THE SQUARE ROOT OF A SONNET
at City Lights Theater
Written by Nilanjan P. Choudhury
Directed by Ranjita Chakravarty
Apr 29 to May 1, 2022
City Lights Theater
529 S Second St, San Jose, CA 95112
Please note that vaccinations and masks are required for this show. Please read City Lights’ Covid Protocols before purchasing your tickets. We are using City Lights Theater’s ticketing system for this show. BADCo Season ticket and Flex pass codes will not be valid.
There are four shows:
April 29, 8pm | April 30, 2pm | April 30, 8pm | May 1, 2pm
The play has been very popular among students interested in science. Discounted tickets for students are available (you must show your student ID at the theater).
The digital program for the show is available here.
SYNOPSIS
In the summer of 1930, a nineteen year old Indian boy boarded the steamship SS Pilsna to sail from Bombay to Cambridge. During the sea voyage, he formulated the fundamental equations that govern the death of stars.
The boy's name was Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the brilliant Indian-American astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1983. Chandra's discovery opened the gateway to the new science of black holes which flourished in the 1960's and 70's under the likes of Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose.
But Chandra himself had to wait for over forty years for his work to get the recognition that it deserved. His extraordinary discovery at the age of nineteen, was almost immediately suppressed. And the person responsible for it was Chandra's own guru and mentor - Sir Arthur Eddington, the foremost astrophysicist of the time.
Why did Eddington try to destroy Chandra? Eddington's actions have been a long-standing mystery in the annals of modern science. Was it because of professional rivalry, his religious beliefs or perhaps racial prejudice? Or was it something else?
The Square Root of a Sonnet is an attempt to answer these questions by exploring the complex relationship between two giants of modern astrophysics - Chandra and Eddington. It is a story of ambition, friendship and betrayal set against the back drop of the epoch-making events of the twentieth century - two world wars, the Indian freedom movement and above all, the birth of the new sciences of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Ages 12+ | 100 min
Before the performance, there will be a 5 min introduction to the history of the science of black holes by Raja GuhaThakurta, Professor & Department Chair, Astronomy & Astrophysics, UC Santa Cruz.
After the performance there will be a talkback with the director of the play, Ranjita Chakravarty, Raja GuhaThakurta and Artistic Director, Basab Pradhan.
The background of our poster is a computer-simulated image that shows a super massive black hole 2.7B light years from Earth, shredding a star that wandered too close. The data for the image was collected using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
PHOTOS
CAST
Basab Pradhan (Chandra)
Basab is a stage actor, director and playwright. His notable work as an actor includes Imam Saleem in The Invisible Hand, Nath in Kanyadaan, Chairman Rao in Not Equal To, Moolchand in Counter Offence, Salman in The Domestic Crusaders and Jairaj in Dance Like a Man. He has three full-length plays to his credit – Not Equal To, Greater Than and Divided By – and an Indian-American adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
Basab is the Artistic Director of Bay Area Drama Company.
Brian Levi
(Eddington)
Last seen as Ash in Greater Than, Brian is pleased to be in BAD Company and on the City Lights stage again. Most recently in Beckett’s Embers with Anton’s Well in Berkeley, Below Sycamore (Hezacate) at The Shelton in SF, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Vanya) at the Altarena Playhouse, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s Hamlet (Claudius), the acclaimed A View from the Bridge (Alfieri) at the Pear and PCSF’s Playoffs 2017 at The Exit, Brian has performed all over the Bay Area for many years with such theatres as Custom Made, Shelton, SF Olympians, SF Fringe, Golden Thread, Theatre Rhino, 3Girls, Southern Railroad, SpareStage, Playwrights’ Foundation, PlayGround, Hillbarn, Dragon, Douglas Morrisson, Pacifica Spindrift and Coastal Rep. Among some of his favorite roles are To Kill a Mockingbird (Atticus Finch), All My Sons (Chris), The Fantasticks (El Gallo), The Diary of Anne Frank (Otto), A Streetcar Named Desire (Mitch), The Three Sisters (Vershinin), The Birthday Party (McCann), Deathtrap (Sidney), Noises Off (Lloyd), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (The Player), Crossing Delancey (Sam) and Benefactors (David). Brian is a long-time TBA member and proud recipient of a 2016 TBA Ensemble Award (PCSF Sheherezade’s Last Tales), 2017 Ensemble Nomination (PCSF Playoffs) and 2015 Ensemble Nomination (Pear Slices). Brian was also heavily involved with theatre while at Rice University, including productions directed by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He wishes to thank his family and current teachers, Peter Allas and Robert Zimmerman at ZA Studios in SF, along with his community of scene partners for their support all through the pandemic. www.facebook.com/brian.levi.actor
Vibeka Sen Sisodiya (Lalitha)
Vibeka is a communications professional, and in her spare time, a writer, singer, and aspiring actor. Theater was at the top of the bucket list, and sheltering in place provided the perfect backdrop for dipping her toe first in Zoom, and then live plays. She is thrilled to play Lalitha, Chandrasekhar's brilliant and fiercely championing partner of nearly 60 years.
Sara Trupski
(Winifred)
A lover of the performing arts from an early age, Sara made her theatrical debut as Mouse #6 in Explorer Preschool's production of The Nutcracker. She has gone on to perform with many theatre companies in the Bay Area including, the California Theatre Center, the Renegade Theatre, the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival, and Silicon Valley Shakespeare. Her favorite roles include: Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Peggy Day in "The Women," Viola in "Twelfth Night," Jim Hawkins in "Treasure Island," Lady Macduff in "Macbeth," the White Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland," and Gwendolyn in "The Importance of Being Earnest." She has taught theatre for the California Theatre Center, Peninsula Youth Theatre, the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival, the Dragon Theatre, and Casa Circulo Cultural where she is currently the teatro maestro. An avid cosplayer and costumer, Sara has designed costumes for: The Addams Family, The Little Mermaid, The Great Gatsby, Footloose, Matilda, Almost Maine, and Shakespeare Abridged. Sara is thrilled to be making her debut with the Bay Area Drama Company and to join the wonderful cast of The Square Root of a Sonnet.
Ranjita Chakravarty (Director)
Ranjita is excited to be directing Nilanjan Choudhury’s The Square Root of a Sonnet for BADCo at City Lights. During the shut-down Ranjita kept up her theatrical pursuits on Zoom and directed Poile Sengupta’s Alipha for BADCo. Her stage directorial credits include two Tagore classics and Madhuri Shekhar’s A Nice Indian Boy with Enacte. Ranjita has essayed many roles in the last two decades such as Ratan Ki Ma in Asghar Wajahat’s Jis Lahore, Marjorie in Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, Dadi in Singh-Wadhera’s The Parting to name a few. Her filmography includes Perfect Mismatch with Anupam Kher and Boman Irani and many indie short films. Most recently she was thrilled to book a guest star role in Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever (Season 2). Ranjita is forever grateful to her children Arjun and Alisha who encourage her and to Stanford University where she works during the day, so she can be a thespian by night.
Richa Garg
(Stage Manager & Producer)
Richa has been part of several BADCo productions. She portrayed the role of Ismat in State of Denial, Vimala in Boiled Beans on Toast, Woman in Alipha, Ranjana in The Actor and Pratibha in Our Stories. She was the mask designer and on the technical crew for the Zoom production, Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. She recently wrote and directed her first project, a short, motivational film, Apna Time Aayega, which received awards in several film festivals. She is thrilled to be making her debut as a Stage Manager and Producer for The Square Root of a Sonnet.
Outside theatre, Richa also enjoys dancing and has received training in Indian Classical dance, Jazz and belly dancing. Her daytime job is as a software engineer.
Raja GuhaThakurta (Scientific Adviser)
Raja GuhaThakurta is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Astronomy/Astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz. He studies the formation and evolution of galaxies large and small. He is the founder and faculty director of the successful Science Internship Program, a program in which high school students are mentored by UCSC researchers and work on cutting-edge STEM research projects. He is deeply committed to bringing STEM opportunities to indigenous students and educators around the world. He received his Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University in 1989 and his B.Sc. in Physics from St. Xavier's College in Kolkata, India in 1983. In his (non-existent!) spare time, he dabbles in pencil and oil portraiture.
Sruti Sarathy (Composer)
Sruti Sarathy is a versatile Carnatic violinist and vocalist based in Chennai and the Bay Area. Her music brings out the voice of the Indian violin in a contemporary and imaginative way. A Fulbright Scholar and graduate of Stanford University, Sruti collaborates with Indian classical musicians in festivals across the world. She received the "Best Violinist" award from the Madras Music Academy in 2019 and 2020, and she regularly composes and performs music for dance and theater works.
Sruti has composed the music for two Zoom productions and an audio play for BADCo.