Lily Abha Cratsley is a playwright and performer who dives into dissonance. Her creative work centers liminal spaces like the tumultuous water between America and India where she locates her identity. Her newest works include ABCD, a full-length play about intergenerational trauma in Desi-American communities, and The Fairy Who Cried Gems, her solo-show centering young Desi women. The former was a featured finalist in two competitive festivals–the Occidental New Works Festival and the Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival–before its first staged production at Greenway Court Theatre with KriyaShakti Performing Arts. Lily attended Georgetown University and Occidental College, where she completed an Independent Pattern of Study in Performing Arts & Social Justice. In addition to her writing, she is an accomplished actor and vocalist, performing in countless stage plays, musicals, concerts, and choirs across the country.
Plays
In ABCD, new playwright Lily Abha Cratsley explores what it means to be an "American Born Confused Desi." While preparing dinner, three generations of Indian women clash and comfort one another. Willow, a young academic, is eager to learn all that her Nani can teach her. Aditi, a freshly divorced mom, finds herself stuck between an overbearing mother and a critical daughter. Nani, the family's matriarch, must face Jersey City once again after having moved back to India. What will happen when loss, love, and longing are shared across the dinner table?
The Fairy Who Cried Gems is a cross-cultural, sometimes verbatim folk-tale, memoir, and celebration of identity, created and performed by Lily Abha Cratsley. She serves as a storyteller, employing dialogue, music, and movement to transport the audience through the oral histories of Desi American women. Through this piece, Lily explores her contradicting identities and discovers how Desi joy can be built out of legacies of trauma.