Berkeley Repertory Theatre recently announced that award-winning Indian film director Mira Nair will bring her exuberant and sumptuous Monsoon Wedding to the stage in this highly anticipated world premiere musical based on the 2001 Bollywood hit.Monsoon Wedding is the perfect storm starts brewing when family members from around the world descend on Delhi for a nonstop four-day celebration of an arranged marriage between a modern upper middle-class Indian family’s only daughter and an American guy she’s never met. But the bride is having an affair, her father’s financial troubles deepen, and dark family secrets surface. The forecast calls for drama, love, hope, laughs and a whole lot of rain.“I have always envisioned Monsoon Wedding as a fully fleshed out musical. The overlapping stories, fast-paced, rich dialogue combined with terrific musical numbers are perfect for a stage production. But at its core it has a fantastic story, and to be working with Berkeley Rep to help tell that story just adds to the excitement. I know the end result will be something terrific.” says Nair in a statement from Berkeley Rep, one of the region’s major theatre companies, based in downtown Berkeley.Nair has recently received the Irving M. Levin Directing Award from the San Francisco Film Society at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival. The festival also featured a conversation with Nair at the Castro Theatre including a screening of Monsoon Wedding.“Mira Nair has brilliantly bridged American and South Asian film traditions for more than 30 years, and it is a distinct pleasure to award her with the Film Society’s highest honour for directing,” I can’t think of anyone who better embodies the spirit of internationalism, independence and passionate storytelling that defines our Festival, and I can’t wait to celebrate her with a screening of one of her greatest films and to get an early look at what she’s working on next,” says SFFS Executive Director Noah Cowan.Monsoon Wedding joins the previously announced 2016-17 season, which includes It Can’t Happen Here, based on Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 classic novel adapted by Taccone and screenwriter Bennett S. Cohen and helmed by award-winning director Lisa Peterson; Jeff Augustin’s The Last Tiger in Haiti, a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse and directed by Joshua Kahan Brody; and the return of Kneehigh with the U.S. premiere of 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, in association with Kneehigh and Birmingham Repertory Theatre and helmed by Emma Rice.After a successful Broadway run, the irreverent comedy Hand to God, directed by David Ivers, will have its West Coast premiere; and Roe, a new play by Lisa Loomer and a coproduction with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Arena Stage, will be performed next spring.“Mira Nair is a brilliant filmmaker I have long admired. She is a special, dynamic, and charismatic artist, as well as a great visionary. She brings a distinct passion and voice to the independent film world. I know her spirt and talent will easily translate to the stage. Monsoon Wedding is one of my favourite films and to have the opportunity to bring it to the stage in the form of a musical is really something to be excited about,” says Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone.Mira Nair was born and raised in Rourkela, India, and went on to study at Delhi and Harvard universities. She began as an actress before segueing to make documentaries. Her narrative feature debut, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Camera d'Or and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. A resourceful and determined independent filmmaker who casts unknowns alongside Hollywood stars, Nair has directed Mississippi Masala (1991), The Perez Family (1995), Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), Hysterical Blindness (2002), Vanity Fair (2004), The Namesake (2006), Amelia (2009), and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012). Her upcoming film, Queen of Katwe, about a rural Ugandan girl with an aptitude for chess, stars Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo.Follow@ARTINFOIndia
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