Victory Gardens’ new season will include plays by Paula Vogel, Ike Holter and Madhuri Shekar
So so so so happy to share that I’m coming back to Chicago with a new play at Victory Gardens, premiering June 2019, directed by Chay Yew himself! (!!!!!!!) And I get to share the season with some of the best plays and playwrights in America today. I can’t believe it.
“RECOMMENDED
Brainy & Entertaining. This timely story about the interplay of science, conscience and the heart offers a most winning test case.”
-Chicago Sun-Times
“Awesome! Two powerhouse women fighting convention. QUEEN lifts up women in a way that’s intellectual and passionate.”
-PerformInk
“Intriguing, funny, and highly relevant. A cerebral version of the sexual cat-and-mouse games.”
-TheaterJones
“Engrossing. An excellent quartet of players… who give performances of conviction and realism. QUEEN should go forth into the regional theatre world as a popular selection.”/
-ChicagolandTheaterReviews.com
Priya Mohanty is a scientist, and she plays one in QUEEN at Victory Gardens Theater
Chicago Tribune
Victory Gardens Theater Hosts Special Earth Day Celebration Surrounding the World Premiere of QUEEN
BroadwayWorld
To Bee Or Not to Bee Friends? Scientists Question Their Working Relationship In ‘Queen’
Rebellious Magazine
‘Queen’ Premiere at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater (VIDEO)
Playwright Madhuri Shekar visits CBS 2 to discuss the world premiere of ‘Queen.’
CBS Chicago
Drama! Music! Dissident Art! Aerialists! The Best Events in Chicago (Week of 4/13)
Crain’s Chicago Business
We are nearing the end of previews for QUEEN at Victory Gardens – here’s a round-up of early press before we open tomorrow night!
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Chicago Tribune: Priya Mohanty is a scientist, and she plays one in ‘Queen’ at Victory Gardens Theater
Mohanty says she’s received more rejections in the last two years of acting than she has, cumulatively, in the rest of her entire life. Throughout “Queen,” Sanam faces similar uncertainty. There’s her imperfect model, friendship and potential romance, all progressing and regressing on their own time. But she finds the humor in all its unpredictability.
“I saw Priya’s audition tapes and I was like, oh my God, she’s so funny,” says playwright Shekar. “And immediately I was like yes, yes, yes, this character’s very funny. An utterly guileless but very confident woman. There’s something about that combination that’s endearing.”
CBS 2 Morning News: ‘Queen’ Premiere At Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater
I did a morning show interview about the play! My first Live TV thing.
Rebellious Magazine: To Bee Or Not to Bee Friends? Scientists Question Their Working Relationship In ‘Queen’
While the fictional camaraderie on stage is at risk, real life bonds have formed off stage. [Director Joanie] Schultz describes her experience with Madhuri as “so much fun because we’ve been able to share stories about the friendships we’ve had. Then there’s our fantastic female actors…[and] Chelsea Warren (scenic design), Heather Gilbert (lighting design), and Janice Pytel (costume design)…Their perspective has been vital to how we’ve conceived the onstage life of this play…Madhuri does a beautiful job fleshing out the unique friendship between women who work together.”
QUEEN runs at Victory Gardens till May 14!
Long overdue updates, because my life turned inside out and sideways these past two months.
It’s official – my play QUEEN will get its world premiere at Victory Gardens in March-April 2017, directed by the brilliant Joanie Schultz! The play has been developed at the Center Theatre Group Writer’s Workshop, the API 2×2 lab at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series and currently – as I type this! – at the Hedgebrook writer’s retreat in Washington.
Check out the announcements in Time Out, American Theatre Magazine and Chicago Sun-Times.
I moved to New York at the beginning of April with my wonderful boyfriend and it’s been a time of serious change.
And with amazing timing, I’ve been ridiculously fortunate enough to be part of the Hedgebrook Playwrights Festival at Whidbey Island. Truly, I can’t think too much about where I am right now without getting emotional. 2 weeks of being housed and fed in astonishingly beautiful conditions with incredible food, and incredible company, with my only responsibilities towards my writing and my own well being. I was desperately in need of this forced break from real life, from the internet (more or less) – this immersion back into my plays. This nurture, care and agency. Hedgebrook will stay with me forever.
Up next:
SEATTLE: Readings from works in progress by the 2016 Hedgebrook Playwrights: Kristiana Rae Colón, Virginia Grise, Dawn Renee Jones, Regina Taylor – and me!
When: Monday, May 16 at 7:00 PM
Where: Seattle Repertory Theatre | 155 Mercer St, Seattle, WA
Tickets: $15
Please email rsvp@hedgebrook.org if the ticket price represents a financial hardship.
‘In Love and Warcraft’: All’s fair and non-gamers welcome
3 stars from the Chicago Tribune!
Review: In Love and Warcraft/Halcyon Theatre
Great review from New City Stage!
RECOMMENDED Before the performance of “In Love and Warcraft” began on Sunday night, one of the show’s actors explained Halcyon Theatre’s philosophy of radical hospitality: the cast, crew and compan…
Arthur Chu On ‘In Love and Warcraft’
“In Love and Warcraft presents the complicated world we live in and the many masks we wear without judgment, asking us simply to empathize with the hard choices the characters make about what to conceal and what to reveal at any moment.
As a gamer I love finally being able to hear terms like “DPS”, “L2P!” and “noob” on a theatrical stage.
But ultimately In Love and Warcraft isn’t about games. It just uses one particular, colorful stage and set of masks–the avatars players assume when they enter the mystic land of Azeroth–to illustrate the eternal challenge of one person, in her time, forced to play many parts.”
8/11/15 Full Show Podcast (No Complaints Day, Mark Carman, In Love and Warcraft)
‘In Love and Warcraft’ director Tlaloc Rivas and cast members Siobhan Marguerite and Kroydell Galima were guests on WGN radio’s The Patti Vasquez Show to talk about the play.
You can listen to the interview here. (Starts at about 34:40).
Review: A Nice Indian Boy/Rasaka Theatre Company
Review of ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ from New City Stage.
For a play that touches on serious issues, it is deceptively wrapped in the casing of a light, loving comedy, and this seems the best way to break the ice on such topics. “A Nice Indian Boy” is an enjoyable, yet effective, piece of art.
“Here is the full WBEZ Afternoon Shift interview from today with Artistic Director Kamal Hans & Associate Artistic Director Alka Nayyar on Madhuri Shekar’s A NICE INDIAN BOY! A great discussion with Nalia Bodhoo on the themes of the play, plus a scene from the show as well! Be sure to check it out!”
