No One Plays Badminton in America: Writer Ankita Raturi Chosen for Playwrights Realm’s Scratchpad Series
- Currently based in Southern California, she writes in Hindi/Urdu and English about the impossibilities of language, living between cultural identities, and colonialism.
Bisexual, bicultural, and bilingual writer Ankita Raturi of California has been chosen for Playwrights Realm’s Scratchpad series. It engages with new playwrights every year “by removing geographic limitations so they can participate,” according to the Playwrights Realm website. Recipients receive a paid developmental process of up to one week culminating in a reading. “They will be connected with professional collaborators who will offer dramaturgical development and discussion before and following each reading, as well as professional development guidance and industry introductions,” added the website.
Author of the audio play “Backwaters,” Raturi developed “No One Plays Badminton in America,” described as “a love letter to the sport that asks what it means to figure out who you are away from where you’re from.”
She grew up in and around New Delhi, Jakarta, and Washington D.C., and has spent many years living and working in New York City. She writes in Hindi/Urdu and English “about the impossibilities of language, living between cultural identities, and the ongoing legacies of colonialism,” according to her bio.”Her plays are often populated with queer characters navigating new and unfamiliar territory.”
She is the inaugural recipient of the Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater & Artists at Play Emerging Playwright Commission. She is also the recipient of a Sloan Commission with Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Raturi has a B.F.A. in Drama from NYU. She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Playwriting at UC San Diego with the guidance and mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein.