Excerpts, talkbacks and Q&A with special guests
providing health and healing education and advocacy.
Wednesday
March 3, 2021 at 7:30pm
Dipti Mehta
HONOUR: Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan
Memoirs of Geisha meets Slumdog Millionaire in this vibrant award-winning coming-of-age story set in the red-light districts of Mumbai. With original music, colours of India and a riveting story that is sure to remind you of Bollywood, Honour is a true experience of India and its magnanimous culture. The piece deals with a mother-daughter duo, and examines facets of inter-generational prostitution and why it exists. It also addresses important issues of sex trafficking and human rights.
Watch Below
‘Beautiful and devastating’ (Time Out NYC)
‘Funny, sad, educational, and fiery, valuable example of theatre with social conscience’ (Ashley Judd)
ABOUT THE PERFORMER
Dipti Mehta is an Indian American actress/writer best known for her portrayal of Reina in Life! Camera Action, which brought her multiple international awards and nominations, and her award winning solo show HONOUR: Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan.
Dipti believes in theater as a powerful means for social transformation. Desire to make a difference through art is a strong undercurrent running through all of Dipti’s works. Central to her artistic practice is the need to give voice to those who have none. It is in this light that she created HONOUR- to give voice and a face to brothel dwellers, bridging their humanity with that of her audiences.
HONOUR has given Dipti a powerful platform to advocate for women’s rights and speak on wide-ranging issues pertaining to inequity and gender. Dipti was commissioned to write Priya and the lost girls, the third chapter in the comic book series Priyas Shakti, that launched worldwide in November 2019. The comic focuses on the issues of human rights and sex trafficking and raises awareness about the stigma that trafficking victims face. The comic has received wide media coverage from platforms like Al-Jazeera, BBC-India, BBC-London, ABC-Australia, Huffington Post among others.
Dipti has a Doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology and worked as a research scientist in the field of prostate cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for 10 years. She was a creative writer for a virtual assistant at a fortune 500 company. She is also the founder and owner of a boutique skincare company called Dees Apothecary.
For more information visit www.diptimehta.com
TRAILER
PRESS
INFORMATION
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Website for the show is www.honourcmc.com
Comic book website is www.priyashakti.com
Al Jazeera article is here.
Nonprofits to check out
Kranti https://www.kranti-india.org
Prajwala https://www.prajwalaindia.com
Butterflies https://www.butterflieschildrights.org
Looking for local resources in the Bay Area:https://southbayendtrafficking.org/your-mission/
https://southbayendtrafficking.org/resources/
ABOUT SOLO ARTS HEAL
SOLO ARTS HEAL, a weekly MarshStream Public Broadcast Platform program, presents empowering performances about healing and resilience. Through hosted interviews, talkbacks and audience Q&A, the Solo Arts Heal program provides transformative experiences, education, community outreach and advocacy through stories that celebrate the healing power of the arts.
About the Hosts
Stephanie Weisman founded and has been the Artistic/Executive Director of The Marsh since its inception in 1989. Under her leadership, The Marsh has grown from a one-night-a-week performance series to producing 600-700 shows annually on its four stages. In addition to its developing work performance series, The Marsh’s programs include: artist-in-residencies, after-school and summer workshops for youth both onsite and in 5 SFUSD, and performance development classes, workshops and Performance Initiatives. In 1996 Stephanie spearheaded the drive to successfully buy their 12,000 sq ft facility on Valencia Street in San Francisco. This increased The Marsh’s programs four-fold as well as provided for a stable Bay Area arts organization. In 2010, The Marsh added a second venue in Berkeley. In 2020, Stephanie initiated MarshStream. She is currently at work developing her opera, Aphrodisia, with dancer, Wei Wang
Gail Schickele champions arts & sciences taking her left and right brain wherever she travels. As an arts manager, consultant, and producer dba SAGE Artists, she convened an ‘Arts Heals’ group of solo artists at APAP 2020 whose unique stories of physical and mental challenges evince the healing power of The Arts. The COVID lockdown inspired Stephanie Weisman to create SOLO ARTS HEAL to share these outstanding stories of resilience, dramatic and comedic, for the entertainment and benefit of communities everywhere. Gail’s expertise in marketing, management, booking and production has served various theaters, festivals and events nationwide. Trained as a journalist in New York and Colorado, Gail has covered Colorado state politics and the environmental landscape of the Rockies. Environmental science inspires her educational and advocacy work in California with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, and for the League of Women Voters for which she’s worked as an administrator and reporter on environmental issues Including legislation, climate science outreach, and co-chair of an environmental speakers series. Gail is honored to host SOLO ARTS HEAL where artists powerful stories offer audiences great performance and ‘informance’ on issues related to health and the environment, inexorably linked.
Kristin Scheel, has worked in production and development at The Marsh since 2018. She is a freelance writer and member of Open Windows art cooperative in the Bayview. She has a background in social work with the State of Oregon and program management experience as a small business owner and preschool director in San Francisco. She has an MFA from Mills College, and serves on the boards of Guerrilla Cartography and PATHSTAR.