Pratidhwani Announces 2018 Season Of Three Co-Productions

Pratidhwani - a Seattle area based Gregory Awards winning organization for promoting South Asian performing arts and artists - will present three plays in 2018, each a co-production with a different company.

The season will open with Queen by Madhuri Shekar, produced in collaboration with ACTLab, in the Bullitt Cabaret at ACT Theatre in downtown Seattle. The production will run August 3rd through August 19th. Queen will be directed by Agastya Kohli, who also serves as the Artistic Director of Pratidhwani's Drama Wing, and will star Archana Srikanta, Isis King, Pratik Shah and Stephen Grenley.

"We are very excited to bring this new, crackling play to Seattle for its West coast premiere. We workshopped Ms. Shekar's House of Joy at Represent! 2017 festival, and now we now get to present another of her works as a fully staged production", said Kohli.

Queen received workshops at Center Theatre Group Writer's Workshop, Los Angeles, Oregon Shakespeare Festival BLACK SWAN Lab, Ashland OR, Victory Gardens Ignition Festival, Chicago, Blank Theatre Living Room Series, Los Angeles, Hedgebrook Playwrights Festival, Whidbey WA, Victory Gardens Edgerton Workshop, Chicago and Ma-Yi Theatre LabFest, New York, before its world premiere at Victory Gardens, Chicago in April 2017.

Queen will be followed by A SMALL HISTORY OF AMAL, AGE 7 by Lindsay Joelle, and will run at West of Lenin from September 18 through October 6. After a staged reading in Forward Flux Productions' Flux Salon series, Pratidhwani and Forward Flux are thrilled to partner again for a full production of AMAL. Lindsay Joelle will visit Seattle this summer to workshop the play with the cast. The revised script produced this fall will be directed by Samip Raval, movement directed by Wesley Frugé, and will features Nabilah Ahmed as Amal, along with Gurvinder Pal Singh, Abhijeet Rane, Meenakshi Rishi, Varsha Raghavan, and Jay Athalye.

"I'm so excited to partner with Pratidhwani on bringing AMAL to the stage this fall. This is one of the most magical plays I have ever read, and after working on the play at The Flux Salon last year, I knew we had to bring it back as a full production. We are all about new play development at Forward Flux, and working with Lindsay, Samip, the cast and the entire team at Pratidhwani to bring this play to life is a dream come true", remarked Wesley Frugé, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Forward Flux Productions said regarding the partnership.

To end the season, Pratidhwani will partner with Theater Schmeater to present I and You by Lauren Gunderson from October 18th through November 3rd, also directed by Agastya Kohli, starring Varsha Raghavan and Josh Kenji. I And You had its world premiere in 2013, and is a special piece that moves audiences and teaches them about the bravery of two young souls. This 80-minute one-act play with three scenes has been produced at over 15 theaters across the country, and has won the Harold and Mimi Steinberg / American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award and The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

"For 26 years, Theater Schmeater has been producing professional theater that drives human connection through shared experiences, catalyzing conversation, and leveraging a platform where artists can communicate with a deliberate, passionate, and relevant voice. This season, "Theater for All People" is a call to action to really put this mission on its feet: to ensure that we connect, reach, and reflect people of every color, age, income level, shape, gender, and ability in the art we produce. It is our responsibility to do so. Our first annual itinerant theater co-production project with an arts organization that is run by or focuses on artists of color, is an integral part of putting that mission into action. We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with Pratidhwani to bring "I and You" to the community for this inaugural effort. One of our greatest assets, second only to our passionate staff, is our home stage, and it is with great joy, that we open the Schmee and Schmee family to Pratidhwani", said Theater Schmeater Managing Director Elisabeth Ballstadt.

Founded in 2003, Pratidhwani is celebrating its 15th year of inspired programming in 2018. Previous productions include Dance Like a Man by Mahesh Dattani in 2015 and Mother in Another Language by Taniya Hossain in 2011 -- both performed at ACT Theatre in collaboration with ACTLab, and world premiere productions of The Banyan Tree by Seattle based playwright Tulika Kumar in 2013, and Everything but the Paper by Sonal Champsee in 2014.

About Pratidhwani

Pratidhwani is a non-profit cultural organization based in the Seattle area, with a mission to promote and cultivate performing arts of the Indian subcontinent, by empowering performing artists. We do this by creating, discovering, and encouraging performing opportunities for artists of South Asian descent, and by providing the infrastructure they need to take advantage of performing opportunities. Pratidhwani is organized in four wings - Classical Music, Light Music, Dance, and Drama. http://www.pratidhwani.org/

About ACTLab

Launched in 2007 as The Central Heating Lab, ACTLab serves as an incubator and catalyst for new works. Uniquely positioned to provide the space and resources to the development of projects in a collaborative environment, ACT partners with emerging and seasoned local artists, giving them the sustenance and pressure required to experiment, grow, and transform their work and reach new audiences. ACTLab presents artists working in all performance genres and provides an artistic home for a variety of local performance groups and artists like Azeotrope, The Seagull Project, UMO Ensemble, and Endangered Species Project. With year - round ACTLab and Mainstage programming, ACT offers its patrons a unique opportunity to maximize their theatre experience- the ACTPass: all you can see for only $30 per month. ACTPass Members can attend nearly all ACT produced performances.

About Forward Flux Productions

Forward Flux Productions is your home for daring new plays. The company commissions, develops, workshops and premieres new plays by underrepresented voices on the American stage. Forward Flux is committed to presenting work about the right now, and striking a meaningful dialogue that stirs a lasting impression. The company was founded in New York City in late 2010, and relocated to Seattle in 2014. Forward Flux is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. http://www.forwardflux.com

About Theater Schmeater

Theater Schmeater is celebrating our 26th Season, "The Theater for All People!" Since 1992, our mission has been to produce great plays simply, and to foster a love of theater as an art form in future audiences. Theater Schmeater produces intimate, quality theater that drives conversation and human connection through shared experiences.

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