PUBLIC OBSCENITIES Extends for One Week at Theatre For A New Audience

Theatre for a New Audience and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will present a week-long extension of the Soho Rep and NAATCO National Partnership Project production of Public Obscenities.

The bilingual play is written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury and performed in Bangla and English. TFANA and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company are now co-presenting Public Obscenities at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Pl, Brooklyn), extended through February 25. Performances were originally scheduled January 17 - February 18 following November and December performances at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC.

When Choton returns to Kolkata on a research trip with his Black American boyfriend Raheem, his grandfather's photograph stares down at him from the walls of his family home. Choton loves being the translator, toggling nimbly between Bangla and English, interviewing queer locals, showing Raheem his world. But through the lens of Choton's grandfather's old camera, Raheem begins to notice things Choton can't. Visionary writer-director Shayok Misha Chowdhury places audiences in a Kolkata movie theater, inviting us to peer into a play about the things we see, the things we miss, and the things that turn us on.

Last season, Soho Rep presented the play's premiere. That production extended several times. The cast won the Ensemble Award at the 2023 Drama Desk Awards and 2023 OBIES were awarded to Shayok Misha Chowdhury for his direction and Sustained Achievement to Enver Chakartash (Costumes), Barbara Samuels (Lights), Public Obscenities, and dots Collective (Sets). Please note that at TFANA and Woolly Mammoth, Enver Chakartash has again designed costumes and Barabara Samuels the lighting, but Peiyi Wong has designed sets.   

The entire original cast of Public Obscenities has returned: Tashnuva Anan as Shou, Debashis Roy Chowdhury as Pishe, Abrar Haque as Choton, Golam Sarwar Harun as Jitesh, Gargi Mukherjee as Pishimoni, NaFis as Sebanti, and Jakeem Dante Powell as Raheem.

The creative team is Peiyi Wong (Scenic Designer), Enver Chakartash (Costume Designer), Barbara Samuels (Lighting Designer), Johnny Moreno (Video/Projection Designer), Tei Blow (Sound Designer), Patricia Marjorie (Prop Designer), Sarah Lunnie (Dramaturg), Sukanya Chakrabarti (Cultural Dramaturg), Teniece Divya Johnson (Original Intimacy Director), Shaquan M. Pearson (Intimacy Consultant), and Tommy Kurzman (Hair/Makeup Stylist).

The production stage manager is Tenley Pitonzo and the casting is by Stephanie Yankwitt.

Shayok Misha Chowdhury said of the play's genesis: “In Bangla, we don't just say ‘uncle.' We have a word for every different kind of uncle. Father's older brother is Jetha. Father's younger brother is Kaka. Mother's brother is Mama. In 1985, my Mama—my mother's only brother—had a dream. In his dream, Mama was in a movie theater, watching a movie. And he described the movie to me in meticulous detail. Shot for shot. As if he wanted me to go make the movie: me, his artist nephew, living in New York. I recorded a voice memo of our conversation, sitting in our sitting room in Kolkata. And that recording of Mama's dream inspired me to write Public Obscenities. Instead of making a movie, I wrote a play about who gets to be an artist and what to do with all the unexpected things we inherit, that we're left with after people leave us. Ten days after Public Obscenities closed at Soho Rep, Mama died. I've been listening to the recording of his dream over and over. It feels good to listen to his voice. To his laugh. To follow the current of his infinitely curious mind. Every time I listen, I discover something new. It's an ongoing collaboration. I'm glad that, through the play, Mama's dream gets to live on.”

Though Chowdhury had wanted to write a bilingual play for his “entire adult life,” he had stopped himself, fearing such a play would be impossible to produce. When Chowdhury became an inaugural member of Soho Rep's Project Number One—the program that gives theatre-makers staff positions, a full salary, and benefits to experiment and collaborate on new work—he felt it was his opportunity to explore this idea.

He said, “For a long time, I wondered if it was even possible to make a bilingual work like this: would Anglophone audiences understand it? How would I cast it? Working with Soho Rep and NAATCO, that seeming impossibility became possible — and it brought together these incredible actors, most of whom were making their Off-Broadway debuts and have now all won Drama Desk Awards. Watching them accept that award and thank my uncle onstage definitely reconfigured my own horizons as an artist. I feel like I'm brimming over with an infinity of stories — it's not, ‘Okay, I wrote my one bilingual play.' There are so many plays I'm excited about writing.”

He added, “I'm grateful for the opportunity to develop the script and the production even further with Woolly Mammoth and TFANA, and to bring Public Obscenities to new audiences.”

TFANA previously presented Soho Rep's world premiere productions of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' OBIE Award-winning An Octoroon and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winning Fairview.

TFANA included its January 17-21 performances of Public Obscenities in the 2024 Under the Radar Festival, made possible by Theatre for a New Audience in association with Under the Radar; Mark Russell, Festival Director & ArKtype, Festival Producer. More information at utrfest.org.

About Shayok Misha Chowdhury (Writer and Director)

Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a many-tentacled writer and director based in Brooklyn. A Mark O'Donnell Prize and Princess Grace Award recipient, Misha was an inaugural Project Number One Artist at Soho Rep, where he recently directed the world premiere of his playwriting debut Public Obscenities “with a swooning hypnotism reminiscent of the best works of neorealism” (New York Times, Critic's Pick). Co-produced by Soho Rep and NAATCO, Public Obscenities was nominated for three Drama League and four Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Direction, and the cast won the Drama Desk Ensemble Award for embodying “the transnational world” of Misha's “bilingual play with memorable authenticity, remarkable specificity, and extraordinary warmth.” Misha is also a Jonathan Larson Grant awardee for his body of work writing musical theater with composer Laura Grill Jaye; their as yet unproduced musical How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia was awarded the 2022 Relentless Award in honor of Adam Schlesinger and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Misha was also a collaborator on the Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns. Other recent collaborations: Brother, Brother (New York Theatre Workshop) with Aleshea Harris; SPEECH (Philly Fringe) with Lightning Rod Special; MukhAgni (Under the Radar @ The Public Theater) with Kameron Neal. A Sundance Fellow, Misha is the creator of VICHITRA, a series of short films including Englandbashi (Ann Arbor Film Festival); The Other Other (Ars Nova); An Anthology of Queer Dreams (Audio Unbound Award finalist); and In Order to Become (The Bushwick Starr). A NYSCA/NYFA, Fulbright, and Kundiman fellow in poetry, Misha has been published in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Hayden's Ferry Review, Asian American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Residencies: Hermitage, Ucross, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, SPACE on Ryder Farm, NYTW 2050, The Public's Devised Theater Working Group, Ars Nova's Makers Lab, Soho Rep's Writer Director Lab, New York Stage and Film, Drama League, Mercury Store, BRIC. BA: Stanford. MFA: Columbia.

About the Cast

Tashnuva Anan (Shou) is a pioneering transgender human rights activist, actress, model, and dancer hailing from Bangladesh. She made history by becoming Bangladesh's first transgender news anchor, breaking down gender barriers and inspiring others in the transgender community to pursue mainstream careers. Tashnuva also holds a unique position on the ILGA World board as the sole Bangladeshi representative.

With a background in public health, she has dedicated years to advocating for the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, and sex characteristics) individuals in South Asia. Her advocacy centers around advancing the human rights of SOGIESC individuals.

Tashnuva boasts over a decade of involvement with various human rights and SOGIESC organizations. She served as the executive director of Inclusive Bangladesh, a trans-led youth LGBTIQ+ organization operating in Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.

Beyond her activism, Tashnuva is a versatile artist, having acted, designed, directed, and managed stages in numerous productions. Her notable roles include appearances in productions like Target Platun, Tamoshik, Nononpurer melay ekjon komla sundori o ekti bagh ase, and Khona. She has also received accolades for her talent, such as the Drama Desk Award for her role as Shou in Public Obscenities and the Annyanya Human Rights Award for her tireless efforts in promoting transgender rights in Bangladesh.

Explore her work further at www.tashnuvaanan.com

Debashis Roy Chowdhury (Pishe) performed in Soho Rep's and Woolly Mammoth's runs of Public Obscenities. He and the rest of the cast received Drama Desk's Ensemble Award in 2023. Debashis was initiated into theater during his college days in Kolkata, India and was inspired by Badal Sarkar's third-theater form. In the US, he has acted in English and Bengali plays produced by multiple theater groups in Boston, notably Off-Kendrik and SETU. Some of his notable roles were: Master-chef Byakaron Singh in Boro Holo J, an original play by Off-Kendrik, Boston; Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Vatia in Spartacus, written by Badal Sarkar (Kolkata); Kaka-saheb (uncle) in Vijay Tendulkar's Kamala (SETU, Boston); and O'Brien in Bengali adaptation of 1984 (Kolkata). Debashis had directed two documentary films and a short animated film called Apartheid. He is a vocalist trained in North Indian classical music tradition. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Abrar Haque (Choton) (he/him/his) recently made his NY debut with Public Obscenities at Soho Rep, and is thrilled to be back telling this incredible story. Other recent credits include Babu in a reading of Accidental Feminist (The Public Theater), Fouad in Refugee Rhapsody (Artists Repertory Theater) and Florizel in A Winter's Tale (Portland Shakes). He thanks his friends and family for their authenticity, compassion, and love. IG: @ahawk19

Golam Sarwar Harun (Jitesh) is a singer, actor, playwright, and a director. He recently completed Soho Rep's and Woolly Mammoth's runs of Public Obscenities and has won the Drama Desk Ensemble award for Outstanding Performance. Harun also directs films and television commercials. As an actor, he has played the lead in Three Penny Opera, Marat-Sade, and Mrichchakatikam, among others. He is the Artistic Director of Dhaka Drama, a theater group founded in Queens, New York, and has co-directed plays like I Shakuntala, No Man's Land, Nirastra (Unarmed), and directed Dhaboman (The Run), among others. His works have featured in multiple South Asian Theatre Festivals over the years. Apart from the theatre world, Harun has acted in multiple films from Bangladesh, and most notably in Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist in the US.

Gargi Muhkerjee (Pishimoni) has recently performed in Soho Rep's and Woolly Mammoth's runs of Public Obscenities. She has won the Drama Desk Ensemble Award for Outstanding Performance and was nominated by Drama League for Distinguished Performance for her role in Public Obscenities. She has also been performing in Women on Fire: Stories from the Frontlines, a Royal Family Productions in New York. She is seen on a regular basis at the South Asian Theater Festival, held every year at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in New Brunswick, NJ. Gargi has also appeared in films, including, The Namesake, in which she had a featured role, and Karma Calling, in which she played one of the leads. She has written/co-written and co-directed well-received plays performed in the tri-state area.

NaFis (Sebanti) (they/she/he) is a Bangladesh-born and raised, non-binary, queer actor and singer from Queens, New York. She is thrilled to be making her TFANA debut by reprising the role of Sebanti in Public Obscenities (NYT Critic's Pick, Drama Desk Best Ensemble Award)! NaFis originated the role in the 2023 Soho Rep production and finished the year by playing it at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in D.C. with the original cast. Other select credits include Theatre: TINDERELLA: The Modern Musical (Dylan; Broadway World 2022 Regional Awards: Best Performer in a Musical), RENT (Angel), The 25th Annual...Spelling Bee (Barfeé), Place of Assembly (Mr. Marsh), The Fold (Khalil), Polar Express (KIA). Film: Who Killed Taniya (Nadiya). NaFis dedicates their performance to all the Hijras and Kotis. He aspires to be part of more new and existing stories that push boundaries and stereotypes. They are thankful for this opportunity and hope you enjoy the show! "Follow your dreams and find your chosen family! <3" IG: @nafis_storyteller.

Jakeem Dante Powell (Raheem) can be seen in George C. Wolfe's Netflix feature Rustin produced by The Obama's Higher Ground Production Company. His recent credits include: Public Obscenities (Soho Rep, Drama Desk for Best Ensemble), Slave Play (Broadway and LA premiere), and the streaming play This American Wife (alongside Pulitzer finalists Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley). He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Instagram: @jakeemdpowell

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