Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Has Chosen Director Arpita Mukherjeeas As This Season's Denham Fellow

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), today announced Director Arpita Mukherjee has been chosen as this season's SDCF Denham Fellow for her upcoming production of Raisins Not Virgins by Sharbari Zohra Ahmed. Raisins Not Virgins will be presented by Hypokrit Theatre Company at Next Door NYTW from June 4th, 2020 to June 18th, 2020. The Denham Fellowship comes with a $10,000 stipend. Mukherjee was unanimously selected for this honor by a panel comprised of Susan Booth (Alliance Theater), Desdemona Chiang (freelance director), Elizabeth Diamond (Yale University), KJ Sanchez (University of Texas, Austin), and Hana Sharif (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis).

"I am honored and humbled to receive the Denham Fellowship, which celebrates a director's artistic and entrepreneurial spirit. After years of being told I could only be one thing, being recognized for not waiting for opportunities and making my own work, is extraordinary. What makes it doubly special is that it is for Raisins Not Virgins by Sharbari Zohra Ahmed - a seminal work that broke barriers, marked several firsts, and inspired a young girl to pursue the theatre," says Mukherjee.

About Raisins Not Virgins

Written after the events of September 11th in an attempt by Ahmed to explore her Muslim identity, Raisins Not Virgins is a story of spiritual and political upheaval combined with the backdrop of New York City dating angst. It tells the story of Sahar Salam, a Muslim American New Yorker approaching 30 and feeling the cultural pressure from her Bangladeshi mother to settle down. Raisins Not Virgins is a romantic comedy about a Muslim American woman choosing to practice her religion on her terms and re-interpreting Islam in the process.

About Arpita Mukherjee

Arpita Mukherjee (she/her/hers) is the artistic director and co-founder of Hypokrit Theatre Company and the Festival Chair for Tamasha. Recent: Jump by Charly Evon Simpson (APAC), One Way by Ben Bonnema and Christopher Staskel (NAMT), The Golden Threshold by Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels (Live & In Color), Strange Men by Will Snider (PlayPenn 2019), Citizen Scientist by CQ (Barrington Stage Company Playworks Weekend), Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka (Iowa State University), Vietgone by Qui Nguyen (reading Song Collective), Eh Dah? Questions For My Father by Aya Aziz (Next Door @NYTW), and Elements of Change by Divya Mangwani (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, UNICEF). Upcoming: House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar (San Diego Rep), Tobias by CQ (WP Theater Pipeline Festival), and Raisins Not Virgins by Sharbari Ahmed (Next Door @NYTW). She is a 2018 - 2020 Women's Project Lab Member, 2018 Eugene O'Neill National Directing Fellow, alumni of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist. Arpita is currently the book writer for Monsoon Wedding musical, opening in London summer 2020.