TOO Episode 253 - Audio New Play Festival, Conversation with Playwright Sneha Sakhare

For our final playwright interview in the 2024 Audio New Play Festival, Adam and Budi sit down with Sneha Sakhare to discuss her audio play 'Ragas of the Rooted Heart'.

Sneha is an actor, singer, writer, voiceover artist, and teacher from Yavatmal, India, currently based in New York City. Her work is deeply rooted in ‘Prasada Budhi,’ which means a mindset of thinking that everything is a divine offering with whatever is presented to us, shaped by her spiritual background in Yoga through her father and the teachings in Vedas. 
As an actor, Sneha is a classically trained clown with intensive four-year training with her teacher-mentor Christopher Bayes at the Pandamonium Studio. She has also been trained with Aitor Basauri (Clown, Bouffon), Jim Calder (Intensive Acting, Commedia), and Budi Miller (Balinese performing arts and mask work) in Bali, Indonesia. Sneha has completed her 1-year acting conservatory program at The Barrow Group theatre company, Manhattan, 2017-18. 
As a singer trained in Indian Classical Music for almost a decade, Sneha as a bhajan (devotional song) singer has been offering her performances at numerous spiritual centers, pilgrimages, and temples in India. She has received many prestigious accolades like ‘Singing Idol’ and ‘Voice of the Region’ through which she performed on National television and had experience performing in concerts in front of thousands of people in various cities of India.
Sneha received her Bachelor's in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from India and worked for 4 years as an engineer where she created corporate theatre performances immersed in music and corporate theories.
Sneha has been awarded multiple scholarships as a performer which includes a one-year full scholarship by Christopher Bayes at Pandamonium Studio in 2020,  ‘The Eugene O'Neill Scholarship’ in 2021 at Oneil Theatre, Waterford, CT, and “A distinct 2-year fellowship from Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Miranda Family for emerging artists of color who have exhibited exceptional passion, drive, and unique points of view in various artistic mediums – including but not limited to theatre, dance, film, visual arts, and music – and is actively working to expand her professional development,2021-2023”
She has written and performed original works like ‘Pandemic Chapati’ and devised a piece called ‘Glimpse’ in collaboration with Global majority artists for Rattlestick Theatre Company, New York City in 2021. 
Currently, Sneha is on her one-year apprenticeship program as a teacher with Christopher Bayes at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, New Haven, CT, and at the Pandamonium Studio, Brooklyn, for the year 2023-2024. At present, she is developing a solo woman show under the mentorship and direction of Budi Miller, supported by the Lin Manuel Miranda Family Fellowship, set to debut in New York City in 2024.