Dattani, a leading playwright and director from India, and a cineplay in Hindi is currently being shot in Mumbai by the director Suman Mukhopadhyay.
ARPITA MUKHERJEE (Director, Chokher Bali) is a writer, director, producer and choreographer with over a decade of experience in professional theatre. After working for Washington Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arpita Mukherjee founded her own theatre company. She has written, produced, and directed several productions. Noted credits - Romeo and Juliet at the Access Theater, How to Succeed as an Ethnically Ambiguous Actor, Eh Dah? Questions for my Father (only produced), Love Times Seven: A Bollywood Musical, My First Time (only directed), Moving Forward, and I AM SAAM. Her work was featured in the South Asian Theatre and Arts Festival at the Smithsonian. She studied Non-Fiction Writing at Columbia University. She currently works on the Broadway-bound Monsoon Wedding, and is directing a show about the life of devdasis.

HYPOKRIT THEATRE COMPANY: Congressional Award Honoree Hypokrit Theatre Company's mission is to encourage artistic inquiry by providing artists from minority communities a platform to showcase their talents while assisting them in marketing their work. The company's inaugural production Romeo and Juliet celebrated a sold-out run and in 2015, the company started the first and only South Asian performing arts festival in Manhattan, and most recently their production of Aya Aziz's Eh Dah? - Questions for My Father was the winner of the Outstanding Book Award at the 2016 New York Musical Theatre Festival (Ms Aziz also won for Best Individual Performance). Hypokrit Theatre Company has also been involved in readings for the Broadway-bound Monsoon Wedding. www.hypokritnyc.org

JUNOON PERFORMING ARTS: Is an Indo-contemporary company born solely out of the plight of a few dancers for aesthetic innovation and creative expression. As artists, we care about the world. Through theatre, we spread awareness through movement. Junoon Performing Arts aims to both absorb and reflect the times around us through the art of dance. Art has no language, and so we strive to blend a range of styles to present stories to the world. Transitioning from indo-contemporary to jazz to bollywood to physical theater we reach for conceptually-themed operatic performances that are as fluid as they are distinct. Join the movement. www.junoonperformingarts.com

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