GREASEY
We’re in one of the highest stakes environments in New Jersey - a predominantly South Asian high school - and the theater club is putting on Grease! The classic American assimilation musical resonates with the student actors, their high school society, and the immigrant parent audiences who are in their own adolescent years in this country. There’s music, drama, life imitating art and we leave thinking - what does it take to fit in?
The Creative Team
Mukta Phatak
Playwright
Mukta Phatak is a playwright, actor, singer and teaching artist based in NYC. She is a project-seeker and much of her work blossoms from the creative communities she cultivates. Recently she has written two commissioned works. The Night Diary - a play adaptation of the Newbery Award winning book set during the Partition of India, and Made in Pakistan - a site specific play for one actor commissioned by the Ancram Opera House. As an actor she has been working on developing new works through workshops, readings, cabarets and premiere productions. A proud daughter of Indian immigrants, her intersectional identities are at the core of her artistry. In her writing, acting and everyday life she works to elevate her ancestors and her inner child and make space for others to do the same. Through her projects she strives to be a force for justice, learning, and play.
Reena Dutt
Director
Reena Dutt is dedicated to new and reimagined texts that catapult polarizing conversations through unexpected stories with the bodies, voices and life experiences of the underheard. Her Broadway debut was on The Collaboration at MTC as Assistant Director to Kwame Kwei-Armah of the Young Vic in London, and she most recently assisted Leigh Silverman Off-Broadway on Merry Me at NYTW. Reena is also a film director and producer having screened films at over 80 festivals worldwide including Sundance, LAFF, Outfest, Frameline, Cucalorous, NBCUniversal and BET. www.ReenaDutt.com
Liana Irvine
Dramaturg/Producer
Liana Irvine is playful, methodical, and optimistic as a dramaturg, producer, and community mover in bringing new work and reimagining the cannon. With intimate interrogation and empathetic communication, Liana faithfully deepens the entanglement of artists' worlds and audiences' realities. Being an Asian artist, transracial adoptee, and environmentalist informs how Liana crafts performance and visualizes performing arts’ futures. Credits include: National New Play Network Producer in Residence at InterAct Theatre Company, Advisory Council for GroundWater Arts, Dramaturg for People’s Light’s True West, Assistant Dramaturg for Tectonic Theatre Project’s Here There are Blueberries.