Divya Maiya’s Manasu Debuts at Fringe

SAATH is proud to spotlight our very own Divya Maiya, whose original play Manasu is premiering at the 2025 Minnesota Fringe Festival. What follows are excerpts from her recent interview with MPR News, where she shares the personal journey behind the play, her reflections on queer South Asian storytelling, and the role of chosen family.

Where did you draw the inspiration to write Manasu?

Divya Maiya: It comes from a lot of stories within the community and also my own personal story and struggle with infertility and my conflict with parenthood, whether to lead a childfree life or to have a child. So it’s all of my internal conflict put into this play.

What does the title Manasu mean?

Divya Maiya: Manasu means mind in Kannada. And Kannada is my native language. I’m from Bangalore in India. And that’s where this title comes from—and the inner workings of the mind and all the things that goes in mind. And that’s what’s reflected. The show itself has three main leads—one queer couple and their best friend—and all of them having different ideas of parenthood.

Your show show talks about queer love. And how is queer love treated in the South Asian community?

Divya Maiya: I think there’s a lot more acceptance than in the past. However, it’s not boldly talked about and well accepted, especially in the South Asian diaspora here in the United States. So this is an attempt at normalizing queer love. We’re not trying to showcase the struggles or anything about being queer. It’s beyond that, normalizing queer love and going further to talk about what parenthood looks in queer families.

What do you hope South Asian audiences, non‑South Asian audiences—what do you want them to take away from this show?

Divya Maiya: This show is for everybody, not specifically for South Asian audiences. With my writing, I want to break a lot of stereotypes on how characters are portrayed and just bring plays to mainstream and not specific to South Asian audiences. And the main takeaway is, let’s accept people for who they are, accept a lot of complex relationships, even though you don’t understand it. And whether or not you have the same vision or view about certain topics, we can all come together and be there for each other.