House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar | Staged Reading at Juilliard, with the Classical Theatre of Harlem

Years ago, my first month living in New York, I hit the ground running in the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival at Classical Stage. An incredible playwright, artist, and human being approached me afterwards and said she had lost an actor for her new play, House of Joy, going up at Atlantic Theatre Company as part of the Asian-American Mix Fest, and would I be interested in joining the team.

Um.

UM.

YESOFCOURSEAREYOUKIDDINGME.IJUSTMOVEDHERE.ATLANTICTHEATREISADREAMCOMPANY.

Although I'm sure I, cool as a cucumber, accepted the role with grace and *no weirdness at all*! Probably! Maybe!

I was thrown into the mix with Madhuri's spectacular work, under the direction of Saheem Ali and a cast of mind-boggingly, jaw-droppingly good actors, alongside other playwrights involved in the festival like Rajiv Joseph, Leah Nanako Winkler, Jiehae Park, etc! It was freaking awesome.

Two years later I'm reentering the House of Joy at the Samuels Teaching Studio at Juilliard, under the direction of Mehr Kaur as part of the Future Classics Literary Series at Classical Theatre of Harlem, on June 17th at 7pm.

Full circle. <3