AHON GOOPTU
Writer | Actor | Collaborator | Scholar
MY STORY SO FAR
MY
STORY
Photo by Justin Hayworth
The first act of my life was set in Kolkata, India, attending La Martiniere for Boys for fifteen years. One of my first roles in a major production was the Peach Tree in a theatrical adaptation of Kung Fu Panda. I enjoyed acting and working as stage crew in various shows in my school and city. I also wrote and directed a couple of my own short plays.
I played out the second act of my life in rural Iowa, attending Grinnell College for a BA. I graduated with honors in both theatre and English and a concentration in Technology Studies. I also attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center for a semester of intensive training in acting, playwriting, directing, design, movement, and voice.
Act 3 takes me to Florida State University for an MA in theatre and performance research, alongside independent writing and acting projects.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
My work as a SCHOLAR focuses on the intersections of race, ethnicity, queer studies, and transnationalism, with a special emphasis on migrants of colour narratives in the U.S.
As an EDUCATOR, I see theatre as a space to observe what I see, question what I know, investigate what I think could be, and re-conceive what I think should be.
As a THEATREMAKER creating and collaborating on new work, I find ways to consolidate the void that exists between my Indian traditions and contradicting U.S. American cultures.
Theatre, to me, is a space for my truth and perspective to find an expression in the hopes that it will speak to and move at least one person in the audience.