Baby Camp

By Nandita Shenoy 
Directed by Suhaila Meera

Tuesday, November 17, 7pm Pacific

In the not too distant future, four progressive women spend a week at a feminine empowerment retreat where the definition of empowerment is not what they expected. But are they willing to get on board for the sake of their freedom? Baby Camp spins comedy from the existential dread about the dissolution of women’s rights in our current political landscape.

The play was written under the auspices of the Brooklyn Generator and developed with support from Leviathan Lab.  It has not yet been produced.

Post-Show Conversation Moderated By

Madihah Akhter is currently holding the Stanford H&S Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her research and teaching examine gender and sovereignty in historical perspective, with regional expertise in modern South Asia, the British empire, and the Muslim world. As an postdoctoral fellow, Madihah plans to work on her manuscript-in-progress, titled "In Her Own Right: Sovereignty and Gender in Princely India,” and will also teach two classes in the history and feminist, gender, and sexuality studies departments and help launch a new, first-year course on citizenship.

Cast and Creatives

Nandita Shenoy (Playwright) is a New York-based writer-actor. Her Rage Play was recently named to the Kilroys List 2020. Her Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times nationally after its world premiere at LA’s East West Players and an Off-Broadway production in which she also starred. Her first full-length, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira in Washington, DC. Her one-acts have been produced in New York City and regionally. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and the Dramatists Guild. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. 

Suhaila Meera (Director) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Theater and Performance Studies Department at Stanford University. Her research explores the intersections between childhood, migration, and performance. She holds a BA in History and Film from Cornell University and studied acting with Barry John and at the Stella Adler Studio. Before graduate school, she worked at Teamwork Arts, Girls Write Now, and The Juilliard School. Recent artistic endeavors include dancing with Chocolate Heads Movement Band (2017), directing Nick Payne’s Constellations (2019), and dramaturging Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Everybody (2020) at Stanford.

Abby Rose Merrill (Performer) is an Iowa native and a current sophomore at Stanford University. Some favorite credits include: Sonnets, Soliloquies, and Soul (University of Michigan, dir. Michael McElroy); Seussical (Marriott Theatre, dir. Rachel Rockwell); and Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. She can also be seen in guest/recurring roles on “Chicago Med” (NBC) and “House of Cards” (Netflix). She is thrilled to be part of this wonderful play and project. Many thanks to Samer Al-Saber, Suhaila Meera, Nandita Shenoy, and TheatreWorks for facilitating these important conversations and providing opportunities to continue making theatre in these uncertain times.

Born in Korea, Christina Kim (Performer) is an active musicologist, singer, and educator. She is a second-year Ph.D. student in Musicology at Stanford University. Kim is broadly interested in Medieval and Renaissance sacred music; accordingly, her performance interests range from Gregorian chant to late sixteenth-century polyphony music. She is also interested in the racial politics within music. Her music studies began at Pasadena City College where she discovered her passion for music history, singing, and choral conducting. In 2018, Kim graduated as the departmental commencement speaker and summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Musicology. 

Maya Caulfield (Performer) is a professional actor from Portland, Oregon. She has worked with Oregon Children’s Theatre doing live (and virtual) children’s theater, improv, and other mainstage productions. She is currently a member of the Mercury Company at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland. She is a senior at Stanford University, majoring in English with a Creative writing emphasis. On campus, she is a member of the Stanford Improvisors and Robber Barons Sketch Comedy. She is so thrilled to be working with TheatreWorks on this project and is grateful for this opportunity!

Tiffany Cartagena is a B.A. candidate in Stanford’s Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) department; she has also studied acting at American Conservatory Theater’s Summer Training Congress. Most recently, she was the Assistant Costume Designer for the Beyond the Wound is a Portal (TAPS). Previous acting credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (TAPS), Too Good (Nitery Experimental Theater), and Marie Antoinette (Stanford Theater Lab). She greatly appreciates the opportunity to partner with TheaterWorks on this project!