at Capital Fringe Festival
Performing at Theater J at the DCJCC
1529 16th Street, NW • Washington, DC
Check out the #CHARLOTTESVILLE Dramaturgy page here!
A tour-de-force performance about the power of witnessing, constructed from interviews with residents of Charlottesville, VA impacted by events surrounding the “Unite the Right” rally and counter-protest. Priyanka Shetty, an award-winning performance artist and UVA graduate student, was away that summer and could only decipher the trauma through twitter. She returns to gage the impact of the violence and what it means for all of us to call this divided terrain “home.”
Mapping the deep-seated racial inequities that have long existed in Charlottesville and how they set the stage for a Neo-Nazi gathering, the play presents, with updated urgency, reports from recent trials of rally conspirators.
Part of VFP’s Voices From a Changing Nation series
with Zoom Post-Production Discussion
July 16, 2023 @ 6:00 PM
More information and Panelist bios
written and performed by
Priyanka Shetty*
directed by
A. Lorraine Robinson
Production Stage Manager: David Elias*
Sound Design & Videography: Anthony Amos
Lighting Design: Garth Dolan
Properties Design: Elizabeth Long
Composer: Heather Mease
Voice & Dialect Coach: Monica Blaze Leavitt
Dramaturgs: Debbie Minter Jackson & Ari Roth
Assistant Stage Managers: Sophie Roth & Emily Beloate
Producing Associate: Emily Beloate
*Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association
Performing at Capital Fringe Festival
Venue: Theater J at the DCJCC
1529 16th Street, NW • Washington, DC
MEET THE ARTISTS
The solo performance piece is researched, written, and performed by Priyanka Shetty, an award-winning actor, director, and playwright based in Philadelphia, PA. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM has been performed at numerous venues across the country including The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and was recently staged at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Assembly Festival which was followed by a Scotland Tour. Priyanka made her Off-Broadway debut with #CHARLOTTESVILLE at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters’ “East to Edinburgh” Festival in 2021. She was also handpicked for the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive in 2021, and was the semi-finalist for the 2022 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama.
A. Lorraine Robinson (Director & VFP’s Artistic Producing Director) is a Director and Dramaturg who has worked with various DC area and regional theatres. Recent Projects include: Director for: Let Me Down Easy and Baltimore (SMCM); Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson) (VFP); Three Strangers Sitting Around a Backyard Firepit at Two in the Morning Listening to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (a site-specific play by Bob Bartlett); The Piano Lesson and Annie (Sitar Arts Center) and Dramaturg for TopDog/Underdog (Avant Bard.) Lorraine received the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle Award: Best Director & Best Production for The Laramie Project (Contemporary American Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio.) In 2017, 2018 and 2019 she received Tony Award: Excellence in Theatre Education Honorable Mention Awards for her work at Sitar Arts Center. Previously, she was the Co-Founding/Artistic Producing Director of MuseFire Productions. Lorraine is also a Board Member and Associated Artist with Transformation Theatre Company. A. Lorraine Robinson’s full bio can be found on our Producing Partners page.
Heather Mease (Music Composer) (she/they) is a composer and electronic musician from Philadelphia, PA. Heather's work with Priyanka Shetty includes #Charlottesville and the Elephant in the Room. You can hear more at www.hmmease.com