Set in a world of pop songs, dating apps, and coincidences, Mantra’s pattern play, “Love in the Time Of _____” interrogates the gap between the idealized notion of love we consume and the messier reality that love entails. When the rose-colored hue of novelty falls away, where do we go from there?
Mantra (she/any) is a Chicago-based playwright, director, and actor from Bangalore, India. A recent graduate from Northwestern University’s Theatre/Playwriting program, her work was recently seen Off-Broadway as a part of 24HourPlays, in the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival, and produced by Studio 22 Productions (Northwestern University), Vertigo Productions (Northwestern University) and Lovers and Madmen productions (Northwestern University). As an actor, she was recently seen in Radial Gradient (Shattered Globe Theatre), Dance Nation (Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center) and short film George (CineYouth Film Festival). She is a Fulbright Creative Writing semifinalist, an Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award winner, and a playwright currently affiliated with the Road Theatre in LA (Under Construction 5).
Alondra Rios is a Puerto Rican director, actor, and playwright currently based in Chicago. Recent directing credits include: Arts Alliance’s In the Heights and Purple Crayon Players’ The Little Mermaid. She has also appeared in Tomas and the Library Lady and Water by the Spoonful at the Wirtz Center. She was a proud cast member of The Mee-ow Comedy Group for three years, serving as co-director for the Mee-ow 50th Anniversary show. Her new play, El Hilo del Pastel, recently premiered in the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival. She studied at Northwestern University with a B.A. in Theatre and a certificate in Music Theatre and Playwriting.
