Pakistani and Filipino-American playwright Rehana Lew Mirza debuted her first musical, Bhangin’ It: a Bangin’ New Musical, in Spring 2022. An accomplished writer and entrepreneur, Lew Mirza has won several awards for her works.
In 2016 she received the Lilly Award for extraordinary women in theatre from the Stacey Mindich Commission.
“It’s easy to feel forgotten as a woman of color in theatre,” Lew Mirza said in her acceptance speech. “And in a year where politicians are spinning hateful narratives about Muslims and POCs, which is personal to me, it feels easy to not just feel forgotten but downright unwelcome. So I try to address some of that in my plays.”
In 2020 Lew Mirza and her husband, playwright Mike Lew, won the 30th annual Kleban Prize for most promising librettist.
Bhangin’ It follows intercollegiate competitive bhangra dancing. Like actor and comedian Abdullah Afzal, Lew Mirza’s work brings South Asian culture to a wider UK audience.
Rehana Lew Mirza: Playwright and Filmmaker
Lew Mirza has written several plays before “Bhangin’ It.” Some of her full-length works include Hatefuck (2019) with WP Theater and Soldier X (2015) with Ma-Yi Theater.
Since 2018, Lew Mirza is a Mellon National Playwright resident at New York’s Ma-Yi Theater. She shares the residency with her husband, playwright Mike Lew. Lew Mirza is also a co-founder and former co-director of the theater’s Writer’s Lab, an incubator for new works by Asian-Americans. Both playwrights are also artists in residence with La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.
In 2001, Lew Mirza co-founded Desipina & Co, a South Asian film and theater company, with her sister Rohi Mirza. The playwright acted as artistic director while her sister took on the role of creative producing.
With Desipina & Co, Lew Mirza created several projects, including Seven.11 Convenience Theatre. The show is a series of seven 11-minute plays set inside of a 7-Eleven Her short film Modern Day Arranged Marriage (2005) won the audience award from NBC ShortCuts. Lew Mirza’s feature film Hiding Divya (2006) addresses the stigma around mental illness in the South Asian community.
Lew Mirza has also held residencies with Rhinebeck Musical Theater (Bhangin’It), The Lark, and the Cape Cod Theatre Project, among others.
Rehana Lew Mirza’s collaborative marriage
Lew Mirza’s parents are Pakistani and Filipino immigrants. In 2007 she earned her MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. She holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“I was always writing something,” Lew Mirza told the Hey Playwright podcast, “and when I was 16 my sister encouraged me to take a playwriting class at a local college. Once I did, I got bit by the bug.”
The playwright married her husband in 2011. They met at the Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab in 2005 and were intrigued by each other’s plays. What started as a friendship based on intense feedback grew into a lasting romantic and creative partnership. Together they have a son, born in 2016.
“Our styles were really different starting out, but over time, I think that a lot of our worldview and sensibilities have merged, said husband Lew. She noted that they “really share a desire to do character-driven work that is political and meaty and funny.”
“We quickly figured out that the power dynamics have to be equal and the responsibilities have to be the same. We can dramaturge each other’s plays or we can co-write, but we are not as good at a power dynamic that isn’t completely 50/50.”
Rehana Lew Mirza: “Bhangin’ It”
Bhangin’ It follows college student, Mary, who forms an intercollegiate competitive Bhangra dance team. Bhangra is a traditional style of Punjabi folk dancing – native to India and Pakistan.
“As time gone on, it has become popularized in the U.S. through these intercollegiate competitions, where they honor the traditions of bhangra, and they put their own American flavor to it,” Lew Mirza told NPR. “I became obsessed with it shortly after graduating from college. And I would trade writing classes for tickets to bhangra competitions.”
Being both Caucasian and Indian, Mary uses the dance form to connect with her culture. Conflict ensues when Mary disagrees with her team about how much to embrace new styles versus stick to tradition. San Diego’s Ari Afsar plays the lead.
“That conflict is a larger sort of meditation on being multigenerational Americans and sort of, how do we hold on to our culture and yet let it evolve?” said Mike Lew, who co-wrote the play book.
Bhangin’ It includes Indian and Pakistani oral poetry called ghazals and Bollywood. The score features classical instruments like the string-based tanpura and lira, as well as tabla hand drums. Sam Wilmott is lyricist and composer, with assistance from Indian classical musician Deep Singh. Bhangra, Bollywood, and Kathak choreographer Rujuta Vaidya blends traditional Indian styles with Western jazz and hip hop.
Bhangin’ It is a 2019 recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award. The show premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse from March 8 – April 17, 2022. The play will make its east coast debut at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston this fall.
