Ravi Jain is a playwright, actor, director and educator with considerable international experience. He is the founding artistic director of Why Not Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. Jain was the 2012-2013 Artist in Residence of the fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company. He is currently (as of August 2016) the Associate Artistic Director, Baillie Artistic Fellow, Resident Artist, Director and Actor with Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto.
Drama
A Brimful of Asha
Co-authored by Asha Jain.
Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2012.
PS8619 .A3685 B75 2012
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
In 2007 Ravi Jain had just completed school and was itching to get his feet wet in the theatre scene. With plans to begin his own company, Ravi has put off marriage for a few years, much to the disappointment of his mother, Asha, who was getting impatient with Ravi’s non-traditional approach to life. In this autobiographical story of the Jain family, Ravi recalls a trip to India with his parents in tow, where they ambushed him with a series of prospective wives at every turn. Conveyed through storytelling, A Brimful of Asha is a comedic and heartwarming tale of a family caught between two cultures.
Drama
Mahabharata
Adapted for the stage by Miriam Fernandes & Ravi Jain.
Toronto: Coach House Books, 2023.
On Order
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
A contemporary dramatic take on a 4,000-year-old Sanskrit epic that is foundational to Indian culture.
With warring families and devious revenge plots, Mahabharata tells the story of an ancient feud with philosophical and spiritual questions that are no less urgent today. In times of division, how do we find wholeness? Are we destined to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors? And how can we build a new world when we have nearly destroyed this one?
Drama
What You Won’t Do for Love: A Conversation
David Suzuki, Tara Cullis, Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain.
Toronto: Coach House Books, 2022.
PS8637.U97 W43 2022
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
What You Won’t Do for Love is an inspiring conversation about love and the environment. When artist Miriam Fernandes approaches the legendary eco-pioneer David Suzuki to create a theatre piece about climate change, she expects to write about David’s perspective as a scientist. Instead, she discovers the boundless vision and efforts of Tara Cullis, a literature scholar, climate organizer, and David’s life partner. Miriam realizes that David and Tara’s decades-long love for each other, and for family and friends, has only clarified and strengthened their resolve to fight for the planet.
What You Won’t Do for Love transforms real-life conversations between David, Tara, Miriam, and her husband Sturla into a charmingly novel and poetic work. Over one idyllic day in British Columbia, Miriam and Sturla take in a lifetime of David and Tara’s adventures, inspiration, and love, and in turn reflect on their own relationships to each other and the planet. Revealing David Suzuki and Tara Cullis in an affable, conversational, and often comedic light, What You Won’t Do For Love asks if we can love our planet the same way we love one another.
Anthology (Drama)
Love, Loss, and Longing: South Asian Canadian Plays
Jain, Asha, and Ravi Jain. “A Brimful of Asha.” In Love, Loss, and Longing: South Asian Canadian Plays, edited by Dalbir Singh. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2015, [215]-265.
Anthology (Drama, Monologue excerpt)
“Ravi Jain, Katrina Bugaj, Troels Hagen Findsen, and Nicolas Billon: I’m So Close–.” In Refractions: Solo, ed. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and Yvette Nolan. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2014, 105-107.
PS8309 .M6 R44 2014
Links
Publisher Coach House Books
Publisher Playwrights Canada Press
Profile by Anne Nothof in the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia