Geetha Reddy’s play about workplace discrimination was a favorite at the 2025 New Works Festival at TheatreWorks. This year, directed by Snehal Desai, it held its world premiere on June 9, 2026, at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.
Leela (Megan Suri), a brilliant Indian-American engineer who is Propulsion Systems Manager at an aerospace company, works on the manufacturing floor with 19 direct reports, preparing for an upcoming space launch. Her colleague Baasu (Kunal Dudhekar), an Indian immigrant who is given to social oddities and a certain “obliviousness“ has been promoted to a Director of Propulsion Systems by their boss Krish (Kapil Talwarkar), Chief Architect, and also an Indian immigrant.
Leela is upset and disheartened, and believes she has been discriminated against. Enter Val (Kathryn Smith-McGlynn), EVP Human Resources Operations, and a Black American. As the play goes on, we meet another Indian immigrant, the Chief Technology Officer, C.K., played masterfully by Ranjita Chakravarty.
Silicon Valley caste-focused incidents
Reddy’s play was inspired by real-life Silicon Valley events. The first is a lawsuit filed in the year 2000 against two Cisco engineers by a third for discrimination based on caste—the plaintiff alleged that the accused passed him over for promotions, etc., because he belonged to a lower caste. After hundreds of employee interviews, this case was eventually voluntarily dismissed by the State of California’s Civil Rights Department.
The second is the 2022 case of Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a Dalit scholar, technologist, and caste equity educator, who was scheduled to give a talk at Google. Dalits (formerly the “untouchables” at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy), have historically faced widespread oppression and discrimination in India. After complaints from Hindu-American groups alleging “anti-Hindu bias”, the talk was cancelled. Google’s Chief Diversity Officer at the time was a Black woman, as is Val in The Employee Dharma Handbook.
People of color, women highlighted
Notably, the cast consist entirely of people of color: Indian immigrants, an Indian American, and a Black American (Val) who has her own lived experience of discrimination on the basis of race and gender. She represents both the outsider perspective and also corporate power dynamics as she tries to understand the concept of caste, its manifestations and implications in India and now in the American workforce.
It is refreshing to see women on stage in prominent leadership positions, including that of CTO – a female playwright’s welcome take in our valley of largely tech bros. I recently saw the play Hamnet at ACT-SF, written by British Indian playwright Lolita Chakrabarti based on Maggie O’Farrell‘s novel, and there too, the rich depiction of Agnes, the historically maligned or ignored wife of the Bard, is a choice made by the playwright and director, both women.
The play also explores queerness and South Asian heteronormative pressures.
Stellar cast, comic instinct
The cast is stellar. Kunal Dudhekar as Baasu and Ranjita Chakravarty as C.K excel at both physical and verbal comedy, and had the audience in splits. It is quite a feat to create a hilarious play from such serious topics, and these actors rose admirably to the occasion. Val strikes a credible balance between enforcing fairness per the corporate handbook, and attempting to stay on top of the multiple cultural nuances related to caste. Leela, of Dalit descent, and Krish, who with Kunal belongs to the Brahmin caste, carry the seriousness of the subject.
What is a cultural dramaturg?
I spoke with Sukanya Chakrabarti, Associate Chair of Theatre Arts for the School of Film, Theatre and Dance at San Jose State University (Sukanya Chakrabarti, Ph.D. | School of Film, Theatre and Dance), who served as cultural dramaturg for this play, as well as other plays in California and New York. I asked Dr. Chakrabarti to describe the role of cultural dramaturg. She explained that her role evolved throughout the production — with research that helped the (Indian American) cast understand the historical and cultural nuances of the caste system, then expanding to cover accent consistency, including making sure “Indian English” sounded authentic rather than a caricature (think Apu in The Simpsons), advising on cultural gestures and rituals (e.g., touching feet), and overall cultural sensitivity in staging.
Symbolic significance of brooms
Earlier in the play, it is described that brooms were tied to the backs of Dalits so that when they walked, the broom would erase their “impure” footsteps. Not to divulge too much of the plot twists, but the broom is a recurring prop in the play, visible and attached to a wedding dress, pointedly questioning how far we have really come in terms of equality. Yes, there is a wedding in this play. (Is this becoming a must-have feature in plays with Indian themes?!)
Thought-provoking plot devices
The play raises many questions. Was Leela passed over for promotion by Krish because she is a woman? Or because she is Dalit? Was Baasu was promoted because he is Brahmin? Or because he is a fellow tech bro? Why did Krish not follow the company process and interview several candidates for the position? Did Baasu inject the idea of a caste bias when he spoke with Val at the beginning of the play? Did he instigate all this so that Krish would end up getting fired and Baasu would take over his position?
The conclusion of the play provoked mixed responses. Some audience members I spoke with felt the ending was a cop-out, perhaps over-simplifying the resolution of deeply complex matters. I wondered: how would prominent Dalit voices view this play?
Questions raised, further reading
The questions raised are a valuable outcome, as they will foster conversations on the characters’ motives as well as on gender and caste equality. Leela’s professional dreams of a space launch remain stronger than ever at the end. Her shedding symbols of oppression as she declares her passion and vision for what is to come in space research is a moving, positive end to the play.
For all the discussion that this play will no doubt inspire, the program provides a good reading list. I include here a letter from the playwright with those suggestions. Suraj Yengde’s Caste Matters would be a good addition to the list.
The Employee Dharma Handbook will be performed at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto from July 8 to August 2, 2026.
