Jyoti, a recent widow with ailing health, finds the future of her well-being in her daughters’ hands. A multigenerational and multicultural journey that explores the love language of food, Nerve asks what our legacy is and that we truly leave behind. What is our value in the world when we are no longer of service to people? And what are the benefits and consequences of living in a society that praises the idea of a nuclear family vs. a joint family? This dark comedy is meant to be an aromatic and visceral experience. In a fully staged production, recipes would be shared and cooked on stage, as well as served to the audience.
The Motion was originally a Manhattan Theatre Club Sloan Commission.
MINITA GANDHI (Playwright, she/they) is a Los Angeles based multi-hyphenate who was born in Mumbai, India. Gandhi’s plays include Muthaland which premiered at 16th Street Theatre, and was featured at Oregon Shakespeare Festival for CAATA, Florida Studio Theater, Victory Gardens Theatre, Silk Road Rising, and PCPA Theatreworks. Daal and Duty and The Sun and all its Sighs were featured in the American Blues Theater’s Ripped Festival.
Nerve was originally developed at The Ground Floor writing residency at Berkeley Repertory in collaboration with her mother Jyotsna Gandhi. Gandhi is a 2022 NYSAF Pfaelzer Award finalist, and currently working on an opera commission as a member of Minnesota Opera Company’s New Works cohort.
To learn more about Minita’s work visit minitagandhi.com
Kirsten Brandt directed TheatreWorks' productions of tokyo fish story, Third, and I Enter the Valley (New Works Festival). Regional directing credits: The Old Globe, San Jose Repertory Theatre (Associate Artistic Director), Utah Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Sledgehammer Theatre (Executive Artistic Director), Santa Cruz Shakespeare, City Lights Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, San Diego Repertory Theatre, African-American Shakespeare, The Jewel, North Coast Repertory, Sierra Repertory and Diversionary Theatre. As a playwright, her work has been produced internationally. Brandt is the Executive Director of Nevada Conservatory Theatre and Chair of the Department of Theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and the Dramatists Guild of America. www.kirstenbrandt.com
SUKANYA CHAKRABARTI Ph.D., (Dramaturg) is an artist-scholar and Associate Professor at the Department of Film and Theatre, San Jose State University. She received her doctoral degree in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University; and previously worked at Florida State University and San Francisco State University.
Dr. Chakrabarti’s performance practice, scholarship and teaching lie in the intersection of postcolonial studies, globalization studies, and urban studies, with a focus on South Asian theatre and performance studies, transcultural theatre and performance, experimental devised performances and community-based performance-making. Author of In-Between Worlds: Performing [as] Bauls in an Age of Extremism, which examines the performance of Bauls, ‘folk’ performers from Bengal, in the context of a rapidly globalizing Indian economy against the backdrop of extreme nationalistic discourses, she is currently working on her research project on performances of the South Asian diaspora across generations of immigration in California.
As an artist, she has worked as a playwright, director, dramaturg, and performer for South Asian theater companies in the Bay Area, Stanford University, Florida State University, and San Francisco State University. She has also collaborated with dance and movement artists, musicians and spoken-word artists in India and the US, for her devised and experimental performance projects. She worked as a Cultural Dramaturg for the Off-Broadway production, Public Obscenities, written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, produced by Soho Repertory Theatre and NAATCO. More details about her project can be found on her website: www.sukanyac.com
LAURA HICKS (Stage Manager) is a new Bay Area resident that has recently moved from Alabama. In the Bay Area, she was the ASM for Steel Magnolias at TheatreWorks. Before her move, she was a Resident Stage Manager with Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham. There, she was the stage manager for Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Holiday Spectacular, and their Performing Ensemble program. Additional Stage Manager credits include You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Virginia Repertory Theatre), 1776 (Virginia Repertory Theatre), The Velveteen Rabbit (Virginia Repertory Theatre), Glory Denied (Opera Birmingham), and The Tragedy of Carmen (Opera Birmingham). Assistant Stage Manager credits include Dreamgirls (Virginia Repertory Theatre), Dreamgirls (Red Mountain Theatre), Elixir of Love (Opera Birmingham), Fiddler on the Roof (Red Mountain Theatre), Beauty and the Beast (Red Mountain Theatre), and The Nutcracker (Alabama Ballet).
RANJITA CHAKRAVARTY is excited to be part of the 20th New Works Festival staged reading of Nerve. She has had numerous appearances with Bay Area South Asian Community theater groups such as Naatak and EnActe. Ms. Chakravarty directed The Square Root of a Sonnet, Water, and Alipha for Bay Area Drama Company. She directed Chitra, Kingdom of Cards and A Nice Indian Boy for EnActe. She was a recurring guest in Netflix’s Never Have I ever (Patti/Nirmala). She has acted in numerous short films and Indie projects. Ms. Chakravarty has worked at Stanford University since 1998 and is currently a Director of Internal Audit.
TIFFANY YVONNE COX’s select regional credits include three seasons with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Children’s Hour Intiman Theatre, the ripple, the wave, that carried me home at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, three seasons with First Stage Children’s Theatre, Two Gentleman of Verona (the musical) at Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, and A Christmas Carol at The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Her select film and TV appearances include the lead opposite Denise Boutte in Hallmark’s Napa Ever After, Recurring Guest Star (Autumn) in Reasonable Doubt, Recurring Guest Star in Good Trouble, and Guest Star Roles in Grey’s Anatomy, American Horror Story, Raven’s Home, and LOVE. Tiffany earned her BFA in Musical Theatre from Catawba College and dedicates this performance to her family.
MIRIAM A. LAUBE appeared on Broadway in Bombay Dreams. Off-Broadway credits include Monsoon Wedding (St Ann’s Warehouse) and Pericles (Public Theater). Film: Anything’s Possible (Amazon). In 16 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival she played roles including Cleopatra, Olivia, Hermione, Rosalind and Julia, The Witch in Into the Woods and Vasantasena in The Clay Cart. She is proud to have originated the roles of Gynecia in Head Over Heels, and Cleo in Family Album. She has worked regionally at Berkeley Rep, The Guthrie Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Milwaukee Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, and The Denver Center. She directed The Tempest for Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and is thrilled to be directing Queen for Theatreworks Silicon Valley in the spring. She is honored to be both a Fox Fellow and a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow.
UMA PARANIPE is a Bay Area native returning home for a spell, and is making her TheatreWorks debut. Uma most recently appeared as Pi to close the Broadway run of Life of Pi at the Schoenfeld Theater. Off-Broadway: Short Stack (Ma-Yi), tango of a crumbling wall (Teatro Latea). Regional: Life of Pi (American Repertory Theater), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Catskill Mountain Shakes), Twelfth Night (CMS). Film: Beast (Tribeca New Voices), King Lahiri (Amazon Prime). Uma currently teaches at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City, and out of her home in Brooklyn. BFA Musical Theatre: University of Miami. umaparanjpe.com | @superumapuma