Yoga Play by Dipika Guha

Dipika Guha’s critically acclaimed *YOGA PLAY,* written in 2017, resonates with current issues impacting how we understand ourselves and others as global citizens. This hilarious play tackles issues of cultural appropriation, consumerism, exploitation, identity, authenticity and the commercialization of. . . yoga, through situational comedy, absurd humor and dark comedy. It affords audiences a self-reflexive n opportunity to investigate how we exist within a global community, and how we can also view ourselves as consumers of culture. The play seeks to re-imagine how we view our authentic selves in the wake of neoliberal capitalist-capitalistic practices and challenge those ideas as we reconceptualize a new future.

The Story: YOGA PLAY follows the character of Joan as she attempts to save an athleisure company on the brink of disaster. After doing damage control when the former CEO is accused of fat-shaming women, Joan discovers, at the same time as the public, that the company has secretly been manufacturing their high-end yoga wear in Bangladeshi sweatshops. To combat the political and social fallout, Joan decides to bring in an actual guru from India to lend an authentic voice to the company. But when the Guru ends up being a white man from Santa Monica, Joan embarks on a course that forces her CFO Raj to question his own sense of authenticity and identity. A member of New Dramatists, Playwright Dipikia Guha was born in Calcutta and raised in India, Russia and the United Kingdom. She currently teaches at UC Berkeley. She received her MFA from Yale, studying under Paula Vogel. Her plays include YOGA PLAY, which was commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre, and received a critically acclaimed production at San Francisco Playhouse. Her play , I ENTER the VALLEY was part of the Theatreworks New Play Festival directed by SJSU Assistant Professor Kirsten Brandt. Her work has been developed at, the Public, The Atlantic Theatre Company, the Drama League, Cutting Ball Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New Georges, Roundabout Underground, Shotgun Players, Red Bull Theatre, Leviathan Theatre, Naked Angels, The Cherry Lane Theatre, One Coast Collaboration, The Sam French OOB Festival, The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and the Tobacco Factory (UK) amongst others. She has written for television on AMERICAN GOD and THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL. Associate Professor Sukanya Chakrabarti will direct the production. Also born and raised in Kolkata, Chakrabarti’s performance practice, scholarship, and teaching lie at the intersection of postcolonial studies, globalization studies, and urban studies, with a focus on South Asian theatre and performance studies, transcultural theatre and performance, experimental devised performances, and community-based performance-making. As an artist, she has worked as a playwright, director, dramaturg and performer for South Asian theater companies in the Bay Area, Stanford University, Florida State University and San Francisco State University, She served as the Cultural Dramaturg for an Off-Broadway production of PUBLIC OBSCENITIES, written and directed by Shayok Misha Choudhury, and produced by Soho Repertory Theatre and NAATCO in New York (2023).