Rising Circle

Our Mission
Collective Members
RC History
Board of Directors

Our Mission

Rising Circle Theater Collective is dedicated to broadening the scope of storytelling on the American stage. We accomplish this by providing an artistic home for artists of color that empowers them to seek out unheard stories of people of color – inspiring the creation of theater that challenges cultural misperceptions in an effort to bridge social divides.

The Collective

Deepa Purohit (Artistic Director)

Deepa Purohit co-founded Rising Circle Theater Collective in 2000 with Rod Bowen. As the Artistic Director she has overseen the development and/or production of 16 original plays by playwrights of color, three of which she co-wrote with Sanjit De Silva (Pulling the Lever-2004, American Family Project- 2007 and Grace – 2010). Grace, was a 2010 Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference Finalist and a 2010 Lark Play Development Center Playwrights Week finalist. Writing: Exiled (one-act), LotusMart Ohio (ten minute play), and Flight (full-length) through Rising Circle’s 2011 INKtank Playlab. In addition to her work as a producer and playwright, Deepa acts in both television and film. BA – Northwestern University, MPH – Columbia University. 1992 Teach For America alumna. She currently works as the Director of Voice and Speech Coaching at Teach For America and is the CEO of her own coaching business (storytelling, public speaking and speechwriting), Finding Your Authentic Voice.

Sanjit De Silva (Associate Artistic Director)

Sanjit De Silva is a seasoned actor and emerging playwright in New York City. His writing credits consist of such plays as Irish Eyes, Pulling the Lever (Co-written with Deepa Purohit, Dir. Rod Bowen. Published in Plays & Playwrights, 2006), American Family Project (Co-written with Deepa Purohit) and Grace (Co-written with Deepa Purohit. Dir. Nandita Shenoy). Sanjit received his MFA from New York University’s prestigious Graduate Acting Program, led by the acclaimed Zelda Fichandler and where he studied Acting under Master Teacher Ron Van Lieu. Sanjit has his BA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he double-majored in Biology and Performing Arts. Sanjit’s various stage credits include: WarHorse (Tony-Award Best Play, Lincoln Center Theater); The Little Foxes (NYTW, Dir. Ivo Von Hove); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hartford Stage, Dir. Lisa Peterson); Masked (DR2, Dir. Ami Dayan); Macbeth (NYSF/Public Theatre, Dir. Moises Kaufman); Measure for Measure (NYSF/Public Theatre, Dir. Mary Zimmerman); Slipped Disc (HERE, Dir. Simone Blattner); In The Heart of America (Studio Tisch); and Indian Ink (Quantum Theatre). Sanjit lists several film credits, such as The Girl is in Trouble, The Company Men, August, Arranged, and American Desi, while his television credits include shows such as Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, The Unusuals, I’m Paige Wilson (Pilot for CW, Dir. Rod Lurie), Law & Order, Law & Order: TBJ, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: CI, Six Degrees, and Jonny Zero. Sanjit is a member of the Actors Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA.

Charity Ballard (Collective Member)

Charity Henson-Ballard Charity Ballard, actor and emerging playwright, lives in New York City with her husband, Donald. Her first full-length play, The Quiver of Children (Dir. Louis Scheeder and published in Out of Time & Place: An Anthology of Plays by the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab, Volume 1, 2010) was originally developed in part with the support of Voice & Vision Theater ENVISION Retreat for Women Theater Artists at Bard College where she was selected to be one of 2008’s core artists. Quiver, set in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was later selected to be a part of Voice and Vision’s 2008 Play Development Showcase at the Ohio Theatre. Currently in the works is Tower In a Garden, which was originally showcased as Muddy the Waters, a short piece at the World Financial Center in collaboration with the Women’s Project and River to River Festival 2009 (Dir. Heide Carlsen), but is currently in development with Rising Circle Theater Collective, and for which Charity is a recipient of the NYSCA Individual Artist Award. Her other works include The Great InActor Fantastic: Memoirs of a Blactress (Screenplay), Pete the Girl (2011 Eugene O’Neill Semi-Finalist), which was showcased in the 2010 PlayRISE Festival and the 2012 Women Center Stage Festival, and the second play in the Quiver cycle, The Deep Things of God. She is also the author of Little Strong Girl (Screenplay) and Anniversary. Charity’s vast television and stage credits include Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Rescue Me, Guiding Light, and Dance Mania Fantastic (Dir. Sasey Sealy. Winner of the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival –Short Film Category). Her stage credits include the American premiere of Luminosity (PlayMakers Repertory Theater, Dir. David Hammond), in which she won the 2004 Triangle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Drama, Caesar and Cleopatra (PlayMakers Repertory Theater, Dir. David Hammond), Grace (Nandita Shenoy, Studio Tisch), The Serpent Woman (Dir. Ruben Polendo, Theater Mitu/ NYU) and many, many others. Charity has conducted actor coaching and workshops on playwriting using critical approaches to language performativity and the utilization of the complete actor instrument at institutions such as Bard College and others. Charity received her Master’s in English with a concentration in Renaissance Literature and Psychoanalytic Theory from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Acting from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied under Master Teachers such as Ron Van Lieu and Debra Hecht . She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA, the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab, and is a friend to Voice and Vision Theater. To learn more about Charity Henson-Ballard’s literary works or to review her stage, commercial/VO and TV/film credits, visit www.charityhensonballard.com

Nancy Kim (Collective Member)

Nancy Kim, actor and emerging playwright, has been a part of Rising Circle Theater Collective since 2004. Nancy performed in Rising Circle’s American Family Project and was a co-Associate Producer for Pulling the Lever. Her solo show, How to Find My Inner Asian (Dir. Catherine Jhung) was developed and presented by Rising Circle Theater Collective and showcased in Rising Circle’s inaugural Q-Up as the impetus piece for the curriculum. Nancy’s passion for the arts sparked the development of Rising Circle’s Q-Up program, which is designed to inspire Asian and South-Asian females in the Queens borough to use theater as a means of self-expression and tool for building self-esteem. Nancy’s other original works include The Oriental Village and The Byung Sisters American Vaudeville Tryout. She has also worked with various theatre companies both on and off stage throughout New York City as well as assisted in producing numerous documentary and non-fiction programs for television.

Kareem Fahmy (Core Member)

Kareem Fahmy is Canadian-born director of Egyptian descent. He has worked extensively in new play development, classical theatre, and in the creation of adaptations for the stage. In Montreal, as founder and Artistic Director of The Alternate Theatre, he directed the Canadian premieres of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus and Naomi Iizuka’s Language of Angels as well as Constance Congdon’s Tales of the Lost Formicans and Patrick Marber’s Closer. In New York he has developed and directed work with New York Theatre Workshop (Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellowship), Sundance Institute Theatre (PEN World Voices Series), Ensemble Studio Theatre and numerous independent companies. Selected NYC directing credits include Steven Levenson’s Seven Minutes in Heaven, Love Dr. Mueller (also adaptor), Don Juan Does New Jersey (adapted from Molière), Judith Thompson’s Lion in the Streets, Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Brecht’s Drums in the Night, Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class. As Assistant Director: Once (NYTW, John Tiffany, director), Tony Kushner’s The Illusion (Signature Theatre, Michael Mayer, director), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Good Boys and True (Second Stage, Scott Ellis, director), William Saroyan’s The Cave Dwellers (The Pearl Theater). He is the recipient of a Drama League Classical Fellowship with which he assisted on Red Bull Theater’s workshop production of Margaret: A Tyger’s Heart (Michael Sexton, director). Kareem is a proud member of The Claque, Rising Circle Theatre Collective, and is a Usual Suspect at NYTW. MFA: Columbia. www.KareemFahmy.com

Sevan K. Greene (Collective Member)

Sevan K. Greene Sevan Kaloustian Greene is an NYC-based Lebanese-Armenian/Pakistani actor and playwright. Gulf War, Part I Refugee. Member of The Public Theater’s 2011 Emerging Writers Group. Member of Rising Circle Theatre Collective’s 2010 InkTANK Writer’s Lab. NYTW 2011/2012 Teaching Artist at the Khalil Gibran Academy. William Saroyan 2010 Playwriting Prize Finalist. PlayPenn 2012 Conference Finalist. 2011 ATC New Voices Festival Finalist. Plays: Forgotten Bread, DOON, Say Something, Narrow Daylight, babel, In the Name of Silence, The Nihilism of Whoosh. Sevan’s work has been seen in Noor Theatre’s HIGHLIGHT series, the Public’s SPOTLIGHT series, the Arab-American Comedy Festival, at the Kraine Theatre in Under Consideration (“The Altared Saints”) and Holiday Stucco (“Unexpected-Beautiful”), in Access Theatre’s Access Works (“Unexpected-Beautiful”), Tiny Rhino 10-minute Play Festival (“A Jedi Shall Not Know Love. A Sith Shall Know Even Less.”), Mixed Phoenix Theatre, and |the claque|. Screenplays: N.Y.B., (in parentheses). Sevan is the founder of and a performer in NYC’s only Middle Eastern sketch group, Sketchy Arabs. As an actor: Lortel Award-Winning Betrayed (Culture Project, LATW, Kennedy Center, PBS), NYTW’s Aftermath, Prospect’s Mapquest, FringeNYC’s hit Perez Hilton Saves the Universe…. TV/Film: The Dictator, “Blue Bloods,” “Damages,” The Stoop, If the Lie Succeeds, “M.O.N.Y.” www.sevangreene.com

Monet Hurst-Mendoza (Core Member)

Monet Hurst-Mendoza is an NYC-based playwright and director from Los Angeles, CA. Her plays include The Annex, Homecoming, (Bare Bones Ensemble, 2010 Work(s) In Progress Festival), In The Waiting Line, Shangri-L.A., Lilia, Jane’s Room (Looking Glass Theatre, 2010 Spring Writer/Director Forum), and Veil’d, (Rising Circle Theater Collective, INKtank/PlayRISE Festival 2010, 2012 REFINERY Series in conjunction with Queens College; |the claque| 2011 QuaDs Series). Monet holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts, with concentrations in directing and playwriting from Marymount Manhattan College, where she received the 2009 Gold Key for Excellence in Theatre Arts, Writing for the Stage. She was a finalist for Hangar Theatre’s 2010 Playwriting Residency, Youngblood’s 2009 and 2010 play development group at Ensemble Studio Theatre, the 2011 Old Vic New Voices T.S. Elliot US/UK Exchange, the Lark Play Development Center‘s 2011 Playwright’s Week and 2012 Van Lier Fellowship. She is a semi-finalist for the Julliard School Playwriting Fellowship and the 2012-2014 Women’s Project Playwrights Lab. Proud member: The Dramatist Guild of America, Rising Circle Theater Collective, &|the claque|.www.angrypatrons.com.