A Conversation with Purva Bedi and Mariana Newhard

On 20 April 2026, TORCHES continues with a conversation with multi-hyphenates Purva Bedi and Mariana Newhard. Both are acclaimed writer performers who have worked in theatre, film, and TV.

Purva Bedi was born abroad and raised in New York City. She is a multi-lingual actress of film, television and stage and also a deviser of new work. Purva loves to workshop and premiere new plays and has done so at theaters including The Public, A.C.T., Playwrights Horizons, Long Wharf Theatre, The Lark, Manhattan Theatre Club, HERE, New Dramatists, Ars Nova, South Coast Rep, Mark Taper Forum,Target Margin, and Atlantic Theatre. Purva is a member of The Actor's Center Workshop Company, an Associate Artist and on the Board of Directors with Target Margin Theater and Founding Member of Disha Theatre. She studied at Williams College, The British American Drama Academy, and the Public Theatre Shakespeare Lab. Purva also teaches acting at the Anthony Meindl Acting Workshop and The Prep. Purva lives in New York City with her best collaborator and husband, David Andrew Stoler, where she plays her most challenging and favorite role: mother to their two small children and their two large cats.

Mariana Newhard is a Filipina-American writer/performer. She was awarded a NYSCA Artists Grant for her opera, Queen of the Nile.  World Premieres: Assembled Identity (HERE Arts Center), Big Leap, Alone and Perfect (Shorts, Capital Fringe D.C.) Residencies include: The Edward Albee Foundation, HERE, Rogers Arts Loft, Bethany Arts Community, the North American Cultural Laboratory and Drop Forge and Tool. Support and endowments include: The Puffin Foundation, The Drama League of New York, Axe Houghton, and the Dorset Theater Festival. She is a member of The Women Artists Writing Group. Acting credits include: Theatre: The Strange Case of Citizen De La Cruz (The New Ohio), La Negra (Hi Arts), The Lie Jar (Leviathan Lab), La Paloma Prisoner (Signature). Trade Practices (HERE), Elegy for a Midshipman (Dixon Place), and Three Graces (The Ohio). Film: Something Else (Best Actress Paris Film Festival) and The Wanderlust Room (SFC Cannes).

TORCHES: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance

As co-founder of HERE Arts Center—described by the Obie committee as “a lasting home for the weird and wild in downtown performance”—Kristin Marting spent the past three decades immersed in making, witnessing, and supporting groundbreaking performance in New York City. TORCHES is a much needed exploration of New York City’s unique and influential downtown performance world from the 1990s through the 2020s. Part memoir, part oral history, and part cultural inquiry, TORCHES offers in-depth video conversations with more than thirty of the most imaginative and boundary pushing artists working in the field today. TORCHES is both a living archive and an offering for the future. Learning about these artists and their work is not just looking back; it can ignite what’s coming next. They are not only inventors of form—they are keepers of community, fire-starters for our future. See more about the project on the TORCHES website at torchesnyc.org.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.