As Gurpreet Sian looks back over the past two decades, he’s flooded with memories of events, creative partnerships, and a long list of talented artists. It was 20 years ago that he and Raakhi Sinha co-founded the South Asian Arts Society. Ten years later, the society gave birth to the annual Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts.
“I think there was always this underlying love of theatre and live performance art,” Sian, the festival producer, tells Pancouver in a phone interview. “It manifested itself in the work that we did.”
This year’s Monsoon Festival will once again put theatre artists in the spotlight from August 7 to 17, while also creating space for dance, comedy, and a writing workshop. In addition, Sian has curated an art exhibition, 20 Years of South Asian Arts: A Photographic Journey. It’s free and will be at the Surrey Art Gallery Community Rails Space (13750 88 Avenue) from August 2 to November 2.
For the exhibition, Sian sorted through hundreds of pictures from the last 20 years of South Asian Arts Society history. He narrowed them down to about 50 images that will be on display.
“Over the years, we’ve always partnered with different folks, whether it’s different art organizations or venues or performance groups,” Sian says. “I’m hoping some of those groups will come and see themselves represented in these photographs as well. I’m very excited about that.”
Monsoon Festival presents Gemini and Sikligar
This year’s Monsoon Festival features two original plays—one in English and the other in Punjabi—as well as a tribute to Vancouver actor Nimet Kanji.
Vancouver actor Andy Kalirai wrote and performs in Gemini, a deeply personal solo show about a rapper. The character, Aman Singh, privately struggles with the hyper-masculine mask that he presents to the world as “Gemini”.
Gemini premieres at 7:30 p.m. on August 8 at The Mezz Warehouse (#106–6680 152A Street, Surrey). “I’m always fascinated by site-specific works,” Sian says.
Navrasa Theatre Arts founder Bir Btaalvi wrote and directs the second play, the Punjabi-language Sikligar. Btaalvi also acts alongside Prince Goswami, with music by Premdeep. The festival will present Sikligar at 7:30 p.m. on August 9 in the Studio Theatre at the Surrey Arts Centre.
“The story really addresses and covers some of the struggles of these young people who are leaving their homes to come here to find a way to make it in a foreign country,” Sian says.
Earlier that day (August 9), Vancouver theatre artist Adele Noronha will host Momentum: Nimet Kanji in The Cultch Historic Theatre Founders Lounge (1895 Venables Street). Three directors—Arhit Chandra, Gavan Cheema, and Japnaam Kaur—will work with Kanji, Kalirai, and fellow actors Chirag Naik and Janavi Chawla. The actors will read excerpts from plays performed by Kanji.
Nimet’s theatre credits include Contractions (Northern Light Theatre), Victim Impact (Theatre Conspiracy), Sultans of the Street (Carousel Theatre), 9 Parts of Desire (The Maggie Tree), Bombay Black (2017 Vancouver Fringe), and Dil Ka (Ruby Slippers Theatre).
“This inspiring event buoys the collective momentum of South Asians in theatre, bringing to focus our own canon and disrupting the narrative that we are few and far between,” the festival states on its website.
Fish Eyes was first theatrical production
The Monsoon Festival has helped build this canon. Kalirai and Paneet Singh, for example, wrote Dooja Ghar (The Other House)—A Mirza Sahiban Story, which premiered at the festival in 2022. Furthermore Kalirai acted in and Singh wrote The Undocumented Trial of William C. Hopkinson, which was at the festival in 2018.
Sian says that his love of theatre predates the founding of the South Asian Arts Society. As a student at Simon Fraser University, he was on its competitive bhangra dance team. On a trip to New York, Sian and other members of the team took in a Broadway show called Bombay Dreams, which was set in Mumbai. It ignited his interest in bringing diasporic theatrical stories to local audiences.
“Maybe somehow unconsciously, this love for theatre was always there for me personally but also for my colleague, Raakhi,” Sian says.
The South Asian Arts Society’s first theatre production was Fish Eyes in 2006 in partnership with Neworld Theatre. Anita Mujumdar wrote and starred in this solo show about a Canadian teenage classical Indian dancer with a crush on a popular boy at school. The society’s next theatre production was Bollywood Wedding, which was staged at the Italian Gardens at the PNE in 2009 and 2013. Co-written by Sian, Sinha, and Camyar Chai, it starred Munish Sharma and Almeera Jiwa.
“I think from there, that love of theatre just continued to grow beyond that to this year,” Sian says.
Monsoon Festival also includes workshops
He points out that when the society launched the Monsoon Festival, there still weren’t a lot of people with roots in South Asia represented in local theatre productions. Sian felt that this stood in contrast to dance, music, and film, where there was growing representation, albeit still not enough. To address this in 2018, the society invited Majumdar to perform her Fish Eyes Trilogy at the Monsoon Festival. The same year, the festival presented staged readings of Zahida Rahemtulla’s The Wrong Bashir and Sharma’s Chivalry is Dead.
Last year, the Monsoon Festival hosted a panel discussion on The Anandpur Experience (working title). Paneet Singh is spearheading this immersive theatre production. It tells the story of a Punjabi town shortly before it was attacked by the Mughals more than 300 years ago.
Meanwhile, this year’s festival will also focus on writing. Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal, Upstart & Crow’s Poet in Residence, will lead an August 13 workshop encouraging participants to create a finished piece that has some connection to a song that had a strong effect on them. It’s entitled Soundtrack as Story: Remembering and Remixing the Songs That Shaped U.
The next event will offer plenty of levity. Manpreet Singh, a.k.a. The Comic Singh, will bring his wacky humour from Punjab to the Surrey Arts Centre Main Stage on August 16. He will perform in Punjabi.
In addition, the festival will present two dance lessons. The first, on August 10, will be led by bhangra performer Raja Singh. Then on August 17, there will be a Bollywood Fusion Dance Lesson led by Rohan D’Silva, principal performer with Shiamak Vancouver.
“One of the pillars of the festival has been accessibility and community outreach,” Sian says. “That’s what the writing workshop, Bollywood dance, and bhangra are. They’re by donation. We try to make them as accessible as possible.”
The South Asian Arts Society will present the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts from August 7 to 17. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Pancouver is also on Instagram @PancouverMedia. In addition, follow Charlie Smith on Bluesky @charliesmithvcr.bsky.social.
