Long Beach Shakespeare Company presents Rena Patel’s debut performance, Pyar aur Coffee, as part of the Fresh Works Festival. The first two performances, June 8 at 8:00 PM and June 9 at 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM, are SOLD OUT. Tickets for the additional third and final performance, June 9 at 4:00 PM, are selling out quick. All performances will be held at the Helen Borgers Theatre at Long Beach Shakespeare Company.
Starring Syona Varty, Nate Memba, Jessica Elise (also known for her music project Bashlow) and Shaan Legros. Special appearances by Ayushi Chhabra, Neal Koripella, Daniel Broadhurst and Aman Jaisinghani.
Pyar aur Coffee is a Bollywood-inspired interracial romantic comedy about four radiant, coffee-addicted friends who navigate coffee machines, dating apps, and South Asian social expectations as they try to discover what, or who, makes them elated. A year after breaking up with her non-Indian ex-boyfriend, Aaliya (Syona Varty) vows to only swipe right on South Asian men, much to the chagrin of her friend Jaime (Nate Memba), who harbors a not-so-hidden crush on him. Ishaan (Shaan Legros) must deal with the aftermath of a dinner party gone wrong with his parents, who disapprove of his relationship with a white girl, Stella (Jessica Elise).
Saturday’s program will be followed by a discussion moderated by award-winning playwright and television screenwriter Cris Eli Blak.
“I understood the power of this play not only as Rena’s beautifully written story, but also its ability to nurture deep, social conversations about relationships between black and brown people, the barriers of dating someone who is not Indian, falling in love with someone whose parents will never accept you, and so much more,” says director Rippin Sindher.
“It’s a cultural story — and it’s damn near perfect — but it’s also a human story. It’s a love story, not just about these couples and their antics and their misunderstandings, but a love story about a newborn woman who learns to love herself, to accept herself, to understand herself, to liberate herself,” said Cris Eli Blak, TV writer (Power Book III: Raising Kanan), winner of the 2023 Black Broadway Men’s Playwrighting Initiative.
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