Fareeda Pasha
Writer. Performer. Advisor.
Fareeda is passionate about creating inclusive theater, for artists and for audiences of diverse backgrounds and abilities. She focuses on elusive types of inclusivity, like foreign languages, subaltern historical perspectives, and subversions of accepted political correctness. Her aim is to create work tailor-made for the body and voice of the actor, and to create roles for those who live at the unmapped intersections of society - beyond the margins.
WRITER. Fareeda's written work spans film, TV, radio, poetry, op-eds, and the stage. She has written four one-acts on commission for TBTB’s intensives since 2020 (The New York Times mention of TBTB’s intensives and their impact on the disabled community during the pandemic, April 2023). Her plays include MISS/CONCEPTION (Fresh Lime Soda Productions) and A THING OF BEAUTY (Dramatists Guild Footlights, ScreenCraft quarter-finalist). Her latest one-act THE OLYMPIANS (a satire of woke culture, featured in Time Out New York) was produced by TBTB at Theatre Row in New York in May 2022. Her bi-lingual satire THE CASTING PARTY was produced in Japan in the Fall of 2022 as part of the 15th Annual BIRD Theatre Festival. She has participated in multiple playwriting workshops at The New Group. She has also written 300 poems and counting. She teaches poetry writing weekly to high-schoolers with challenged access to education (refugee organization, name withheld for security purposes).
PERFORMER (SAG-AFTRA, AEA). Recent acting projects include theater (BRECHT ON BRECHT at ART New York, review here), film (STITCHED, dir. Lorena Lorencou; LOOSE THREADS dir. Elif Fatima), and audiobooks (Ausma Zehanat Khan’s detective thriller “Blackwater Falls,” NY Times and AudioFile mentions; Samira K. Mehta’s The Racism of People Who Love You, Penguin Random House). She is currently collaborating with playwright Neena Beber, director Maria Mileaf, and actor Jessica Hecht on an adaptation of Brecht’s “The Mother,” as dramaturg and performer, through a residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center (Click here for a short documentary about this collaboration). She continues to study acting at HB Studio, and voice at the Juilliard School.
THEATER ADVISOR. Fareeda serves on the boards of two New York Off-Broadway theatre companies: Theatre Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) which aims to integrate artists with disabilities in groundbreaking stage work, and the Gingold Theatrical Group, dedicated to the work of George Bernard Shaw and the activism he continues to inspire.
Fareeda holds a BA from Barnard College (Summa Cum Laude) in English Literature, and Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures - Thesis of Distinction; Gerard Prize Nominee; Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize Winner for original poetry.
She holds an MBA from Stanford University.
Fareeda founded SightLeap to advise creative teams and individuals, drawing on 15+ years’ experience advising clients on innovation.
Writing
Original Plays and Teleplays
Train to Shangri-La
Full-length Drama (DRAFT IN PROGRESS)
Time: August 1947
Place: India, Pakistan, and Shangri-La
A trainful of women escapes the chaos following the Partition of India and Pakistan, and founds a matriarchal society in Shangri-La, a fantastical realm somewhere between life and death.
The Nightingale
Full-length Drama (2h30m)
Time: April 1919, Russian Civil War
Place: A British warship in the Black Sea
The British Navy attempts to rescue the surviving Romanov family, led by Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.
Based on true events.
A Thing of Beauty
Full-length Drama (1 hr 40 mins)
2M, 1F. 5X. (doubling)
Time: December 1920, Russian Civil War
Place: The ransacked Faberge estate, Petrograd, Russia
Commander Leon Trotsky attempts to enlist the heir to the House of Faberge to sell off Imperial treasures to fund his Red Army.
The Faberge eggs in question have something to say about it.
Inspired by true events.
The Zodiac Club
Pilot for 12-episode Drama Miniseries.
Based on True Events.
The true story of Evangeline Adams, America's first astrologer, who rose to acclaim and infamy as the adviser to JP Morgan, Rudolph Valentino, two heads of the New York Stock Exchange, and through her popular radio show - the American public.
Each episode thematically follows one of the 12 zodiac signs, beginning with Aries/JP Morgan.
Misconception
Full-Length Comedy (90 mins)
3F. 2M. 1X. (doubling. 5 actors min)
Time: Now
Place: New York, London, Lahore, Buenos Aires, and a plane crossing the Atlantic.
T
A contemporary asynchronous love story.
One woman's quest to find coupledom in a haze of prophecies, riptides, bird flu, an immaculate conception, and a cat who may or may not be dead.
An Act of Love
Full-Length Dark Comedy (90 mins)
2F. 1M.
Time: Now
Place: A ski-house in rural New England.
T
When a young doctor gets stranded with her boyfriend's mother for a week, things go from awkward to dangerous as the two engage in a psychological battle to the death.
A Divine Comedy
RT: 20 Min. Cast: 2F, 1M.
Comedy. Juliet in the Afterlife…in therapy.
Zoom-friendly.
Produced by TBTB in May 2020 and Anytime Players in 2021.
The Olympians
RT: 30 Min. Cast: 2M, 1F.
Comedy. The "Woke Olympics" as an athletic contest.
Zoom-friendly.
Produced by TBTB in Aug 2020 and May 2022 @Theatre Row.
Published by Juicy Press in Mar 2023.
The Casting Party
RT: 20 Min. Cast: 2M, 2F.
Comedy. An int'l Shakespeare production gone wrong.
Zoom-friendly.
Created for TBTB in Jan 2021. Premiered in Japan in Fall 2022.
Ghosts in the Machine
RT: 20 min. Cast: 3F. 1M.
Dark Comedy. Dana and Noor's Zoom seance goes wrong.
Zoom-friendly.
Jakob's Ladder
RT: 20 min. Cast: 2M.
Drama. A young man confronts his grandfather over a long lost heirloom.
Hart
RT: 15 min. Cast 2M.
Drama. An agent confronts his drunken client at a film premiere.