Archaeology of Nostalgia is a collage of Amrita Sher-Gil’s life and works, mixed with three generations of women’s stories, memories, and imaginings of India and America. Amrita Sher-Gil was an Indian-Hungarian painter who found herself at odds with the West and India both personally and artistically. This play traces her life’s journey, interspersed with moments from the lives of three women who similarly exist in a liminal space of home, language, and self: one who lives in India, her daughter who has moved to the United States, and her daughter’s daughter, growing up as a second-generation immigrant. Moments of Archaeology of Nostalgia depart from concrete reality—the rules of the play’s universe stray from those of our own. The piece melds photographs, paintings, and reality to grapple with questions of belonging and identity.

When the great world

For the first time

Asks, “_______________________________________?”

What will I say?

Sylvy has never stepped outside of the safety and comfort of her routine. But when the opportunity for adventure shows up at her door, she goes on a quest to find a heron that is the last of its species. Opening herself to the world for the first time, Sylvy finds herself in the midst of a rapidly disappearing forest at odds with the sea, and must grapple with the question—and consequences—of her own inaction. An exploration of climate catastrophe, the ecological phenomenon of ghost forests, and the seeming impossibilities and possibilities of change. 

Co-written with Blake McCarty and Shellina Heffner

Inspired by the words and reflections of local artists and community members, when the bubble bursts is a meditation on human connection and impermanence. Simultaneously a celebration of resilience and a reflection of adversity, the performance blended music, movement, and text to reignite the magic of live theater after a long hiatus caused by the pandemic. This ‘happening’ was produced in partnership with La Jolla Playhouse. 

A story that is part myth, part made up: High up on a mountaintop a beautiful woman in a floor length orange skirt dances with the Zopilote, a Latin American symbol of death and rebirth. When the dance is complete, the Zopilote dies, the woman becomes the Zopilote, and a new woman appears. They dance and the cycle repeats again and again and again. In this audio play, the audience, referred to as "you," starts on a journey accompanied by Zopilote, and encounter Hortensia, Azucena, and Ana -- three women who are at the crossroads of their own deaths, and each know acutely what it feels like to accumulate pain and to fade a little bit with each new sorrow in this unending dance with mortality.

To listen to the audio play, click here