EnActe Arts Brings Comedy ‘Dog Mom’ To London Theater

This autumn, EnActe Arts, America’s largest national South Asian theater company, will present the UK premiere of Tate Elizabeth Hanyok’s offbeat comedy Dog Mom in London. The production, about reinvention and unexpected companionship, will run at Southwark Playhouse Borough as part of the National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere.

Reinvention and Unexpected Companionship

In this production, Dog Mom follows Sarita, an Indian American woman in her 50s rebuilding her life after a divorce. After leaving her marriage and suburban New Jersey home, she moves into a small Brooklyn apartment. Determined to embrace her independence, Sarita sets out to start over on her own terms—with a life that is organized, controlled, and free of complications.

The last thing Sarita wants is the responsibility of caring for a dog. But when she reluctantly takes in an older stray temporarily, she is pulled into the unfamiliar world of dog parks, opinionated pet owners, and an endlessly affectionate dog that quickly becomes devoted to her. As the dog slowly breaks down her emotional walls, Sarita finds unexpected friendship and community through her outspoken neighbor, Nell, and other dog owners—discovering meaningful connections just when she needs them most.

A Playful Theatrical Style

Dog Mom uses a playful theatrical style in which actors portray both the human and canine characters. Instead of relying on puppets or realistic dog costumes, the production brings its dogs to life through the performances of its cast.

The actors capture the dogs’ instincts, unwavering loyalty, and joyful energy with all the charm and unpredictability pet owners know well. The result is a playful theatrical world where canine behavior offers a funny, surprising, and deeply moving perspective on divorce, vulnerability, and human connection. As Sarita’s emotional defenses begin to fall, the play explores what it means to start over in midlife, rebuild trust after heartbreak, and find companionship in unexpected places.

Representation and Writing Process

Writer Tate Elizabeth Hanyok said she wrote the comedy to create laughter and bring people together during a time of deep social division.

“In increasingly fraught times, the play looks toward one of the few remaining points of near-universal affection – our relationships with our pets – as a way to restore community and mutual recognition. The bond between people and their pets offers a rare common language, and comedy became the vehicle through which that language could invite audiences into collective release, empathy, and belonging.”

Hanyok said another major inspiration was the lack of middle-aged women at the center of contemporary comedies. “As a writer committed to female-driven comedy, I wanted to center a woman in the midst of a midlife reckoning,” she said. The play also reflects the reality that many women do not become mothers, “not as a failure or deviation, but as a lived truth deserving of dignity and narrative space.” Through humor and compassion, Dog Mom affirms that “womanhood, fulfillment, and worth are not singular paths, but many.”

The playwright has also worked with the production team to make subtle changes that reflect Sarita’s South Asian diasporic identity, adding greater cultural specificity to the play’s exploration of family expectations, belonging, and life after divorce.

South Asian Representation in Contemporary Theatre

Produced by EnActe Arts, Dog Mom is part of the company’s commitment to creating more opportunities for South Asian artists and stories in contemporary theatre. Over the past 12 years, EnActe has grown into America’s largest and only national South Asian theatre company, producing more than 40 shows, with over 80 percent of them being new works.

The production is directed by Ajay Chowdhury, whose career spans theatre, literature, and technology. He is the Artistic Director of Rented Space Theatre Company, the bestselling author of the Kamil Rahman crime series, and was part of the early team that developed the music recognition app Shazam.

The Interview

In an exclusive interview with Meera Kymal of India Currents, Vinita Sud Belani, Artistic Director of EnActe Arts, shared insights into her company’s new international production. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Meera Kymal: Congratulations on taking EnActe Arts international! How did your collaboration with Riding Lights happen, and how did Dog Mom become part of the Southwark Playhouse season?
Vinita Sud Belani: Thank you! This whole project is serendipity at work. The story starts with Tate Hanyock, the playwright, who approached me after we met at the NNPN conference; she loved what she heard me say about EnActe and would love for us to read the play and consider doing it. We discussed the script at a Board meeting. Ajay Chowdhury, an EnActe Co-founder and longtime Board member, was intrigued;

Ajay is based in London — a seasoned theatre director who has been on the Board of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA)  and the UK Arts Alliance. He applied to a few chosen high-profile theatre venues. Southwark Playhouse was his first choice. They came back in 3 months, saying they liked the script, had worked with many promising Theatre companies in America, and would love to add us to their Season! 

Fun fact – a recent NYTimes article says this is a trend – American theatre companies doing Premieres in the UK!

Since we are a US company we needed a line producer in the UK who could handle the physical production aspects of the play. Our set designer Sean Cavannaugh suggested we meet with Oliver (Ollie) Brown of Riding Lights. Ollie fell in love with the script and offered us their substantial production assets as a partner. There is talk of us taking the play to York with them when the London run is over.

MK: EnActe Arts recently joined NNPN and is presenting its first Rolling World Premiere. What does this milestone mean for the company?

VSB: It is a huge milestone for EnActe to become a member of NNPN. We are now America’s largest professional theatre company focused solely on putting South Asian perspectives into the zeitgeist of American Theatre, and yes, we are America’s only national, traveling South Asian theatre company.

A couple of years ago, I was invited to direct a play for Perseverance Theatre in Alaska. Leslie Ishii, the AD of Perseverance Theatre, suggested we apply for NNPN membership, so we did. The application and selection is very rigorous. You have to be a professional theatre company, above a certain size and age, and over 85% of your work has to be New Work. To our delight, we were told we were a shoo-in, based on the fact that almost every play we produce is a new work, and that we actively support playwrights through New Works Festivals, development assistance, and premieres.

I met Tate Hanyock at the very first NNPN conference. (She had) submitted her play to our EnActe International Playwriting Competition too. When I heard that NNPN was considering (Dog Mom) for their Rolling World Premiere, I immediately asked to be one of the producers.

A lovely little side note is that NNPN has never had a Rolling World Premiere outside of America before, so EnActe gets to give NNPN its first international RWP, and we get to bill ourselves as a truly international theatre company in the making.

MK: What drew you to Dog Mom? Why did this feel like the right play to produce now?

VSB: Here are Tate’s thoughts (bolded text), on writing Dog Mom, and that’s what drew me to the play. “Dog Mom” was born from a desire to create shared laughter and connection during a moment of profound social fragmentation. In increasingly fraught times, the play looks toward one of the few remaining points of near-universal affection—our relationships with our pets—as a way to restore community and mutual recognition. The bond between people and their pets offers a rare common language, and comedy became the vehicle through which that language could invite audiences into collective release, empathy, and belonging.

A secondary and equally vital inspiration was the lack of middle-life women in contemporary comedic storytelling. As a writer committed to female-driven comedy, I sought to center a woman in the midst of a midlife reckoning—an experience often rendered invisible, flattened, or treated with shame. The play also engages with the growing reality that many women do not become mothers, not as a failure or deviation, but as a lived truth deserving of dignity and narrative space.

“Dog Mom” aims to meet that reality with humor rather than judgment, and with compassion rather than correction—asserting that womanhood, fulfillment, and worth are not singular paths, but many.

My personal reasons – The play works no matter what the ethnicity of the lead character – it’s such a universal story! Here was our opportunity to celebrate the commonalities, not the differences. Tate worked with us through development readings to change the lead character to be South Asian – in all the little nuances that differentiate us from White women or Latina women or Black women of a certain age. 

We are seeing a growing rise in divorces as women feel empowered to walk out of marriages that are too much for them. EnActe has always been at the forefront of creating conversations about societal changes in process.

Last but not least, who doesn’t love their dogs? It’s just a love story between a woman and a dog. What makes this play special, though, is that the dogs are written to be played by humans, not as dogs with dog costumes but as the essence of a dog. It gives actors a rare chance to step out of their comfort zone, display their skills in physical theatre and explore the ‘humanity’ that actually exists more in animals than it does in us.

MK: Mounting an international production is no small feat. What were the biggest challenges, and how did you overcome them?

VSB: Budget is the biggest challenge, always!! We are furiously fundraising and no amount is too insignificant. It’s a work in progress. Being featured in a Southwark Playhouse Season is a very big deal, but it’s also very expensive.

As we were talking with the playwright, the play got acquired by a publisher, and London/New York rights are usually not given to non-profits, so we had to navigate that negotiation. I think Tate’s intervention as a pre-committed geography helped!

We have a two-country cast – 2 cast members flying out from America and 3 members from the UK.  Legally, contractually, financially, it’s a bit of a load, and we are learning. I

A very big challenge is that I will be out of the country for ten weeks. We have hired an Associate Artistic Director to run the business in my absence and going forward, so I can focus on strategy and my own creative journey that has been on hold somewhat as I grew EnActe into what it is today.

MK: How has working with Riding Lights and Southwark Playhouse influenced the development of the play?

VSB: Folks in the UK say ‘Mum’ not ‘Mom’ so there was this big discussion with SP about whether the name of the play should be changed to Dog Mum. Tate’s Answer – no. It’s an American play! We found a workaround – in the poster the O of Mom is a pawprint and can be read either as O or U. Cool, no?

Riding Lights is very well versed in projections-based set design. So our set, very different from all the other theatres across America in this RWP, will be wholly projection-based, on very large LED screens that Riding Lights is providing for free. While this is not unusual anymore, the perspective of the set itself will be from the dog’s viewpoint, a perspective we usually do not consider or get to see!

Riding Lights is a national, traveling theatre company, so their experience in adapting and setting up in a thrust stage is vast — we are so grateful to have that aspect taken care of. Working with Southwark Playhouse (SP) has taught me enormous amounts in a very short time on how big-budget professional theatre works and how the theatre landscape is different in the UK vis-a-vis America.  We have to constantly bring our A-game to the party.

We started working with them a year ago. In the nine-month production countdown, they have very strict guidelines on deliverables. We have to have a 4-week run – which means 30 shows! We’ve never done so many shows of a play in one go before. SP has a procedures manual for all aspects of production and marketing. We are now using those as blueprints for creating our own EnActe procedures manual. 

SP rules say we cannot charge more than BP 25 for a ticket, as art should be accessible to all. Most UK companies get grants easily to support their work. It has been challenging for us. 

In all of this, the SP staff has been welcoming, supportive, and immensely helpful. 

MK: You’ve led EnActe Arts for more than a decade. Did this production teach you anything new as a producer or artistic leader?

VSB: Yes, it taught me a lot! I wasn’t ready to go international until we did. I wasn’t ready to let go of the reins of running the company on a day-to-day basis out of fear that the mission and vision that we stand for would be altered.

Then we hired Doug – our new Associate Artistic Director who bought totally into that vision, and I am delegating with confidence. What is surprising is that he is male and white, and he gets it! So many assumptions have proven baseless. Working with SP has given me a window into how the much larger theatre companies work, and I am rapidly incorporating their best practices into our own EnActe framework.

I am learning a lot about theatre marketing, especially in a post-COVID world. A learning that came to us very early on that I am embracing with vigor is that collaboration is the way to grow. We are one of the most highly collaborative theatre companies of our size in America today, and collaboration has hastened our growth exponentially.

MK: How was the play adapted to reflect Sarita’s South Asian diasporic identity? What aspects of the South Asian experience does it explore?

VSB: Honestly, the modern Indian woman is not that different from any other woman of her age and economic status anywhere in the world. Ask me – I’ve lived on four continents over the last 4 decades. 

The changes are nuanced – her name is Sarita, not Liz. She is unpacking in her apartment, and what she’s taking out is sarees and kadhais, tawa and masala dabbas. She sleeps in a nightie, not pyjamas or a t-shirt. She does not address the dog as Baby Girl – it sounded awkward! She says UFFF a lot! and mutters in Hindi. Her voice rises as she gets upset.

There is one aspect that I’m finding very interesting in exploring. The idea of an Indian woman married for decades to a white man, and walking out on him because he is a loser and she is the breadwinner, doer, and control freak. A decade ago this might have needed work, but now the story is naturally convincing. In the US version, perhaps even the husband will be Indian; we haven’t done that casting yet. That will be another exploration with nuances. 

MK: The play features actors portraying animals rather than using realistic representations. What inspired that choice, and how did the cast develop their canine characters?

VSB: The choice to do this was the playwright’s — the essence of Dog, not dog with a dog costume and walking on all fours. The play really does a deep dive into how ‘humanistic’ dogs really are and how much of that companionship is what we aspire to in ideal human-to-human companionship. Love, trust, loyalty, joy – all unconditional – the essence of humanity is embodied by dogs. Any dog owner will agree, and how ironic that we seek it in humans and find it in dogs.

Patty Gallagher, who plays Dog, is a master of physical theatre – that is her specialty as a professor of theatre at UC Santa Cruz and she just received a Lifetime Award for her work across the world in that specialty. Patty also has Clown training – from the court jester in Shakespeare plays to the circus. She is an avid dog lover, with usually four or more dogs in her home at any given time.  We have not begun rehearsal yet, but in readings she is already more Dog than human.

MK: Do you also perform in Dog Mom? If so, can you tell us a little about your role?

VSB: This is my big moment as Sarita! My first love has always been acting, yet it has had to take a back seat to growing a company. It was impossible to do both. When I was at a crossroads on whether to build a meaningful theatrical platform so that many could have good acting careers versus pushing my own career, I chose the former, and now the gift has come back to me.

This play is as ‘EnActe family’ as it gets – Ajay is the co-founder, Patty has been on our Advisory Board since day one, and Tate was a self-appointed NNPN gift!

There have been moments when I have questioned that decision, and some of the opportunities I passed up were very big, so I feel grateful to have received this one, from EnActe! I last acted as Indira Gandhi in an epistolary play presented digitally during COVID. Ajay saw me in that play and has expressed a desire to work with me since then. 
I am a huge dog lover, so playing a reluctant dog mom will be a challenge, but I want to embrace both the very Indian-in-America aspect of Sarita’s character and the fallout of her very difficult decision to leave her marriage. 

The dog as Sarita’s savior was a no-brainer for me; I shall have no problem post-conversion to Dog Mom. I have a friend called Sarita – not a dog lover at all, who was forced by her husband to ‘tolerate’ a puppy brought into the house and then became the fiercest dog lover ever. The character is named for her, by Tate’s kindness in respecting my suggestion.

MK: Are there plans to bring Dog Mom to audiences in the United States?

Absolutely – our Dog Mom will open to Bay Area audiences with a wholly American cast in March 2027, and to Houston audiences in September 2027. We are actively seeking other cities to perform in. This is the play we need at this moment – funny, endearing, heartwarming and renewing our faith in humanity one woof at a time!

Dates: 14 October – 7 November 2026
Press Night: Friday 16 October
Southwark Playhouse Borough, London

TICKET LINK: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/dog-mom/