Theatre – Jefe's House

I had an absolute blast last week as a Legacy Fulbright Ambassador giving a Fulbright Talk to faculty and international education administrators at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, telling them about my own experiences and urging them to apply. You too, US faculty and admins! Applications for the ’26-’27 cycle are available.

Many thanks to Director of the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research Dana Whitco and Administrator Kristel Baldoz, and Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing Chair Joe Vinciguerra for arranging it.

Stand For Fulbright

Certain aspects of the Fulbright Program are currently “paused”. Today, many former Fulbrighters and their supporters #StandforFulbright on Capitol Hill and meet with Congress to ask for their continued bipartisan support for the Fulbright Program—a vital investment in U.S. diplomacy, security, and economic growth. Fulbright strengthens America’s leadership by fostering global partnerships, innovation, and opportunity.

We’re asking Congress to #StandForFulbright and support this program that builds a smarter, stronger, and more prosperous America for generations to come.

Get involved at: https://fulbright.org/advocacy/

You?

Applications open 2/18/25.

Start your Fulbright journey here.

Speak

On August 9th, 2024, a post-graduate trainee doctor (India’s term for a medical resident or fellow) was found dead, semi-nude, in a seminar room of Kolkata’s state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The medical examination revealed the victim was sexually assaulted and murdered. No FIR (First Information Report, a police complaint) was filed for 14 hours.

Since that time, protests have raged in cities across India to change the country’s culture, doctors have gone on strike (except for medical emergencies) to demand better hospital security, a civilian volunteer has been arrested and charged with the crime, and the head of the hospital and a police officer have been arrested over accusations of negligence and tampering with evidence. Here is a timeline of these events.

I am so heartened to see so many people across India and in Indian communities around the world, including in the US and Canada, making their voices heard in a global demand for change. I felt condescending to “weigh in” in the immediate aftermath as though anyone cares what I think as an American man, but I have been watching the events unfold with deep interest, and I’m buoyed that so many across the globe aren’t reading this gruesome story in the paper, then shrugging it off and clicking past it to check their daily horoscope.

Here is an excellent piece written by my Kolkata colleague, filmmaker and journalist Debarati Gupta, about a group of Kolkata theatre artists’ recent response to the tragedy.

This horrific, infuriating societal curse and the unspeakable crimes it yields aren’t unique to India. Something similar is going on in France where protests have raged in 30 cities after a husband paid men to sexually assault his wife repeatedly over the course of a decade.

In Kenya, Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei was burned to death by her boyfriend, the latest in a string of similar cases there.

What can you do? After standing speechless, aghast and powerless at first, one thing you can do is take a lead from these inspiring ordinary citizens around the world and, at the very least, talk about it to those around you. Make your feelings known to your family, friends and colleagues.

Congratulations, Vijay

I was honored this week to be asked to introduce dramatist and lifelong theatre practitioner Vijay Padaki when he was honored by a group of his former business students from the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore. They organized the event to recognize his recent Lifetime Achievement Award presented to him by ASSITEJ, a global network of children’s theatre practitioners, at their annual Congress which was held this year in Havana, Cuba.

Transcript of my spoken remarks:

A wise person once wrote, “A man often finds his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.” Put differently, life is full of surprises and unexplored paths inviting you in new directions.

In 1979 while I was a 12-year-old growing up in southwestern Virginia, Vijay Padaki was teaching Organizational Behavior at IIM-B. Who would have thought that Vijay, in addition to his background in management and psychology, was also actively involved in running, and in continually growing, the Bangalore Little Theatre, which has now been going strong for more than 60 years. It is Bangalore’s oldest nonprofit theatre.

I have never met a wiser, more astute, more dedicated theatre artist than Vijay Padaki. Mine and Vijay’s paths first crossed in 2012 thanks to the power of the worldwide web, when he reached out to me about my play Tesla’s Letters.