I recently read an article quoting Emma Thompson, which said, “Theatre is the only hope we’ve got in a disconnected world.” She so eloquently captures exactly why I create. For a few hours, the theater asks us to put our phones down and sit beside strangers. We laugh, we grieve, and we fall in love with characters we just met, yet know so very well. In a world where empathy feels scarce, the theater reminds us of our shared humanity. As a South Asian performer, representation has always mattered to me.