Pratidhwani Presents An Unconventional Take Of I AND YOU By Lauren Gunderson

Pratidhwani - a Seattle area based organization for promoting South Asian performing arts and artists - will present I And You by Lauren Gunderson as a co-production with Theater Schmeater, running October 18th through November 3rd, 2018, performing at Theater Schmeater's home in Bell Town.

Succeeding recent critically acclaimed - and audience appreciated - productions of Queen by Madhuri Shekar and A Small History of Amal Age 7 by Lindsay Joelle, this next instalment in Pratidhwani's 2018 season features Varsha Raghavan and Josh Kenji as Caroline and Anthony respectively. It will be directed by Agastya Kohli who serves as the Artistic Director of Pratidhwani's Drama Wing.

"Pratidhwani's mission is to create performing opportunities for artists of South Asian descent. I and You was originally written to be performed by a white actress and a black actor. The playwright's guidance, however, allows for performers of other ethnicities to be cast in it, as long as the two actors are not of the same race", says Kohli. "So naturally, we approached this play from a different lens right from the beginning, and arrived at our casting of an Indian American Caroline, and a Japanese American Anthony."

"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. We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with Pratidhwani to bring I and You to the community. It is with great joy, that we open the Schmee and Schmee family to Pratidhwani", said Andrew Shanks, Interim Artistic Director at Theater Schmeater.

"We at Pratidhwani are overjoyed to partner with Theater Schmeater - a company that has been a constant presence in the Seattle theatre scene for decades. In presenting I and You with non-traditional casting, not only are we able to further our mission to create performing opportunities for artists of South Asian descent, we are also able to invite new audiences - fans of Lauren Gunderson, fans of Walt Whitman, and fans of Theater Schmeater - to join with Pratidhwani. This is really the principal accomplishment for this production", said Kohli, speaking about the partnership.

Website: www.pratidhwani.org/iandyou

Tickets: $15 - $35. Available at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3560351

Performed at:

Theatre Schmeater

2125 3rd Ave
Seattle, WA 98121

About the Play:

Anthony arrives unexpectedly at Caroline's door bearing an urgent homework assignment. She hasn't been to school in months due to illness. As these two sparring, sparking, high school students share their secrets, they unlock a much deeper mystery that has brought them together. I and You is an ode to youth, life, love, and pronouns.

About Pratidhwani

Founded in 2003, Pratidhwani is celebrating its 15th year of inspired programming this year, which includes recently concluded, critically acclaimed run of Queen by Madhuri Shekar (presented in partnership with ACTLab at ACT Theatre) and A Small History of Amal, Age 7 by Lindsay Joelle (co-produced with Forward Flux Productions). 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. http://www.pratidhwani.org

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. http://www.schmee.org

About Lauren Gunderson

Lauren M. Gunderson is the most produced playwright in America of 2017, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award, the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, she is also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The O'Neill, The Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire and more. She co-authored Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley with Margot Melcon, which was one of the most produced plays in America in 2017. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit Pursued By A Bear, The Taming, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (The Revolutionists, The Book of Will, Silent Sky, Bauer, Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon was be released from Two Lions / Amazon in May 2017. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory

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