Deepak Kumar

Deepak Kumar

Deepak Kumar is a playwright and composer based in Milwaukee, WI. His work prominently features Asian-Americans grappling with the messiness of their identities as they relate to their unique American experiences. He is also a technologist, and is interested in building new experiences that combine character-driven storytelling and technology.

His first show (co-written with Jord Liu), “Baked!...
Deepak Kumar is a playwright and composer based in Milwaukee, WI. His work prominently features Asian-Americans grappling with the messiness of their identities as they relate to their unique American experiences. He is also a technologist, and is interested in building new experiences that combine character-driven storytelling and technology.

His first show (co-written with Jord Liu), “Baked! The Musical”, was produced in Chicago as part of the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival where it had a sold out run and won awards for best lyrics, best lead performer, best supporting performer, and best ensemble. He has also worked with Underscore Theatre Company, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) and Shotgun Players.

Contact: debug12@gmail.com

Plays

  • Stories in Mother Tongues by Deepak Kumar
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: South Asian, action + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, immersive
    Keyword: South Asian, action, adventure, comedy
    Patti, the 79 year old matriarch of the family, spends her days waiting to die. The only bright spot left in her life is a one-woman show she puts on every night to an increasingly aging American theatre audience. But when her granddaughter, son, and daughter-in-law are corrupted by demons and threaten to destroy her play, Patti has to team up with an unlikely ally: her aimless and existentially tortured...
    Patti, the 79 year old matriarch of the family, spends her days waiting to die. The only bright spot left in her life is a one-woman show she puts on every night to an increasingly aging American theatre audience. But when her granddaughter, son, and daughter-in-law are corrupted by demons and threaten to destroy her play, Patti has to team up with an unlikely ally: her aimless and existentially tortured American grandson, Giri. Will Giri and Patti defeat the demons that have taken over the family and keep the play running? Or will the show just… end? A hypertheatrical action adventure about tradition, expectation, and learning to speak in your mother tongue.
  • House of India by Deepak Kumar
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: South Asian, South Asian American + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: South Asian, South Asian American, Indian, restaurant setting
    In memory of her late husband, Ananya runs “House of India”, the last remaining restaurant in a once-flourishing Asian strip mall in Ohio. All around her are pressures to change – from her finances, from her environment, and most annoyingly, from Jacob, a Thai-American entrepreneur determined to convert the restaurant into a nationwide fast-casual Indo-fusion franchise. When the restaurant is vandalized, Ananya...
    In memory of her late husband, Ananya runs “House of India”, the last remaining restaurant in a once-flourishing Asian strip mall in Ohio. All around her are pressures to change – from her finances, from her environment, and most annoyingly, from Jacob, a Thai-American entrepreneur determined to convert the restaurant into a nationwide fast-casual Indo-fusion franchise. When the restaurant is vandalized, Ananya must make a choice: give up on her husband's “American dream” and close up shop or compromise to stay afloat? A play about South Indian food, familial expectations, and figuring out what really makes a "house" a home.
  • Baked! The Musical by Deepak Kumar
    Cast: 
    6–10
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: musical, comedy + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, musical
    Keyword: musical, comedy, drama, family, Asian American
    When she doesn’t receive the scholarship that would send her to her dream school, habitual overachiever Jane Huang, with the help of her best friend, joins forces with the class degenerate to build the greatest drug empire ever run by high schoolers. Kept in the dark are Jane’s parents, whose inability to cope with their daughter leaving for college while maintaining a profit at their struggling Chinese bakery...
    When she doesn’t receive the scholarship that would send her to her dream school, habitual overachiever Jane Huang, with the help of her best friend, joins forces with the class degenerate to build the greatest drug empire ever run by high schoolers. Kept in the dark are Jane’s parents, whose inability to cope with their daughter leaving for college while maintaining a profit at their struggling Chinese bakery drives them to pry and potentially unravel Jane’s web of lies.

    Baked! The Musical is a reflection on failure, self worth, and the question of what we owe the people we love. It features an all Asian American cast, and the themes are born out of the writers’ own experiences growing up as the children of immigrants in the US.
  • Newton's Third Law by Deepak Kumar
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: reincarnation, religion + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: reincarnation, religion, comedy, South Asia, asian
    10-minute. Vishnu is a 30-something year old atheist who lives with his parents with no girlfriend and no job. He has some questions for God.
  • Engaged in the Time of COVID-19 by Deepak Kumar
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: period
    ·
    Keyword: coronavirus
    Genre: period
    Keyword: coronavirus
    An engaged couple grapples with the loss of their dream wedding during a global pandemic.

    #1MPF
  • CRUSH by Deepak Kumar
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: Race, romance + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: Race, romance, dating
    10-minute. Sanket has a crush on Carrie, but asking out a white girl as a brown kid in high school comes with its challenges.

    An exploration of racial preferences in South Asian dating.