The AAP Emerging Playwright Commission Program supports an emerging Asian American playwright. The commission comes with a $1,000 award, institutional and artistic support to help advance their work on the commissioned play and a public staged reading.

The inaugural AAP Emerging Playwright Commission was awarded in partnership with Asian American Pacific Friends of the Theatre (APAFT).

---

Ankita Raturi | अंकिता रतूड़ी (she/her) is a bisexual, bicultural, bilingual writer currently living in Southern California. She grew up in and around New Delhi, Jakarta and Washington D.C., and has spent many years living and working in New York City. Ankita writes in Hindi/Urdu and English about the impossibilities of language, living between cultural identities and the ongoing legacies of colonialism. Her plays are often populated with queer characters navigating new and unfamiliar territory. Ankita is the recipient of a Sloan Commission with Ensemble Studio Theatre. Her audio play, Backwaters, is available to listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as part of the 2021 Wagner New Play Festival. Ankita has developed new plays through UCSD, NYU, Artist at Play, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The COOP, Atlantic Pacific Theatre, Theater Masters, The Hearth Theater, Hypokrit Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Pete’s Candy Store and Natyabharati. Her devised work with co-creator Charlotte Murray has been seen at Fresh Ground Pepper, Corkscrew Theater Festival and Dixon Place. Ankita has a BFA in Drama from NYU. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at UC San Diego with the guidance and mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. @ankitawrites

---

16-year-olds Citra and Melati are nationally ranked badminton players determined to go pro – and represent Indonesia on the global stage. But when Citra’s family immigrates to America, she learns that she has other wants outside of her and Melati’s badminton dreams. And while Melati is on the path to achieve everything they wanted, she has never felt more alone. No One Plays Badminton in America asks us: Is making your country proud worth hardly ever seeing your family? Is the pursuit of a dream worth losing your culture?

---

Finalists for the 2021 APAFT & AAP Emerging Playwright Commission were Kathryn de la Rosa, Lisa Sanaye Dring and Mary Lyon Kamitaki.