“Among the titles that caught my eye is Priyanka Shetty’s docu-theater solo #Charlottesville, about the events that roiled the Virginia city in August 2017. Borrowing from Anna Deavere Smith, Shetty built her text from interviews.”
-Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times
Priyanka made her Off-Broadway debut with her solo play #CHARLOTTESVILLE at the coveted 59E59 Theaters’ “East to Edinburgh” Festival in New York City this summer. This is the second of three plays in her Triptych of solos that reveals the harrowing and heart-wrenching experiences of the residents of Charlottesville, Virginia who were present as counter-protestors at the white-supremacist “Unite the Right” rally on August 11th and 12th, 2017. Many survived and were seriously injured in the violent car attack that led to the tragic death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Speaking about why this piece was chosen from a significant pool of submissions, Associate Curator at 59E59 Theaters' Jessica Hart says, “Priyanka's profound text is moving and thought-provoking. Her powerhouse performance made this an easy choice. This solo show held me captivated from the first silhouetted moment to its poignant, final breath.”
#CHARLOTTESVILLE is a solo play about the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally and the events that took place between August 11-12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. It is constructed verbatim from interviews with local residents impacted by the events and its aftermath and highlights their real-life experiences as they dealt with the crisis and continue to find ways to move forward as individuals and as a community. The play explores deep-seated racial inequities that have existed historically in Charlottesville and how it escalated to one of the most terrible manifestations of racial violence during the ‘Summer of Hate.’
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