DRAW THE CIRCLE Makes Regional Premiere at Hedgerow Theatre Company

Beginning January 21, Rose Valley-based Hedgerow Theatre Company will continue its 2025-26 mainstage season with the regional premiere presentation of Draw the Circle by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen. Directed by Andrew Watring, the one-person show is an autobiographical story of the playwright’s own journey coming out as a trans man to his conservative Indian family, told entirely from the perspectives of his family and friends. Draw the Circle is performed by Philadelphia actor Joseph Ahmed, and is set for a limited run from January 21 to February 1, with 10 performances presented in Hedgerow’s 100-seat theater, housed in an atmospheric 19th-century grist mill.

Playwright and essayist Mashuq Mushtaq Deen first performed Draw the Circle at North Carolina’s PlayMakers Repertory Company in 2016 and Mosaic Theatre in 2017. The play was met with a rave critical response, with Washington Post critic Nelson Pressley praising the story’s framework as “simple yet striking, and more than a novelty: it’s an apt, big-hearted way to puzzle together many pieces of Deen’s journey.” Deen went on to receive numerous awards for his heartfelt show, including the Lambda Literary Award, the James Baldwin Award, and Dennis Johnson Playwrighting Prize. 

Draw the Circle is a funny, tender portrait of a first-generation Indian family confronting love, faith, and change when their child transitions from Shireen to Deen. Audiences experience Deen’s journey from the perspective of his wise-cracking father, conservative Muslim mother, and partner Elizabeth, illustrating the courage it takes for us to live authentically when we do not fit societal expectations of gender, faith or family. Draw the Circle is both an intimate and expansive portrait of love that transcends identity. The compassionate coming-of-self story is anchored deeply in humanity and told with heart and humor.

Deen’s one-person show will be performed by Joseph Ahmed (they/them), a multidisciplinary performer, director, and playwright working at the intersection of physical theater, circus arts, and narrative storytelling. While Draw the Circle marks their Hedgerow debut, Ahmed’s acting credits include productions with Philadelphia-area regional theaters such as Backing Track at Arden Theatre Company and Today is My Birthday at Theatre Exile. They have toured nationally as a teaching artist with Foodplay Productions and continue to develop original performance work. 

“During a moment of deep questioning within my own gender journey, it is surreal, exciting, and humbling that a story so unapologetically trans and so deeply South Asian is not only being produced in Philly but that I will be the body onstage,” shared Ahmed. “I love Draw the Circle in all its complex simplicity.”

Draw the Circle also marks the Hedgerow directorial debut of Andrew Watring, a Black, Trans director, award-winning playwright, producer, performer, and advocate from Huntsville, Alabama. Watring currently serves as an Associate Artistic Director at Malvern-based theater company People's Light.

"Draw the Circle is an exceptionally powerful play that explores a unique and individual experience through the eyes of many,” shared Watring. “It is a trans ritual; a conjuring that summons person after person to testify to their own complicity in and role in the journey of a man who creates his own community." 

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