Long Beach Play Touches On Identity Within A Multi-Cultural Family

LONG BEACH, CA — A new drama that touches on identity, race, politics and culture is set to premiere in Long Beach this week.

In "Masala Dabba" the characters, first and second generation members of a multi-cultural American family, are transported into the past through stories inspired by their matriarch's Indian spice box.

“I’ve always been interested in understanding the moment to moment choices people make that determine who they are or who they aren’t — the decisions to help, to hinder, to tell a truth, to say yes, to say no, to stay, to go,” award-winning Playwright Wendy Graf said. "Masala Dabba centers on a mixed Indian and African American family, but I hope that all audiences will see themselves and their families in this story.”

The play will be presented at the International City Theatre and will run from Aug. 29 through Sept. 14.

Nandini Minocha, who was casted as grandmother in the play, said this role has been an "unforgettable experience for her.

Masala Dabba, according to Minocha, manages to weave stories together all while exploring a universal theme of "intense" relationships between mothers and daughters.

"The life of Aditi closely resembles my mother's even down to the details of her living with her grandparents at a young age and then losing them," Minocha told Patch. "She had these abandonment wounds that never healed and spilled that generational trauma all around."

Minocha says she's channeling those life experiences, along with the relationship she had with her mother, and putting it into her performance.

"The wounds of childhood sometimes set us up for a life of pain and she was given no tools to heal," Minocha said. "I get to see her from the inside."

The International City Theatre is located at 330 East Seaside Way in Long Beach. To Buy tickets for the play, click here.