What’s your drag name?
Depends on my mood. Sometimes I’m Parton Cheeks and sometimes I’m Fluffy Duvet.
Top theatrical moment of all time?
Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, the 24-hour marathon performance. More like thousands of moments within the container of a day that transformed my perception of the potential of what live performance can achieve.
What keeps you coming back to Soho Rep?
My unrelenting sense of curiosity and possibility. Soho Rep draws you in on such a quest, and meets every juncture with intrepidness. Also, we have a great logo.
Share a quote or call to action that fuels your work.
Laughing and crying, you know it’s the same release, “People’s Parties,” Joni Mitchell. Reminds me to feel my feelings, and about how performance and art are these vessels for doing that.
Describe your first theatrical experience.
It was a lucky one! When I was about 13 years old I got to see a production of The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets at A.C.T. in San Francisco, where I grew up. It had this strangeness and abstraction that clicked into my young brain in this really exciting way. I think it informed how I reach for art – seeing for the first time how within the abstraction there’s this call for the witness to activate and form meaning out of the raw bits. Also I had no idea who William S. Burroughs or Tom Waits or Robert Wilson were, so that was also just this big bloom of knowledge.
What drew you to Soho Rep?
The people! The community of artists and collaborators who have made Soho Rep what it is, year after year, show by show.
Share a quote or call to action that fuels your work.
گر بازی عشق کی بازی ہے جو چاہو لگا دو ڈر کیسا
گر جیت گئے تو کیا کہنا ہارے بھی تو بازی مات نہیں
– فیض احمد فیض
In the game of love, wager fearlessly, whatever the risk
If you win, you win. And if you lose, it is never defeat.
– Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Describe your first theatrical experience.
Sleep walked to starry night with a face full of makeup as Lady Macbeth in the 8th grade (Lahore, Pakistan)
What’s your most memorable moment at a Soho Rep show?
Feeling the delight of Bangla speakers in the intimacy of 46 Walker Street during Public Obscenities.
If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be
Everyone on staff knows I have a sweet tooth so I would say I could eat cheesecake for the rest of my life.
Favorite play of all time? Of the past year?
My favorite play of all time is seven methods of killing kylie jenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones. It is a raw, hilarious, and inventive play that grapples with the pervasive nature that cultural appropriation and social media plays in our lives.
What drew you to Soho Rep?
Many of my playwriting friends have told me their dream theater to have their world premiere is Soho Rep. With that kind of reputation with writers I knew the organization must be doing something right, which influenced my desire to work here!
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Life on Mars, David Bowie.
Memorable theater experience?
Seeing a René Pollesch piece at the Volksbühne in Berlin.
What keeps you coming back to Soho Rep?
Some sort of magnet it seems. I assisted on DUAT, then was in the The Lab where I co-created the play BLUSH, then stage managed while you were partying, then worked facilities, and now am here in the office. Ultimately, I have always been so excited about the work that happens at Soho Rep and love being close to it.
