Lina Patel
Contact Info
SMS Talent, Inc.
8730 Sunset Blvd. #440
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 289-0909
Playwright accepts commissions.
Bio
Lina Patel is an actor and writer.Lina’s first play, Sankalpan(Desire), set in the volatile period of pre-Partition Bengal, was a semi-finalist for the Sundance Theatre Institute and received workshops at the New Group in New York and Silk Road Theater, Chicago.Sankalpan was part of this fall’s Playwright’s Week at the Lark Play Development Center.The play was mentored by Jose Rivera and dramaturged by Stephen Wadsworth and Ranbir Sidhu.
Lina has written two screenplays, an adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s A Change of Climate and an original drama, Sweet Life, a short about three misfits finding common ground in a small Texas town. Lina is currently working on her first commission for a short play about DNA for Chicago’s Silk Road Theatre to be produced in 2009. Her comedy, Perfect Fit, about fashion, race and parenthood, received two staged readings at the Groundlings Theatre in West Hollywood, directed by Shelley Butler.
Lina’s drama, The Disappearance of Luck (as in Lakshmi, goddess of Fortune) is an urban tale about what happens when a man’s wife disappears and a stranger appears his life. The play explores a palpable sense of loss and grief and evokes class and ethnic tensions, which, while real, also give rise to humor and compassion in the play.Luck was developed in a writer’s group led by Jose Rivera.
A Sherwood Award finalist, Lina was invited by Center Theatre Group to develop a new play in their 2008 Writer’s Retreat.The Ragged Claws, received readings at the Taper and the Lark and was a 2009 BAPF finalist. Through parallel stories of people adapting to unforeseen and extraordinary circumstances, the play examines the value of history and art in a time of tremendous but not unforeseen crisis.
As an actor, Lina has performed at South Coast Repertory, MCC, The New Group, Cornerstone Theater, the Taper, The Globe Theaters, Pasadena Playhouse, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Kitchen Dog Theatre, and the Actor’s Gang. Her one-woman show, Krishna in Texas has been performed in San Diego and Los Angeles. As a voice-over artist, Lina has voiced for animated television series and narrated books for Random House and Penguin, her most recent being, William Faulkner’s, As I Lay Dying.
Plays
Full Length Plays
Sankalpan
cast of 11
The home of Prince Paresh Babu, Bengal, 1905-1906
drama
When Radha meets her husband’s best friend, an Indian freedom-fighter, her world and the world around her falls into focus, and seismic shifts occur both within and without her cloistered world.
The Ragged Claws
Cast of 8
Sometime in the future, New York
drama
Set among a family of academics and their lovers, The Ragged Claws is a story about what is worth preserving as life becomes precious. Ambitious and edgy, the play examines the value of shared history and the passing on of stories in a time of crisis.
The Disappearance of Luck
cast of 7
An American city, now
comedy/drama
What unfolds when a man’s wife disappears and a stranger appears in his life.
Perfect Fit
cast of 5
New York City, now.
comedy/drama
A humorous exploration of different ways of parenting, fashion and race with complex characters and fast-paced dialogue.
One Acts & Short Plays
La La Love
Two lovers redefine who they are and their relationship to each other. Contemporary.
Sweet Life
Three people finding common ground when they reveal their fears and dreams.
Screenplays
A Change of Climate
An adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novel.
Fellowships
- David Henry Hwang Writer’s Institute
- USD/Globe Theater MFA Program