"This play is an attempt to honor the incredible selflessness of Ajji, and the eternal bond that connects three generations of women."
--Priyanka Shetty
the project
AJJI is a solo play by Priyanka Shetty narrated through a life-sized puppet that captures and celebrates the life and spirit of Ajji, her beloved grandma, who suffered through a slow and painful battle with Alzheimer's. The disease chipped away at her memory until she no longer recognized her loved ones but she regaled them with stories from her childhood and made them laugh with her razor-sharp wit and hilarious comebacks. It is also the story of Priyanka's mother who cared for Ajji when she was already deep in the trenches of dementia, hallucinations, and the early onset of Alzheimer's. Day by day they watched her mind deteriorate until it ate away her sense of identity and belonging. This play is an attempt to honor the incredible selflessness of Ajji, the sacrifice and unconditional love of Priyanka's mother as a caregiver, and the eternal bond that connects the three generations of women.
the process
The Work supported a weeklong development workshop in December 2022, hosting Priyanka and project dramaturg Theresa Davis for cross-pollinating work with guest artists Sebastienne Mundheim and Lindsay Smiling.
the artists
Priyanka Shetty (playwright/performer) is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director based in Philadelphia, PA. As a creator of original works, Priyanka is focused on making art that is a reflection of our times. With humor, insight, and raw energy, her plays pose critical questions about contemporary issues, engender dialogue, and are a call for solidarity and collective action. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM has been performed at numerous venues across the country including The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and will be staged at the 2022 Edinburgh
Fringe as part of the Assembly Festival. Priyanka recently made her Off-Broadway debut with a workshop performance of her second solo play #CHARLOTTESVILLE at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters. She is currently working on THE WALL, the final play in her Triptych of Solos which she hopes to launch nationally. She was handpicked for the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive 2021 and is currently a semi-finalist for the 2022 Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. She is a certified teacher of Tectonic Theater Project's groundbreaking Moment Work Technique for Devising Theatre and is an instructor at the Moment Work Institute. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama.
Theresa Davis (dramaturg) is an Artist-Educator in 3-D (Dramaturg-Deviser-Director) working to expand the boundaries of creating culturally specific work in academic institutions and beyond. It is her steadfast desire to produce events that speak to diverse audiences and communities—revolutionary theatre that inspires growth and fosters intercultural communication. Theresa collaborated as a Dramaturg with the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s productions of The Ashes Under Gait City and Dead And Breathing. Currently she is involved in Working Theater’s FIVE BOROUGHS / ONE CITY Festival. She is working on the Staten Island Project, with Playwright Chisa Hutchinson and Director Kristin Horton. Favorite quote about Dramaturgy: “The Dramaturg’s job is to illuminate the story.” –Anna Bosy. Tenured at three different institutions, Theresa has taught at Kalamazoo College, West Virginia University and the University of Virginia where she joined the faculty in 2007 as an Associate Professor of Cross Cultural Performance. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for the University and Resident Theatre Association (U/RTA). As a Director she has also enjoyed Guest Artist residencies at Macalester College and Purdue University. Her directing credits include The Colored Museum, The Miser, A Piece of My Heart, Flyin’ West, The Canterbury Tales, Twelfth Night, Mo Pas Connin, for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Seven Guitars, The African Company Presents Richard III, Day of Absence and Every Tongue Confess. She is the founding Artistic Director of the Cultural Awareness Troupe (The CAT) and the Director of the Contemporary American Theater (CATF) Hostel Youth Program. As a performer Theresa has had the privilege of christening a new black box space at the ETA-Hoffman Theater, Bamberg, Germany in a performance of This is the Life. Some of her current research and creative investigations include: Embodiment of the Spiritual Self, African American Theatre, Theatre as a Sacred Space, New Play Development and Poetry in Performance. Devised Poetic works include Speak! The Forbidden Truth, Give Me Liberation and Give Me Soul: A Poetic Exploration of Oppression versus Freedom, Dissolving the Mask, NEXUS—Where Parallel Paths Cross, and Evolution. Revolution! Rebirth...Theresa M. Davis continues to hold firmly to the belief that Theatre has the power to transform.
Suli Holum (director) is a member of the Wilma Theatre's HotHouse Company, was a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, and is the former Co-Artistic Director of Stein | Holum Projects, whose works include Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted. She recently founded The Work, a Philly incubator for new performance (www.suliholumthework.org). A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, a Barrymore Award, an Independence Fellowship, and a NEFA Touring Grant, her creations have been developed by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright's Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate (London).
Fringe as part of the Assembly Festival. Priyanka recently made her Off-Broadway debut with a workshop performance of her second solo play #CHARLOTTESVILLE at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters. She is currently working on THE WALL, the final play in her Triptych of Solos which she hopes to launch nationally. She was handpicked for the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive 2021 and is currently a semi-finalist for the 2022 Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. She is a certified teacher of Tectonic Theater Project's groundbreaking Moment Work Technique for Devising Theatre and is an instructor at the Moment Work Institute. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama.
Theresa Davis (dramaturg) is an Artist-Educator in 3-D (Dramaturg-Deviser-Director) working to expand the boundaries of creating culturally specific work in academic institutions and beyond. It is her steadfast desire to produce events that speak to diverse audiences and communities—revolutionary theatre that inspires growth and fosters intercultural communication. Theresa collaborated as a Dramaturg with the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s productions of The Ashes Under Gait City and Dead And Breathing. Currently she is involved in Working Theater’s FIVE BOROUGHS / ONE CITY Festival. She is working on the Staten Island Project, with Playwright Chisa Hutchinson and Director Kristin Horton. Favorite quote about Dramaturgy: “The Dramaturg’s job is to illuminate the story.” –Anna Bosy. Tenured at three different institutions, Theresa has taught at Kalamazoo College, West Virginia University and the University of Virginia where she joined the faculty in 2007 as an Associate Professor of Cross Cultural Performance. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for the University and Resident Theatre Association (U/RTA). As a Director she has also enjoyed Guest Artist residencies at Macalester College and Purdue University. Her directing credits include The Colored Museum, The Miser, A Piece of My Heart, Flyin’ West, The Canterbury Tales, Twelfth Night, Mo Pas Connin, for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Seven Guitars, The African Company Presents Richard III, Day of Absence and Every Tongue Confess. She is the founding Artistic Director of the Cultural Awareness Troupe (The CAT) and the Director of the Contemporary American Theater (CATF) Hostel Youth Program. As a performer Theresa has had the privilege of christening a new black box space at the ETA-Hoffman Theater, Bamberg, Germany in a performance of This is the Life. Some of her current research and creative investigations include: Embodiment of the Spiritual Self, African American Theatre, Theatre as a Sacred Space, New Play Development and Poetry in Performance. Devised Poetic works include Speak! The Forbidden Truth, Give Me Liberation and Give Me Soul: A Poetic Exploration of Oppression versus Freedom, Dissolving the Mask, NEXUS—Where Parallel Paths Cross, and Evolution. Revolution! Rebirth...Theresa M. Davis continues to hold firmly to the belief that Theatre has the power to transform.
Suli Holum (director) is a member of the Wilma Theatre's HotHouse Company, was a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, and is the former Co-Artistic Director of Stein | Holum Projects, whose works include Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted. She recently founded The Work, a Philly incubator for new performance (www.suliholumthework.org). A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, a Barrymore Award, an Independence Fellowship, and a NEFA Touring Grant, her creations have been developed by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright's Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate (London).
