Letters to My Grandma

Letters to my Grandma, is a beautiful one-woman play by Anusree Roy that explores an intergenerational relationship between a South Asian-Canadian woman and her aging grandmother in India. The play flows between the past and the present, as Malobee discovers her grandmother’s fight to survive the 1947 India-Pakistan partition, unearthing layers of multi-generational hatred and fear between Hindus and Muslims. These letters tie both women together, as Malobee navigates her life in Canada, with her new hybridized, immigrant, identity.

Letters to My Grandma

Playwright: Anusree Roy
Director: Malika Daya
Actor: Kiru Srikanth
Stage Manager: Angela Mae Bago
Designer: Mae Smith
Dialect Coach: Sanchari Sur

Special thanks to Anusree Roy for trusting me with her story and being so generous with her offerings of her art, time, and knowledge. Special thanks to Katrina Darychuk for her mentorship and unwavering faith in my abilities throughout my time at the Directors Lab. To the Paprika producing team for having our backs through it all. To Rahaf, my Directors Lab partner for sharing your passion with me. To my amazing team of collaborators, it’s truly been a pleasure and privilege to create art, take risks, and share this experience with you. And finally, a special thanks to my family and God, for loving me unconditionally and giving me the space to grow, learn, and live a purposeful life.

Letters to my Grandma is performed by arrangement with Ian Arnold, Catalyst TCM Inc. www.catalysttcm.com

Malika Daya (she/her) is an emerging, multi-disciplinary, artist and community engaged arts facilitator. Malika is a director, actor, writer and is trained in Northern Indian classical, Kathak dancing. Most recently, she was working abroad in Malawi with the Art and Global Health Centre Africa and is passionate about using participatory arts as a vehicle for community development. As a third-generation, South Asian-East African – Canadian, Malika is fascinated by stories of the diaspora and how living between cultures produces its own sets of challenges and narratives.

In her undergraduate pursuits at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Malika is studying International Development, Sociocultural Anthropology, and Theatre and Performance. She is drawn to the intersections of these disciplines, inspired by her experiences working on various productions like ‘We are Proud to Present’ with Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, ‘The Shell’ with Nikki Shaffeeullah, and directing ‘This is War’ by Hannah Moscovitch.

Mae Smith (she/her) is a theatre artist working out Ontario’s Niagara Region and is a member of Paprika’s Design Lab. Mae has previously been a stagehand, props designer, lighting designer, and a freelance theatre critic. She is extremely interested in creating bold images that audiences can keep with themselves for years to come and she loves colours. She looks forward to collaborating with everyone else at the Paprika Festival. More of Mae’s work can be found at: maesmith.work