Tanvee Kale (Prafulya or Devi)
Tanvee is excited to be back at ACT for the fifth time after ACT Gala Fundraiser (Pratidhwani+ACT, 2011), Ramayana from her Perspective (Pratidhwani+ACT, 2012), Dance Like A Man (Pratidhwani+ACTLab, 2015), and Chitrangada (Pratidhwani+ACTLab, 2017). Since landing in Seattle in 2009, she has been in multiple Pratidhwani productions and has worn many hats including director, choreographer, and stage manager. She is also an active member in the local Marathi theater scene with Seattle Maharashtra Mandal and Xperiments.
While Tanvee works as a software engineer during the day, her evenings are dedicated to her passion - dance and theater! She loves to code, she loves to choreograph.
Meenakshi Rishi (Mrinalini)
This is Meenakshi Rishi’s 3rd ACT Lab production after Mother in Another Language (Pratidhwani+ACT, 2011) and Dance Like A Man (Pratidhwani+ACTLab, 2015). In addition to her teaching talk show (on air since 1993), she has performed in Ron- The War Within (Seattle Theaterwala, 2017), A Small History of Amal, Age 7 (Forward Flux+Pratidhwani, 2018), Centrifuge, and Mirror Stage productions. She was nominated for a Gregory Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ratna in Dance Like a Man (Pratidhwani+ACTlab, 2015).
Outside of the theater universe, Meenakshi is mostly a Professor of Economics, hopefully a supportive spouse, and always a crazy mama. When she grows up she would like to see a world without inequity and injustice.
Afreen Azad (Nishi)
Afreen loves the stage and made her Seattle stage debut with Pratidhwani's Aathvan Sarg in 2017. She has been part of several dance shows and plays through school and college. She was most notably in The Bindermeyer Theory (by Nicholas Wardigo) and was the lead of A Time For Farewells (by Damian Trasler), for which she won the best female lead at Christ College, Bangalore’s Inter-collegiate dramatics competition.
When she’s not writing software for Amazon, she is is seriously pursuing one of her many interests - theater, traveling, photography, cooking, hiking, or blogging. She is very excited to be getting up on the ACT stage with Devi!
Swarnim Vyas (Bhavani Pathak)
Swarnim recently moved to Seattle and is excited to be making his debut with Pratidhwani. He is passionate about living intriguing and challenging characters on stage.
He is most known for his role as Dhananjay Karnik, the defense attorney in the Hindi adaptation of the Marathi play, Khara sangyacha tar (inspired by Agatha Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution). He played Dr. Saumil Patel, the doctor in-charge in the Hindi adaptation of the Gujarati play Ek jharna ni vaat. He has also dabbled in alternate forms of theater like street theater and miming.
If he’s not acting, he can be found either penning Hindi poetry or writing software!
Pratik Shah (Brajeshwar Roy)
Back for his 2nd Pratidhwani+ACTLab production, Pratik made his acting debut with Queen by Madhuri Shekar (Pratidhwani + ACTLab 2018). He is an east coast transplant who moved to Seattle in 2010.
After pondering a career in the arts, he chose a career in software development. He’s thrilled to have now gotten the chance to relive his high school theatrical experience on a much grander scale through Pratidhwani.
Ramit Malhotra (Rangaraj/Ramdas)
Ramit is making his debut with Pratidhwani+ACT in Devi but is on his 10th tryst with theater. His other Seattle credits include DDLJ Returns (Cutting Chai Productions, 2016) and King of the Dark Chamber (Asha Seattle, 2018).
In addition to performing on stage once a year, he enjoys arguing ferociously with internet trolls and going against his body's natural disposition while attempting CrossFit. When he’s not doing that, he works on cyber and cloud security.
Moumita Ghosh (Sagar)
Moumita is back for her second collaboration with ACT after her debut in the ACT Gala Fundraiser (Pratidhwani+ACT, 2011). She has been a staple in local South Asian performing arts associations for over a decade and is a founding member of Pratidhwani’s Dance wing.
Recently, she played the lead in the 2017 Joydeep Das movie, The King of Metiabruz and in the 2018 Bengali stage play, Gorur Garir Headlight (Uttoron). Other recent credits include Ron - The War Within (Seattle Theaterwala, 2017), Royal Challenge (Act On, 2018), and Pagla Ghora (Seattle Theaterwala, 2019).
She finds a vent for her cultural creativity while on stage and hopes to bring joy to her audience through her performances. She loves spending time with her family and friends and wants to thank everyone for their continued support and encouragement.
Jayant Bhopatkar (Harballabh Roy)
Jayant has been a fixture in Seattle-based South Asian performing arts organizations like Pratidhwani, Seattle Maharashtra Mandal, Xperiments, and IAWW. Over the past 30 years, he has acted in or directed over 70 Marathi, Hindi, and English plays. At Pratidhwani, Jayant has performed with all 4 wings - dance, theater, light music, and classical music. He has acted in over a dozen productions here, starting with Ek tha Gadha in 2009. Other notable performances are Kanyadaan (2010), Shaadi dot con (2014), Indian Ink (with Sound Theater Company, 2015), and Yours Mallika (2015).
He is a seasoned percussionist and has played the tabla for visiting classical artists from India as well as for local bands such as Swarali, Shruti, and Gunjan. Additionally, he is an avid cyclist (10 STPs to credit) and a world traveler.
Jayant is also a proud dad to two beautiful teenage daughters and a loving husband to his wife. In his spare time, he works at Microsoft.
Anuradha Shenoy (Shanti/Diba)
Anuradha is an accomplished doyen of Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance form) and changed careers after her Arangetram (graduation recital). Theater has been central to her childhood and she is thrilled to be reviving her lifelong interest in acting with her debut in Devi.
In her day job, she organizes events for the Lake Washington School District and teaches at Eastlake High School.
Anniruddha Jahagirdar
Aniruddha essays all trades of theater, direction, production, music score, writing scripts, you name it. But he is most thrilled to be on the stage!
He has worked with several notable theater groups in Seattle, ACT Theater, Pratidhwani, Seattle Maharashtra Mandal, Sound Theater Company, to name a few.
When not doing theater, Aniruddha is found architecting Azure kernel or scaling the Pacific Northwest mountains.
Aniruddha is super excited to be part of Devī a fantabulous amalgamation of Music, Dance and Drama.
Supriya Kulkarni
Supriya has been dancing and choreographing with Pratidhwani since 2016. She made her acting debut in Seattle with Karan-Arjun (Cutting Chai Productions, 2017) followed by Justice4Julie (Pratidhwani, 2018). She also made her singing debut with 'Taal Makhani'- Pratidhwani's South Asian a cappella team in 2018. She is thrilled to be back at ACT theatre for the second time after Chitrangada (Pratidhwani + ACTLab, 2017).
Along with pursuing her love for the performing arts, Supriya works for a nonprofit organization that aims to provide quality education for children in India. She is an absolute Bollywood buff and also enjoys distance running, having successfully completed 6 half-marathons.
