Premiere dates: December 10th and 11th, 2020

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to partner with Joe’s Pub and The India Center Foundation in presenting In Order to Become, the fourth episode of VICHITRA, an ongoing experiment in queer South Asian imagination created by writer/director Shayok Misha Chowdhury.

Both premiere dates were followed by live talk-backs, available to watch here:

In Order to Become is a queer, multidisciplinary exploration of Carnatic classical music bringing together an impressive ensemble of collaborators from theater, music, visual art, and radio:
Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Roopa Mahadevan
Shiv Subramaniam
Rajna Swaminathan
Sruti Sarathy
Jeremy S. Bloom
Emily Oliveira
Kameron Neal

VICHITRA is a word that, in many South Asian languages, means multiply. Its definitions include “strange”, “weird”, “grotesque”, the opposite of “art”, but also “striking”, “flamboyant”, “many-colored”, “miscellany”, “heterogeneous”, and “diverse”. In Episode One, An Anthology of Queer Dreams, we eavesdrop on LGBTQ+ South Asian folx from across the world through anonymous, intimate, intricate recollections of their dreams. Episode Two, Englandbashi, is a contemporary ghost story about taking reincarnation (too?) seriously. In Episode Three, The Other Other, a queer interracial couple attempt to situate their relationship in a larger constellation of Black and Desi encounters. 

In Episode Four, In Order to Become, Carnatic classical music is the shapeshifting protagonist. Drawing upon their own queer readings of ancient Tamil stories, poetry, and musical forms, a group of artists in the diaspora create new Carnatic compositions about desire and transformation. A king longs to be an awkward bird. A young girl prays to be changed into an old woman. The violin reaches toward the human voice, and the voice reaches toward the drum.

This project has been commissioned and presented by Ars Nova, HERE Arts Center, Joe’s Pub, Prelude Festival, Dixon Place, National Queer Theater, and Paper Moth Media

Artwork by Emily Oliveira

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Creator, Director, Producer: Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Conceived in collaboration with Shiv Subramaniam and Roopa Mahadevan
Writers: Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Auvaiyār, and Kulaśekhara Āḻvār
Composer, Dramaturg, and Tamil Reader: Shiv Subramaniam
Translation and Adaptation: Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Vocals: Roopa Mahadevan, Shiv Subramaniam, and Sruti Sarathy
Violin: Sruti Sarathy
Mrudangam: Rajna Swaminathan
Video Artist: Emily Oliveira
Video Editing: Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Emily Oliveira
Arrangements and Audio Editing: Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Sound Mixing and Design: Jeremy S. Bloom
Art Director: Kameron Neal

Special Thanks to: Janani Kannan, Chris Wade, and Paper Moth Media

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a writer, director, and many-tentacled maker based in Brooklyn. Currently on staff at Soho Rep as a Project Number One Artist-in-Residence, Misha is also a Resident Artist at HERE Arts Center, a member of the Devised Theater Working Group @ The Public, and an alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova’s Maker’s Lab, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, and residencies at BRIC, The Drama League, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Recent: The Other Other (Ars Nova), MukhAgni (Under the Radar); How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia (Joe’s Pub). Upcoming: a new collaboration with Aleshea Harris (New York Theatre Workshop); Rheology (HERE Arts Center). In progress: SPEECH with Lightning Rod Special; Antioch Mass with Troy Anthony. A Fulbright and Kundiman fellow, Misha has been published in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Asian American Literary Review, and elsewhere. He was a soloist on the Grammy-award winning album Calling All Dawns. shayokmishachowdhury.com

Roopa Mahadevan is a leading 2nd-generation Indian classical and crossover vocalist in the diaspora. She works with musicians and dancers in jazz, world music, and R&B/soul genres, performing for diverse audiences including Chennai’s Music Academy, New York City’s MET Museum and Lincoln Center, and cultural centers of American suburbia. She is bandleader of the crossover ensemble Roopa in Flux and director of the innovative choir Navatman Music Collective. Following major Carnatic training in California under Asha Ramesh, Roopa pursued further study through the Fulbright scholarship under Suguna Varadachari in Chennai, India. She has regularly performed during the iconic December festival in Chennai and has received the award Kala Ratna from the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. Roopa is a featured voice with Brooklyn Raga Massive and the Facebook Sound Collection, and was a soloist on Christopher Tin’s Grammy Award-winning Calling All Dawns. Roopa has participated in premiere residencies at Hedgebrook and the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity and is a 2020 member of Joe's Pub Working Group.

Shiv Subramaniam is a Carnatic vocalist based in New York City. He is a regular performer in Chennai's annual December music festival and in the United States. Shiv has received training from three gurus: P.S. Narayanaswamy, Vani Sateesh, and his grandmother Lakshmi Balasubramaniam. He is a member of the Navatman Music Collective, an NYC choir dedicated to developing a collaborative approach to Carnatic Music. Shiv holds a PhD in Sanskrit literature from Columbia University. His research focuses on the cultural and philosophical significance of Kalidasa at different periods of Indian history. He is currently a lecturer in Sanskrit and Tamil at Columbia.

Rajna Swaminathan is an acclaimed mrudangam artist, composer, and scholar. In her music and research, she explores the undercurrents of rhythmic experience and emergent textures in collective improvisation. Described as “a vital new voice” (Pop Matters), Rajna’s creative trajectory blossomed through a search for resonance and fluidity among musical forms and aesthetic worlds. Her ensemble RAJAS features innovative improvisers at the nexus of multiple musical approaches, playing expansive, boundary breaking music. Rajna also performs extensively in projects led by Vijay Iyer, Amir ElSaffar, and Ganavya Doraiswamy. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Music (Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry) at Harvard University. rajnaswaminathan.com

Sruti Sarathy is a versatile Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer based in Chennai and the Bay Area. Her music, rooted in the South Indian classical tradition, also features elements from North Indian classical music, vocal music, and Indian and Western literature, in order to bring out the voice of the Indian violin in a contemporary, imaginative and socially conscious way.  A Fulbright Scholar and graduate of Stanford University, Sruti performs in festivals across the world, and regularly composes music for dance and theater works. srutisarathy.com

Jeremy S. Bloom is an Emmy-nominated sound designer whose work spans across podcasts, film/TV, immersive exhibits, and theater. His original sound designs have been presented internationally by Netflix, Discovery, Magnolia Films, BBC Wales, CNN Films, WNYC, Radiolab, History Channel, America’s Test Kitchen, The Tenement Museum, James Taylor, ATG London, New York Theatre Workshop, and more. Jeremy created four immersive soundscapes permanently installed at The Statue of Liberty, and has designed and scored over 100 episodes of WNYC’s critically acclaimed queer podcast “Nancy.”  He has taught the next generation of sound designers at CUNY, Yale, and Princeton. jeremyb.com

Emily Oliveira is an interdisciplinary artist and performer. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and a current MFA candidate at Yale. She has exhibited and performed widely in venues including Vox Populi, Wave Hill, Disclaimer Gallery, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Paradice Palase, SOHO20,  Ars Nova, Judson Memorial Church, and Brown University. She has received awards and residencies from MAD, AIR Gallery, Yaddo, BRIC, and Ars Nova. She was a 2019 Van Lier Fellow at Wave Hill, and a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow. In 2023, she will be the Abbey Awards Fellow at the British School at Rome. emily-oliveira.com

Kameron Neal is a video artist, multidisciplinary designer, and performance-maker. He is a NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts and is currently in residence at The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, The Bemis Center and an alumnus of Ars Nova’s Maker’s Lab, CultureHub and Digital Graffiti. His video art has been featured in music videos for Billy Porter and Rufus Wainwright. Kameron’s work has also been seen in National Geographic, Forbes, HYPEBEAST, Studio Magazine and at BAM, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, HERE Arts, DNC 2020, New Orleans Film Festival, Blue Balls Festival, Type Director’s Club, Vox Populi, Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College and Williams College Museum of Art. Recent: MukhAgni (Under The Radar) and The Other Other (Ars Nova) with Shayok Misha Chowdhury; SKiNFoLK (Bushwick Starr, NYT Critic’s Pick) by Jillian Walker; Messiah (La Mama) by Nia O. Witherspoon. Upcoming: Whiteness 1: blanc with Paul Pinto (Prototype). kameronneal.com