Riti Sachdeva

Riti Sachdeva is a theatre maker and cultural worker. She has been creating art in some shape, form, or rhythm for twenty five years, incorporating text, installation, and dance into her work. Born in India, she is deeply influenced by the vast land, history, mythology and people of her origins. Raised in the U.S., her work is marked by the social and political climate of the Americas. Riti grew up in the Boston area where she participated in various projects and exhibitions as an installation artist and was a founder of South Asian Women for Action (SAWA.) Riti relocated to New Mexico for fifteen years where she received her MFA with honors in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico. She now resides in Brooklyn where she's held fellowships with the Emerging Writers Group at The...

Riti Sachdeva is a theatre maker and cultural worker. She has been creating art in some shape, form, or rhythm for twenty five years, incorporating text, installation, and dance into her work. Born in India, she is deeply influenced by the vast land, history, mythology and people of her origins. Raised in the U.S., her work is marked by the social and political climate of the Americas. Riti grew up in the Boston area where she participated in various projects and exhibitions as an installation artist and was a founder of South Asian Women for Action (SAWA.) Riti relocated to New Mexico for fifteen years where she received her MFA with honors in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico. She now resides in Brooklyn where she's held fellowships with the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, the Women’s Project Theatre Lab, and the Dramatists Guild, which awarded her the 2019 Thom Thomas award. Her plays have been developed by the Ingram New Works Lab, PlayWrights Center, Manhattan Theatre Works, The Civilians, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, University of Hawaii at Manoa/Center for South Asian Studies, WP Lab, and the National New Play Network. Her play Parts of Parts & Stitches received the Quest for Peace award from the Kennedy Center. Riti’s acting credits include work with DisneyChannel, HBO, lots of cool indie films, Manhattan Theatre Works, Hybrid Theatre, Estrogenius Festival, OmniRootz (Belize), as well as, her devised work with Kalapani Productions which toured festivals in Los Angeles and Toronto and her original work with midNites cHiLd Productions which has been produced in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and NYC. Her solo show, Scene/Unseen won the Outstanding One Act award at Planet Connections. She continues to act with various companies for stage and screen and write her original plays She is also committed to community-based theatre projects that value the lives and struggles of every day people.

Scripts

Welcome to the Taj Palace (motel)

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

On the edge of a highway on the edge of a city, Rajiv runs the Taj Palace (motel). Sita’s got business there. Nina’s wants to shut it down. Bhagath Singh Thind’s been waiting there for decades. And Jon Wane just might have the key.
Bollywood and Twin Peaks meet in Welcome to the Taj Palace (motel) where the personal and political collide with the arcane in a shitty motel lobby. A biting and incisive Indo...

On the edge of a highway on the edge of a city, Rajiv runs the Taj Palace (motel). Sita’s got business there. Nina’s wants to shut it down. Bhagath Singh Thind’s been waiting there for decades. And Jon Wane just might have the key.
Bollywood and Twin Peaks meet in Welcome to the Taj Palace (motel) where the personal and political collide with the arcane in a shitty motel lobby. A biting and incisive Indo-Gothic exploration of how class, caste, and white supremacy run parallel and converge.

Behind Every Favorite Song Is An Untold Woman

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

Part cabaret, part memoir, part mysticism, five story-songs connected through gesture and sub-story. A personal, political, and mystical adventure of becoming and being a brown queer working class immigrant feminist - and the radical women of color who paved the path. Written and performed by Riti Sachdeva, as a solo show, or with a musician; devised.

Part cabaret, part memoir, part mysticism, five story-songs connected through gesture and sub-story. A personal, political, and mystical adventure of becoming and being a brown queer working class immigrant feminist - and the radical women of color who paved the path. Written and performed by Riti Sachdeva, as a solo show, or with a musician; devised.

SUICIDE SEED

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

In an elaborate scheme to avenge the suicide of her husband and thousands of other farmers, Asha manipulates her way into the home of Darren Warren, CEO of Gynsence, a multinational, bio-engineering corporation. As the maid in the home, Asha takes on the responsibility of caring for Darren's wife, Hope, pregnant with their first child. As the pregnancy progresses, Asha cultivates her power over Hope and Darren's...

In an elaborate scheme to avenge the suicide of her husband and thousands of other farmers, Asha manipulates her way into the home of Darren Warren, CEO of Gynsence, a multinational, bio-engineering corporation. As the maid in the home, Asha takes on the responsibility of caring for Darren's wife, Hope, pregnant with their first child. As the pregnancy progresses, Asha cultivates her power over Hope and Darren's life with the guidance of her companion, Chicoo, a flute-playing monkey in order to execute her uncanny plan to genetically modify the fetus in Hope's womb.

The Rug Dealer

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the Persian rug shop he built in New Haven on leaving Iran in 1979. As an unexpected love affair develops with a dangerously beautiful customer and her mother's secret longing to return to Iran after decades of exile grows more urgent, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and love.

When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the Persian rug shop he built in New Haven on leaving Iran in 1979. As an unexpected love affair develops with a dangerously beautiful customer and her mother's secret longing to return to Iran after decades of exile grows more urgent, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and love.

Parts of Parts & Stitches

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

A joyous, colorful occasion, a wedding day in the Punjab region, 1947, the patchwork of two families eager with anticipation for their pending unification. In PARTS OF PARTS & STITCHES, Yamuna and Jiwan prepare for their lives and future together in a small village of what is soon to become Pakistan. Soon after the couple celebrates their matrimony, the reality of the political and religious upheaval forced on...

A joyous, colorful occasion, a wedding day in the Punjab region, 1947, the patchwork of two families eager with anticipation for their pending unification. In PARTS OF PARTS & STITCHES, Yamuna and Jiwan prepare for their lives and future together in a small village of what is soon to become Pakistan. Soon after the couple celebrates their matrimony, the reality of the political and religious upheaval forced on the country by Britain’s abandonment, becomes apparent. The violence of man against man, erupts in a horrific massacre. With perseverance and a will to survive, Yamuna desperately attempts to stitch back the pieces of her life.

Love in a Time of Manic Depression

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

Using the text from actual interviews of people of color with mental illness and people in their support systems, this experimental piece weaves together the voices in a sometimes eerie, sometimes humorous symphonic narrative.

Using the text from actual interviews of people of color with mental illness and people in their support systems, this experimental piece weaves together the voices in a sometimes eerie, sometimes humorous symphonic narrative.

LA FEA: A FlamenChoreoMyth

by Riti Sachdeva

Synopsis

La Fea follows a young woman who tackles hardships, unearths secrets and discovers an ancient legacy of flamenco.

La Fea follows a young woman who tackles hardships, unearths secrets and discovers an ancient legacy of flamenco.