Neha (नेहा) had such an idea of how to raise her son Neel (नील) in America, but he’s seventeen now, he hardly ever speaks Hindi, and he doesn’t care about seeing India’s famous Hope Diamond. On a cross-country college tour, both Neha and Neel must confront the difference between who they are and who they want each other to be. Between canceled flights, long drives, and impromptu motel stays, नेहा & Neel asks what we lose with every generation in America, and if it’s ever too late to connect with your roots.

Workshop Reading at the Los Angeles Theatre Center
Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 3 pm
Free but RSVP required

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Creative Team

Ankita Raturi (Playwright) (she/her) is a currently Queens-based writer and teaching artist who grew up in capital cities, pediatric gastroenterology offices, and the bisexual closet. She writes hyper-theatrical works in Hindi/Urdu, English, and sometimes Bahasa Indonesia about living between cultural identities and contending with the ongoing legacies of colonization. 2022 Winner of the Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation’s Ollie Award. New play development: Roundabout, Ma-Yi Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Cygnet Theatre, Artists at Play, The COOP, Atlantic Pacific Theatre, Theater Masters, Hypokrit Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Pete’s Candy Store, Natyabharati, Wesleyan University. Devised work with Charlotte Murray: Fresh Ground Pepper, Corkscrew Theater Festival, Dixon Place. B.F.A. in Drama: NYU/Tisch. M.F.A. in Playwriting: UC San Diego. First-year Kathak student.

J. Mehr Kaur (Director) is a director & producer who tells stories that mythicize the lives of ordinary people. Her devised, physical theatre work Kultar’s Mime addresses the power of art in the wake of injustice during the 1984 Anti-Sikh pogrom and toured internationally to theatres, festivals, universities and houses of parliament. In Los Angeles, Mehr directed readings of Pigeonhole by Jasmine Sharma (Center Theatre Group) and MĀYĀ by Cheeyang Ng & Eric Sorrels (Musical Theatre West), the first staged production of ABCD by Lily Abha Cratsley (KriyaShakti/Greenway Court) and the west coast premiere of An Intervention by Mike Bartlett (Encore Producer’s Award, 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival). In NYC, she’s worked at La Mama, Ars Nova, MTC, Juilliard, Dixon Place, Colt Coeur, WP, Astoria Performing Arts Center, and in various Brooklyn basements. Her upcoming short film I’m Dead Right? stars Sakina Jaffrey and is EP’d by D’Lo. Mehr is a past Colt Coeur Resident Artist, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps member, Manhattan Theatre Club Directing Fellow, and a recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru Directing Grant. MFA: Peter Stark Producing Program, USC; BA: Smith College.

Cast

Nandini Minocha (नेहा) has been an actor “within” all her life but was able to overcome her deep cultural, familial conditioning only in her 40s. She made her way to SF in 2009 to pursue her one true love, Theatre. Since then she moved to LA and has played significant gueststars/lead in TV shows like “MacGyver,” “Night Court,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Chicago Med” and “Quantum Leap.” Nandini believes she is only just getting started and is here for the journey of a lifetime, she hopes your down to join her on a little fun ride this afternoon.

Seth Gunawardena (Neel) is a promising actor with over 8 years of experience. Most recently, he could be seen playing Neel in नेहा & Neel in the Wagner New Play Festival. He recently completed his B.A. in Theatre at University of California San Diego. He stepped into the professional world when he was cast as Suresh in Animals Out of Paper at the Chautauqua Institution directed by Lamar Perry, in 2022. This experience cemented the foundation of techniques he learned at UCSD, and has inspired him to learn as much as he can from the artists around him.

Sashank Kanchustambam (Arnav & Avatars) is a recent UCSD graduate with a theatre major and econ minor from Hyderabad and Chandigarh, India. Regional theater credit: Come Fall In Love (Script Assistant). Local San Diego theatre credits: Dancing at the end of the world (Blindspots Collective), SAA/Not that one (Trinity Theatre). UC San Diego Department Credits: Man in love (ensemble), A Mid Summer Night’s Dream (Flute/Thisbe), Backwaters (Mukul), Twelfth Night (Assistant Director), 50 boxes of earth (Script PA), Machinal (Lawyer for prosecution and Married Man), Bunny Bunny (PA). UCSD labs: AHC (Lab project choreographer), I – You (Customer/Little Boy), नेहा & Neel (Arnav and Avatars) Guard 3). Playwriting credits: That one Girl at the Airport (Trinity Theatre), Only I can Say that (Blindspot collective), Dancing at the end of the world (Blindspot collective), We were kids (Sparks Theatre Company), 45 minutes of Chaos (UCSD lab). Short film Credits: Nadartine (Actor-Director- Writer), Choice Creates (Actor-Director-Writer), Re-Exam (Actor), 98 days at a time (Actor-Writer) and Wait (Writer).

Sharayu Mahale (Stage Directions) is bicoastal actor who found her way in to the world of acting through dance (Bharatanatyam). She studied acting at Yale School of Drama’s summer acting conservatory in 2019 and has continued to train in improv comedy, scene study, and technique classes across Los Angeles. Some recent projects include acting in Mira Nair’s musical “Monsoon Wedding”, Netflix’s “Cobra Kai”, and her debut as a lead in feature film Footnotes available on streaming platforms June 7.

AAP New Play Development

Since 2013, Artists at Play has provided developmental support to over a dozen playwrights through their new play development programs that include the annual Artists at Play Readings and the AAP Emerging Playwright Commission Program. Playwrights include Carla Ching, Preston Choi, Ankita Raturi, Sanaz Toossi, Alice Tuan and Leah Nanako Winkler, among others. Plays supported by AAP have gone on to world premiere productions with AAP and many other theatres across the United States and Canada.