Tamasha (A Festival of South Asian Performing Arts) was created in 2016 as a celebration of the diverse perspectives, ideas, and imaginations of artists from the South Asian subcontinent and the diaspora. Over the course of five years, the festival has featured over 200 artists, fostering collaboration across the disciplines of theatre, dance, music, spoken word, and comedy. Hypokrit’s 2021 season is all Tamasha-all-year, featuring works by artists of South Asian descent that vary in form and content, but are especially adapted for the digital format. This season, we will also embark on a year of co-productions with companies across the country and introduce new audiences to Hypokrit’s work, extending our family around the globe.
Bollywood Kitchen by Sri Rao, which opened in January 2021 in partnership with Geffen Playhouse. In this interactive production filmmaker and cookbook author of the same name Sri Rao invites us to prepare a homemade Indian meal along with him, drawing on the recipes that were staples at his family’s table. As we join him in cooking these delicious dishes in our very own kitchens, Sri interweaves the story of his parents immigrating to America, the joy and nourishment that Bollywood musicals brought to his whole family, and the culinary traditions they shared.
Dipti Bramhandkar's Islands of Contentment, a co-production with The Tank NYC. Islands of Contentment is a moving meditation comprised of thirteen monologues. An elegy to the (dis)harmony of romantic relationships, each piece invites us into the intimate, poignant, and hilarious interactions with significant others in the form of modern-day confessionals. Thirteen characters reflect on moments that feel strangely familiar: the break-up dream, the plight of the nice guy, the ex who unexpectedly shows up, and even a baking fetish. No one writes love songs about this stuff.
EWP in partnership with EnActe Arts and Hypokrit Theatre Company will present the world premiere of Lavina Jadhwani’s Sitayana, directed by Reena Dutt with dramaturgy by Amrita Ramanan. Sitayana is an artful transposition of the Hindu epic The Ramayana told from Sita’s point of view. Part epic tale, part coming of age story, Sitayana is the ultimate breakup play. Audiences will be able to choose between three different incarnations of Sita, all femme South Asian persons of differing lived experiences, from whom to hear their stories which along the way upend traditional gender norms and subvert idealized views of femininity.
Running is a co-production with EnActe Arts and East West Players, written and performed by Actor Danny Pudi (from TV's Community and Apple+'s Mythic Quest). Danny Pudi debuts as a playwright with his show in development, Running. After his estranged father suddenly passes away, Danny finds himself in his apartment piecing together objects, memories, and the puzzle of a father he never knew. Running is an interactive experience, where the audience accompanies Danny on an epic journey to ask “where did I come from and who am I now?”