Z Space

Oakland Theater Project and Z Space present

Mahâbhârata

by Geetha Reddy
Directed by Michael Socrates Moran

August 10-20 on Z Space’s Steindler Stage

“It is not a story. No, not like that. History. Unverifiable history… Old History. Legend. Itahasa.”

Oakland Theater Project and Z space present an encore of Geetha Reddy’s “totally epic” (KQED) 2019 Mahâbhârata, featuring OTP Company Member J Jha in a bold, one-person retelling of the ancient text, reimagined and expanded for Z Space's Stendler Stage. Dating from around 800 BCE, the great Indian epic boasts 100,000 verses and a cast of thousands, and is told anew to each generation of Indian children in a version that speaks to the time in which they are living. From tales of triumphant warriors to tantalizing histories woven among the battles; from boundaries broken to pathways blazed—don’t miss this audience favorite, which examines the nature of conflict, betrayal, and victory through a contemporary lens, and recounts the history of a cosmic civil war in the hope that humanity will learn not to repeat it. 

Show Schedule

Thursday, August 10 – Preview – 7:30pm
Friday, August 11 – Opening – 7:30pm
Saturday, August 12 – 7:30pm
Sunday, August 13 - 2:00pm
Thursday, August 17 – 7:30pm
Friday, August 18 – 7:30pm
Saturday, August 19 – 7:30pm
Sunday, August 20 – 2:00pm 

Biographies

Geetha Reddy is a playwright and filmmaker working in the Bay Area. Her plays include Mahābhārata (Oakland Theatre Project) Far, Far Better Things (Shotgun Players/ TheatreFirst), Hela (with Lauren Gunderson, TheatreFirst), Safe House (SF Playhouse), Blastosphere (with Aaron Loeb, CentralWorks). Geetha’s plays Me Given You, Girl in a Box, and On a Wonderverse  were part of the Playwright’s Foundation’s ‘In the Rough’ reading series. Safe House and On a Wonderverse were featured in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has been commissioned by TheatreWorks, SFPlayhouse, Oakland Theatre Project, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, the Gerbode Foundation, and PlayGround (3). Her plays have also appeared in the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the Santa Rosa Quickies festival, the Best of PlayGround Festival, the Just Theatre Lab series, the Crowded Fire Matchbox series, and the Theatreworks New Works Festival. Her short film Obit appeared at LA Shorts, NY Indie Fest, Bend Film Festival, the GI Film Festival and many others. Geetha is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and alumni Resident Playwright at the Playwright’s Foundation.

Michael Socrates Moran (Director, Oakland Theater Project Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director) Michael is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Oakland Theater Project. He has led the organization to critical acclaim and produced and directed a number of award-winning productions since it opened in 2012. Michael earned a BFA in theater arts from Boston University and an MFA in directing from the University of California, San Diego. His directing credits with the OTP include the West Coast premieres of Dance of the Holy Ghosts by Marcus Gardley and TO THE BONE by Lisa Ramirez, the world premieres of Rashomon and Pool of Unknown Wonders by Philip Kan Gotanda, and such classics such as Death of a Salesman, The Grapes of Wrath, Othello, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Michael is also an award-winning actor and a faculty member in the theater department at the University of California, Berkeley.

J Jha (Storyteller) J is trans, gender non-conforming, asylee and part of the 2014 graduating Class of the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington. She has played at Bay Area Children's Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory's TGF, California Shakespeare Theatre, Golden Thread, Marin Theatre Company, Oakland Theater Project, Playground SF, and Word for Word among others. He returns with Mahâbhârata, a solo-telling of the great Indian epic, adapted by Geetha Reddy, a South Asian-American playwright, where the re-telling intentionally presents the non-cis gendered male perspective that continues to and has otherwise dominated this conversation for thousands of Hindu years. They hope you enjoy this conversation. Pranam.