Interview: Actor/Playwright Nandita Shenoy Discusses New Drama Esspy and Championing Asian American Performers

Nandita Shenoy began her career as a dancer but later discovered that she had a knack for acting as well. She has appeared in productions around the country and notably took on the role of Elizabeth in Bedlam’s comical 2021 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Recently, she has proved that she is also a pro at playwrighting with her play Esspy, which is now running through March 17 at New Jersey Repertory Company. TheaterMania talked with Shenoy about this new work, what inspired her to take up a pen and start writing, and what changes she’s seen in an industry that has historically underrepresented Asian American performers.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

I saw you perform multiple roles in Bedlam’s production of Persuasion back in 2021. I feel like you’ve got a thing for Jane Austen as a writer.
I’m a big Jane Austen fan. I think that was my way into literature for women without apologizing for it. In England, but also in the United States, everybody knows Pride and Prejudice, and those themes come back again and again. My first full length play, Lyme Park, was a modern adaptation of a lesser-known Jane Austen novel, Northanger Abbey.

Tell me about your new play Esspy and how it came to New Jersey Rep.
I wrote the first draft of Esspy in 2012. I had worked a lot as a standardized patient at a local medical school and thought that many of the cases that I had done would make great material for a play.

Many actors work as standardized patients, where they exhibit various symptoms for medical students to learn communication skills like how to take a history, how to counsel patients, and how to break bad news. Also, I had experienced some challenges with navigating the health care complex when a family member became ill, and those challenges made me see the work that I did in medical schools in a different light.

Finally, I wanted to write a play for an all-Asian cast that wasn’t about Asian-ness, and as the child of immigrant doctors, I thought a medical setting was an ideal place to set such a play. The play covers eight years, the typical span of a doctor’s training from the first day of medical school until finishing residency. It follows the path of a medical student, William, who encounters an actor, Anu, who works as a standardized patient at multiple points through his training. At its heart, the play is about empathy and whether it can be taught.

I had worked at New Jersey Rep as an actor in 2018, and the theater had reached out to me about auditioning for something when theaters were starting to reopen post pandemic. I wasn’t able to audition for that, but the artistic director said, “I know you’re a writer too. Would you like to send something to me?” I knew that space and I thought, “This play actually fits.” A couple weeks later, she wrote back and said, “I really love this play and I’d love to do a reading.” We did a reading that summer, which was August 2022, and the response was fantastic.

This is not your first time collaborating with Peter Kuo. What is your relationship like with him as director?
I had worked with him on my very first professional production, Washer/Dryer, at East West Players in LA in 2015. It’s great to be working with him again. We have such a shorthand that we finish each other’s sentences. At the same time, even though we would take the same notes and we were very much of a like mind, he raised things with me that I hadn’t thought of. I felt like he was great at raising the stakes on every scene in a way that I don’t think I could have done myself.

I appreciate being alongside the director, always, and I’m very involved in the casting. I rewrite in rehearsal, and I want to make sure that I have a good team of people who are collaborative, who are game, who are excited about creating something new. It’s cool to see somebody reading your lines or somebody else spending the time to think about what this could be and investing in something that you care so deeply about.

Why did you decide to start writing plays after spending so much time as an actor?
I started my career as a dancer, and then I became an actor and I really loved it. But I was very frustrated with the kinds of roles that I was having the opportunity to audition for. One day a friend asked me, “Don’t you have an English degree? Why don’t you write a play?” and I thought, “Yeah, why don’t I write a play?” It feels like the Yin and the Yang. I really like having both in my life. The opportunity to create roles, not just for myself, but for my friends, and for populations and communities that I don’t see as much in the theater, has been super rewarding.

You’re also part of a group that won a Tony for representing Asian American artists.
AAPAC, the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, won a Tony Honor in 2022. We were particularly cited for our advocacy work. We publish a visibility report that tracks the casting statistics and hiring statistics on and off-Broadway. I feel like it’s my responsibility as a playwright to kind of bump those numbers in a different direction.

Do you feel that your advocacy work has paid off? Have you seen a change? 
I’ve definitely seen a change over the course of my career just in the kinds of auditions that I get now compared to 10 years ago. There’s still a long way to go. It’s a constant process and I don’t think there’s any one thing that will make a change, but maybe a change in attitude is slowly coming about. I will say post-pandemic, I feel like the audiences that I sit in are much more diverse than they have been in the past.