PLAYS

Manatee on Mars

The Fourth Messenger

Baby Taj

Let My Enemy Live Long!

Brigadista

Miss America's Daughters

Cody and Sonia become best friends in preschool. In kindergarten, when Cody receives an autism spectrum diagnosis, it does nothing to weaken their bond. As the kids grow older, however, Sonia’s mother, Catherine, becomes increasingly uncomfortable with their friendship, until finally, when Cody and Sonia are in sixth grade, Catherine decides to get Cody out of her daughter’s life. When Catherine and her husband begin using their privilege and wealth to try to force the district to remove Cody from their public school, Cody’s mom Margo fights back, hard. By turns painful, tender, and comic, MANATEE ON MARS tells a story of children caught in a quagmire of adult prejudices, miscommunications, and maddening bureacracy. Through it all, Cody finds his balance by viewing the world through the lens of his favorite cartoon series, The Adventures of Floaty Potato, the exploits of a young manatee adrift in a bewildering ocean .

MANATEE ON MARS has had developmental workshop support from the National Winter Playwrights Retreat and the University of Michigan’s Residential College and an online production by Remote Theater.

A MUSICAL

Book and Lyrics by Tanya Shaffer
Music and Additional Lyrics by Vienna Teng

What if the Buddha were a woman, living in our times? In this captivating new musical, Mama Sid is a modern-day “awakened one” with a worldwide following. But a determined young woman seeks to unearth Mama Sid’s mysterious past, exposing long-held secrets that could change everything. Epic and intimate, comic and profound, The Fourth Messenger investigates what it means to be both enlightened and human. Addictive melodies and subtle, intricate harmonies bring the story vividly to life, adding depth and resonance that linger long after the lights come up.

Read about the history of THE FOURTH MESSENGER in my personal essay,

The Human Experience: “The Fourth Messenger” and Me

View a concert performance of The Fourth Messenger

  **One of the Must-See Shows of the 2017 New York Musical Festival** 

Time Out New York       •       Playbill       •       Spoiled NYC

The romantic Taj Mahal is the next assignment for Rachel, an American travel writer whose failed romances have led her to ask: Why not have the baby she craves - on her own? She finds unexpected answers amidst the glittering legacies of India's past and the noisy complexity of its present, discovering new truths about love, family, and commitment. Alive with the vivid sounds and vibrant colors of a remarkable country, this comic tale of mischievous matchmaking raises provocative questions about love, friendship, family, and what makes a person ready to be a parent.

**One of the Top Ten Shows of the Year!**

•       San Francisco Chronicle       •       Oakland Tribune       •       San Jose Mercury News      •

MORE PRESS FOR "BABY TAJ"

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LET MY ENEMY LIVE LONG!

Let My Enemy Live Long! tells the true story of Tanya’s journey up West Africa's Niger River to the legendary city of Timbuktu.  When a tragic boat accident leaves passengers stranded in a marshy, mosquito-ridden no-man's-land, they travel by canoe, relying on the generosity of nomadic fisher tribes for food and shelter.  An unlikely friendship triangle springs up between Tanya (the lone foreigner on the boat), an aspiring minister named Yaya, and a recent ex-convict named Touré. Let My Enemy Live Long! is a complex, moving, often funny exploration of friendship across race, class, and cultural lines. Initially a solo performance accompanied by a soundscape of African instruments, this piece can easily be adapted into a multi-actor play.

**Winner! Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award for Solo Performance"**

BRIGADISTA

In this satirical coming-of-age tale, Debbie Sanders, an enthusiastic young North American activist, on a darkly comic journey to Nicaragua in 1990 to pick coffee, observe the elections, and “give something back.” Dreams and reality intertwine as Debbie is repeatedly forced to confront the sharp contradictions inherent in her role as a political tourist in war-weary Nicaragua. Coming face to face with her limits and preconceptions, Debbie wrestles cynicism and disillusionment, finally learning, as a phantom Sandino advises her, to “fill yourself from your own well.”

MISS AMERICA'S DAUGHTERS

How would Miss America handle motherhood? As she began to age, how would she feel about a youthful doppelgänger walking around, reminding her of who she’d once been? And what would it feel like to be Miss America’s daughter? Would she admire her mother? Envy her? Rebel?  Miss America’s Daughers is a cabaret-style pastiche of music and monologue which tells the story of an aging Miss America coaching her recalcitrant daughter on how to follow in her footsteps. Inspired by the poem “Miss America Comes Across her Daughter,” by Pamela White Hadas, Miss America’s Daughters switches perspectives from mother to daughter and back again, showing the daughter at various stages of life, from infancy to old age.

Banner photo of Baby Taj at TheatreWorks, by David Allen. L to R: Sunita Param, Samir Younis, Anil Margsahayam.