Madhuri Shekar's Queen to Play Long Wharf Theatre and A.R.T./New York

The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) has announced the inaugural production of the NAATCO National Partnership Project: Madhuri Shekar's Queen will run May 17th through June 5th at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre before moving to off-Broadway's A.R.T./New York June 10th through July 2nd.

According to a press description, "Queen follows PhD candidates Sanam and Ariel who have spent the better part of the last decade exhaustively researching vanishing bee populations across the globe. Just as these close friends are about to publish a career-defining paper, Sanam stumbles upon an error in their calculations, which could cause catastrophic damage to their reputations, careers, and friendship. Now, Sanam is confronted with an impossible choice: look the other way or stand by her principles and accept the consequences? Queen is a provocative portrayal of brilliant women confronting inconvenient truths."

The cast features Ben Livingston, Keshav Moodliar, Stephanie Janssen, and Avanthika Srinivasan. Aneesha Kudtarkar directs.

Queen will have scenic design by Junghhyun Georgia Lee, costume design by Phuong Nguyen with Assistant Costume Designer Kyle Artone, and lighting design by Yuki Nakase Link with Assistant Lighting Designer Jackie Fox. Sound design is by Daniela Hart and Associate Sound Designers Bailey Trierweiler and Noel Nichols.

Queen launches the NAATCO National Partnership Project (NNPP), a new initiative to establish relationships with theaters around the country to develop and implement strategies for including Asian American theater artists, technicians, and administrators in their practices.