Abhishek Majumdar (India) presents Behram Khan

Join us for a reading of an excerpt from Indian playwright and theatre director Abhishek Majumdar’s new play Behram Khan.

Behram Khan, set amid the brutal trenches of World War I, follows an Indian soldier in the Lahore Light Infantry who finds his faith in Islam and renounces violence. His act of conscience sparks a quiet rebellion among his comrades, even as his British commander tries to “civilize” him through the unlikely medium of Shakespeare. Meanwhile, a Malayali Indian nurse navigates the war's moral complexities through the lens of medical ethics, South Asian Christianity, and her own subaltern lens of feminism.

The reading will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Majumdar and members of a unique and rare Indian and Pakistani cast—Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Fatima A. Maan, Aloke Tiwari, Ajay Bhullar, and New York–based actor David Skeist. The conversation will be moderated by Executive Director of the Segal Center, Frank Hentschker.

Abhishek Majumdar, returning to The Segal Center, is a playwright, essayist, scenographer, and director working in India and internationally. His work has been produced and commissioned in leading theaters of the world including Royal Court Theatre London, Prithvi Theatre Mumbai, Ranga Shankara Bangalore, Deutsch Shauspielhaus Hamburg, Ruhrfest Recklinghausen, Théâtre du Soleil Paris, National Theatre London, San Francisco Opera, PEN World Voices, Internacionale Dramaturgie Festival Buenos Aires, San Francisco Opera, and PlayCo New York amongst others. He is a recipient of multiple awards including the META Award for Best Play and Best Script, International Theatremakers Award New York, The Shankar Nag Rangakarmi Award Bangalore, the Toto Funds the Arts Award, Segal Center Award for Civic Engagement in the Arts, B.V. Karanth Fellowship of Ninasam, Best Director in London Movie Awards, Best Director 8 and Half Film Festival (Rome) Awards, Best Scenographer Sofia International Film Festival amongst others. His book of essays, Theater Across Borders is published by Bloomsbury International as part of the Theatermakers series and he has been published, performed, and translated in Hindi, English, French, German, Czech, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri, and Spanish. He is the Artistic Director of Nalanda Arts Studio Bangalore and creative producer at New Voices Arts Project based in Bangalore. 

Fawzia Afzal-Khan is a schol-art-ivist, engaging her scholarship and performance work in the service of social justice ideals. She is Visiting Professor of Gender and Sexuality at Princeton University, and tenured Professor of English, a University Distinguished Scholar, and former Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at Montclair State University, NJ. She has held a Visiting Professorship of the Arts at NYU in Abu Dhabi 2016-18, and spent several semesters over the past two decades teaching at institutions of higher education in her native Pakistan, often as a Fulbright Fellow. She is author of 6 books including one on Pakistani theatre and the women’s movement and a memoir about growing up in Pakistan. She is a trained singer in the North Indo-Pakistani vocal classical tradition,  a published poet and playwright, was founding member and resident Sufi singer of the Compagnie Faim de Siecle, and has performed her one woman-show, Scheherazade Goes West: will the ‘Reel’ Muslim Woman Please Stand Up? at various locations around the world including the Smithsonian, Trinity College Dublin, the Brecht Forum NY, T2F in Karachi and the James Stewart Theatre, Princeton University. She and Shahid Nadeem have recently completed and staged (in Lahore, Pakistan),  a 3 act play on TE Lawrence’s exploits in Lahore, Miranshah and Kashmir after WW1. Her short play-in-progress, Palestinian/Pakistinian was staged as a dramatic reading at the Budarz auditorium of Ossining Public Library by the Westchester Theatre Collective. Her website can be accessed at www.fawziaafzalkhan.com. 

Fatima A. Maan is a theatermaker, administrator, and educator from Lahore, based in Brooklyn. She received her training at Boston Playwrights' Theater and NYU Abu Dhabi. Fatima is deeply drawn to character-driven narratives that explore the paradoxical nature of human existence and connection. She is most determined to depict relationships that are at once frustrating, empowering, and above all real. Inspired by the power of theater to unravel what we know most intimately, Fatima’s plays center the complex sociopolitical nuances that characterize lived experience in South Asia. Her plays have been performed in multiple cities across Pakistan as well as Abu Dhabi, London, Boston, New York City, and more.

Aloke Tiwari’s theater credits include: The Band’s Visit (Broadway), Prayer for the French Republic (Pioneer Theatre, UT), Monsoon Wedding, The Musical (St. Ann’s/Berkeley Rep), Dom Juan (Bard), India Pale Ale (MTC), The Band’s Visit (Atlantic), Awake and Sing! (Public / NAATCO), A Fable, Through the Yellow Hour, War (Rattlestick); Bunty Berman Presents, Rafta, Rafta… (New Group). His television credits include: Kaleidoscope, The Good Fight, FBI,  Iron Fist, House of Cards, Madam Secretary, Homeland, Fringe Film: Bad Shabbos, The Pirates of Somalia, Shelter.

Ajay Bhullar is an actor and model based in New York City. His passion for theatre began in his hometown, Amritsar, Punjab, when he was cast as the lead in a school play. He is a graduate of the Two-Year Conservatory Program at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and has also trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Recently, he appeared in the Off-Broadway production Kasturba v/s Gandhi and in two short films, Rom Con and Retrace. Bhullar’s love for the arts drives him to pursue truth and authenticity in every project, both on and behind the camera.”

David Skeist (he/they) is an actor and multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Brooklyn. He has appeared, often repeatedly, in works by Javier Antonio González, Richard Foreman, David Gordon, Elizabeth Swados, and Doris Mirescu at venues including The Public, Skirball, Joyce Soho, and Peak Performances. David is the producing director of Caborca and acts in most of the company’s works including Zoetrope and Distant Star (both at Abrons Arts Center). He recently performed in the US premiere of Romina Paula’s Fauna (Torn Page) and the first English reading of Josep Maria Miró’s The Nicest Body Ever Seen in These Parts (Segal Center / PlayCo). They previously directed Susan Hyon’s solo performance Soo Jin Pretty Nail (and more) (Luna Stage, Baltimore Theatre Project) and were assistant to André Gregory during his work on The Master Builder with Wallace Shawn. David is also a composer currently collaborating with Caborca, M-34, and x.sud art/site. They hold an MFA from Columbia University and teach Acting at Barnard.