Meet the Cast
Archana Srikanta
Sanam
Archana Srikanta is excited to be making her theatrical debut with Queen. Born and raised in Bangalore, India, Archana moved to Seattle 7 years ago. She is a software engineer by day, but has spent many evenings and weekends training with Freehold Theatre. She has appeared in various student performances at Freehold including Almost,Maine, Stupid Fucking Bird, Infinite Black Suitcase and most recently in Dreams. Archana would like to thank the faculty at Freehold for their support and Pratidhwani for this wonderful opportunity.
Isis King
Ariel
Isis King is thrilled to be making her debut with Pratidhwani, in the company of such an amazing cast & production team! Favorite theater credits include: This Pleasant Place, Little Brother's Body, Crooked Grace, Maiden Voyage, Venus, Joy Ride with Parley; The Inapproriate Suitor with Ballard Underground; Unexpected Wilderness with Annex Theatre; also Studio4Seattle. Film/TV credits: "The Good Wife", "Smash"; Commercials: Ford, Progresso Soup, Gas-X. BA in Theatre from CUNY Hunter College. Much love to my husband and sustainability advocate, Jim, for imparting the necessity of food pollinators. Become a citizen scientist! https://nwpollinators.org/
Madhuri Shekar
Playwright
Madhuri Shekar is a playwright from Chennai, India, currently based in New York. Her plays include IN LOVE AND WARCRAFT (Alliance Theatre and others; 2013/14 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award), A NICE INDIAN BOY (East West Players and others), and QUEEN (Victory Gardens; Kilroys List 2017). Her plays in development include HOUSE OF JOY and new commissions from Victory Gardens, Audible and South Coast Repertory. Her work has been developed at the Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hedgebrook Playwrights Festival, the Kennedy Center, New York Stage and Film, and the Atlantic Theatre. She is a member of the Ars Nova Playgroup and Ma-Yi Writers Lab, has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC, and is a recent alum of the playwriting program at Juilliard.
Pratik Shah
Arvind
Pratik is an east coast transplant who moved to Seattle in 2010. He chose a career in software development after pondering a career in the arts, but has now gotten the chance to re-live his high school theatrical experience on a much grander scale through Pratidhwani. When not at work, you'll find him engaged in one of his other interests: globe-trotting, political activism, playing sports (racquetball, softball, volleyball), solving logic puzzles, playing poker or board games.
Stephen Grenley
Hayes
Stephen is happy to be working with Agastya Kohli again, and proud to be making his debut with Pratidhwani and ACTLab. Stephen has been seen in ‘Cardinal Sins’ at CenterStage, ‘American Wee Pie’ at Seattle Public Theater, ‘The Matchmaker’ at Taproot and ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ at Intiman. Having acted in Seattle for the past 35 years, Stephen has performed in numerous productions at various theaters which include Seattle Shakespeare Co, Wooden O, Greenstage, Second Story Theater, and
Theater Schmeater. As a member of Unexpected Productions Stephen has 25 years’ experience with improvisational theater where he has performed locally, nationally and internationally. He likes puppies.
Meet the Production Team
Madhuri Shekar
Playwright
Madhuri Shekar is a playwright from Chennai, India, currently based in New York. Her plays include IN LOVE AND WARCRAFT (Alliance Theatre and others; 2013/14 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award), A NICE INDIAN BOY (East West Players and others), and QUEEN (Victory Gardens; Kilroys List 2017). Her plays in development include HOUSE OF JOY and new commissions from Victory Gardens, Audible and South Coast Repertory. Her work has been developed at the Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hedgebrook Playwrights Festival, the Kennedy Center, New York Stage and Film, and the Atlantic Theatre. She is a member of the Ars Nova Playgroup and Ma-Yi Writers Lab, has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC, and is a recent alum of the playwriting program at Juilliard.
Agastya Kohli
Director
Agastya is a Seattle area based actor, director and producer. As the Artistic Director of Pratidhwani's Drama Wing, he has directed and produced many shows for Pratidhwani, including Dance Like a Man by Mahesh Dattani and Mother in Another Language by Taniya Hossain, both produced here at ACT/ACTLab. Recent acting credits include Happiest Song Plays Last at Theatre22, Money & Run at Theater Schmeater, and The Brothers K at Book-it Rep. A Telecom Engineer by day, Agastya proudly serves on the board of Theatre Puget Sound. Many thanks to this cast & crew, to his wife Marianna, and to you for supporting live theatre.
Dheeraj Mehta
Stage Manager
Dheeraj works as a Technical Program Manager with Amazon, and has been the Stage Manager for Pratidhwani Drama Wing for last 5 years. In his free time, he liked to write code, volunteer for child rights & you (CRY America), and spend time with his family.
Robin Macartney
Scenic Designer
Robin is excited to be making her Pratidhwani debut with this production. Professional credits include design work with Seattle Shakespeare Co, Café Nordo, Youth Theatre NW, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Pork Filled Productions, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Arts West, Live Girls!, Annex Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, New Century Theatre Company, and Bainbridge Performing Arts. She is the resident set designer/ Front of House manager at the Theatre Off Jackson as well as the Theatre Department’s Scene Shop Supervisor at the University of Puget Sound.
Parmida Ziaei
Assistant Scenic Designer
Parmida is an architecture, interiors and scenic designer based in Seattle. She started doing freelance theater design by assisting on Sound Theater's production of You Can't Take It With You. Her recent work include props design for Annex Theater's production of Crewmates, Copious Love production of Journey West and scenic design for the upcoming Sound Theater's production of Rules of Charity. She is grateful for the amazing theater community in Seattle.
Emily Leong
Lighting Designer
This is Emily’s first production with Pratidhwani. She is a freelance lighting designer in the Seattle area whose previous credits include work with Cafe Nordo, Washington Ensemble Theatre, and Artswest. In 2015, she received The Gregory Awards: Melissa Hines Impact Award for her work as a theatre practitioner. She has been on staff at Theatre Off Jackson for the past 6 years as the technical liaison and resident lighting designer. Other summer shows for Emily are: How I Learned to Drive with Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Persimmon Nights at Cafe Nordo, and Two Kids Who Blow Shit Up with Midnight Rice Productions at Theatre Off Jackson.
Pallavi Garg
Props and Costume Designer
Pallavi passionately believes in the transformative power of stories. She has explored her own stories through experimentation with various forms of art for most of her life. She is thrilled to be a part of this latest creative collaboration with Agastya and the PD gang on Queen and is also looking forward to working with the team on Pratidhwani - Forward Flux co-production of Amal in September. Past work with Pratidhwani includes Aathvan Sarg, Dance Like A Man, and The Banyan Tree. Pallavi also participated as Director in Intiman's Emerging Artist Program and directed Tasveer's Yoni ki Baat in 2015.
Rob Witmer
Sound Designer
Rob is a Seattle native, where he works as a musician, composer, and sound designer. Recent credits include The Wolves (ACT Theatre); Timon of Athens, Bring Down the House (Seattle Shakespeare Company);Ironbound, Hand to God (Seattle Public Theater). His sound designs have also been heard at Seattle Rep, New Century Theatre Company, Spectrum Dance Theater, WET, and Teatro ZinZanni. Rob’s onstage appearances include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, (ACT Theatre) A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Intiman, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep); Fiddler on the Roof (Village Theatre, ATC) and Go, Dog. Go! (Seattle Children’s Theater). Rob plays with several bands, including The Love Markets, “Awesome” and the Sandbox Radio Orchestra.
Mario Gomez
Dramaturg
Mario Gomez is a Seattle based Dramaturg, Stage Manager, and Director. He has worked in scripted and unscripted productions, including ACT Theatre’s Alex and Aris, Silhouette with Annex Theatre, and The Happiest Song Plays Last with Theatre22. Mario’s upcoming credits Dramaturgy for Two Sisters with Theater Schmeater, the Expand Upon series with Mirror Stage. Mario is also part of Umbrella Project's 2018 Writer's Group as a Dramaturg. Mario is incredibly grateful to Agastya and Pratidhwani for the opportunity to join this production.
More about Mario at www.onlinedramaturg.com and www.marioagomez.com
Alyssa Kay
Intimacy Choreographer
Alyssa Kay is an actor and stage combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. She is trained in seven of the SAFD's eight weapons styles and is passionate about the safe and effective representation of violence and intimacy onstage. Alyssa earned her BA in Drama from the University of Washington and also studied physical theater at the Accademia dell'Arte in Arezzo, Italy. As a choreographer she has worked locally with Off Road Shakespeare Company, Civic Rep, and Seattle Public Theater, and also teaches physical theater and stage combat fundamentals to students as an independent teaching artist. She's grateful to be a part of this production, and to Pratidhwani for their commitment to the physical and emotional safety of their performers. www.alyssakay.net
Marianna de Fazio
Acting Coach
Marianna has been acting and coaching locally since receiving her MFA in performance from the University of Washington. She has also been introduced to All-Things-Indian since then as well, having met her now-husband, Agastya Kohli, within months of completing her degree. In the theater world, she coaches acting and dialect; professionally she coaches public speaking and accent modification to people from all over the world, and all walks of life: www.mariannadefazio.com
Archna Sharda
Graphic Designer
Background in Architecture and working as a Content Analyst in a Software company. She is always interested in the production side of the Theatre. To keep her love for art alive she started her journey with Pratidhwani in 2010 as a set designer and then moved to Graphic and Web design. She enjoys the freedom which Pratidhwani provides in creating digital and print graphic pieces for their Drama Wing, from conceptualization to conveying the ideas and creating the public curiosity for the show at the same time. She had fun creating the web, digital and print graphic materials for their past and present shows for example, "Dance like a Man", "Everything But the Paper", "Athwaan Sarg" and now "Queen" and look forward for more in the future. You can check her work at www.archnasharda.com
Swati Srivastav
Assistant Props/Costume Designer
Swati started her journey with Partidhwani in 2013 with 'Parde ke Peeche', and since then has been part of many shows like 'Yours Mallika', 'Chitrangada', 'Dance like a man', 'Justice for Julie and now 'Queen'. She has volunteered as a dancer, set designer, assistant stage manager and backstage crew. She finds working under constraints to create something beautiful to be most exciting and she loves being part of the production crew. She works as a software developer at Tableau Software. In her free time, she loves painting, running and traveling.
Anushree Ringne
Assistant Stage Manager
Anushree is very excited to be working with Agastya again and helping out with Pratidhwani's latest production. She has previously worked with Pratidhwani in Aathvan Sarg where she thoroughly enjoyed being an on-stage actor. She is looking forward to helping out behind the scenes in Queen. During the day she is glued to her computer coding at Microsoft.
