Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in the country right now, and I and You is one of her more frequently produced plays. Including Pratidhwani and Theater Schmeater's co-production that starts performances Oct 18th, there have been three productions or readings of it in Seattle in 2018 alone, and a fourth is already scheduled for early 2019.

This play was originally written to be performed by a white actress and a black actor. The playwright’s guidance, however, allows for performers of other ethnicities to be cast in it, as long as the two actors are not of the same race. With Pratidhwani’s mission to create more opportunities for artists of South Asian descent in mind, we naturally, approached this play from a different lens right from the beginning, and arrived at our casting of an Indian American Caroline, and a Japanese American Anthony.

What has made the process more exciting for us, is to explore how that casting choice changes Caroline, or Anthony, or their respective parents and their family dynamics. How some of the lines in the play might take on a slightly different meaning, and how breaking the standard of “default expectations” makes this production just a little different, while very much being a part of the collective, part of the current zeitgeist - continuing the conversation the playwright has started. We hope you will join us, witness the production yourself, and share your experience with us. www.pratidhwani.org/iandyou