Photo courtesy of Lavanya Gopal.
Lavanya Gopal thought she had it figured out.
For years, Gopal worked for big-name corporations like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Sirius XM. Sometimes, workdays lasted for 10 hours, and by the end of the week, she realized she dedicated 55 hours to work, yet none to herself. The 15-year corporate career became riddled with breaks due to attending the needs of her son who is on the spectrum.
Eventually, working in the corporate world didn’t make sense anymore; what did make sense was her first true love: performing arts. In 2022, thanks to passion and support, Gopal restarted her career and is now a community theater actress, playwright and, most recently, an award-winning Off-Broadway performer. Now, the New Jersey resident hopes to do more short films and, most importantly, give back to her community through charitable art events.
“… I work[ed] late, so there was so much mom guilt, and I would be exhausted…I didn’t do anything creative because there was no mind space. I couldn’t give time to so many different things in my life. I told my husband that I’m quitting one more time, and this time it felt good,” Gopal told Slice of Culture.
“… If you have something good going on in your life, showcase it. Just make the most of your time. Whatever it may be.”
Coming To America
*In reference to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 romantic comedy “Coming To America.”
Gopal was born and raised in India. She was born in Kerala, a southern place in the Asian country, but was raised in Gura, a “very vibrant state.” Her upbringing allowed her to see “two very different worlds” and appreciate each of them for their own culture.
Gopal loved to act and perform as a child, and that’s what she wanted to be when she got older. But plans changed as she instead pursued a master’s in computer science.
She moved to New Jersey in 2001 and within a year she got a job at a startup company. She continued to climb the ladder, later working for the NBA as a business analyst, then global finance and insurance corporation AIG and broadcasting corporation Sirius XM as a product manager, where she most recently was for about four years.
But her corporate career wasn’t consistent.
Gopal said she always took breaks in between; partially due to the demanding job, but mainly because of her responsibilities at home.
“I was like, ‘Do I want to be part of this corporate journey where it doesn’t give me time to be with my son? And also it’s taking time away from my hobbies?’ So when I did my first play in 2012 [at the South Asian Theater Festival], I knew that I’d fallen in love with stage and performing arts,” she explained.
But she hadn’t taken the leap yet at that time.
Instead, she tried to build up her artistic resume, participating in many theater festivals in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Boston. It was also here that she became interested in playwriting; she wrote her first short play that was later handpicked to be converted into a local play in Jersey.
Gopal then took another stab at corporate America when she accepted her role at Sirius XM. She was working from home—with co-workers who were in California—and started her day at 11 a.m. and ended at 7:30 p.m. The hours made everything hard.
So coupled with immense support from her husband, friends, family and faith in herself, she went for the leap.
“I finally told myself in 2022 that I’m done, and I’m not gonna go back because that’s not the right place for me at this time of my life. Now I have all the time in the world.”
Being Lavanya
*In reference to 2004 romantic comedy, “Being Julia.”
Between performing, writing and crafting handmade jewelry pieces, Gopal has fully re-entered her creative era.
She wrote and performed a comedic one-woman show, “Like, Share & Subscribe!” at a theater festival in New Jersey where she got a standing ovation. A director friend then casually mentioned submitting to United Solo, the world’s largest solo theater festival, which embraces and showcases solo artists from around the globe on 42nd Street in New York City.
“I thought, why not give it a shot? But I was not expecting that they would pick my show,” she said.
One month later, she was accepted as one of the fall participants.
Gopal was excited and “charged up,” immediately accepting the spot, but then she realized, “I’ve never done anything off Broadway.”
After a deep breath, she told herself: “I’m gonna do this.”
To be successful, Gopal had to check these off:
- Stretch showtime to 30 minutes instead of 10
- Include more engaging content
- Have intact humor
- Plan costumes and props
- And, maybe most importantly, make her characters “very relatable and very real”
As a result, Gopal bore a show with two characters who are deeply inspired by her Indian and South Asian culture and experiences.
“Like, Share & Subscribe!” centers an Indian couple; the husband is a life coach and a “stickler” for perfection but has a funny side to him while his wife is more vibrant and feisty, who tries to become an overnight sensation in the online beauty community bringing chaos into their lives. There’s also sprinkled elements of promoting sustainability, green initiatives and women’s empowerment in Gopal’s one-woman show.
“I intentionally presented them from two of these different states [Kerala and Gura] because I wanted to bring in the variety,” she explained. “I also wanted to bring in South Asian cultural humor… So it’s a South Asian story because I wanted to bring in a flavor of India in my United Solo performance.”
Fifty-five people attended her 410 W. 42nd Street show on Nov. 16, 2024 and cheered her on. At the end of it all, she was awarded the United Solo’s “Best NYC Debut.”
“It was a dream moment. And I felt like all the hard work and all the creativity and everything that I’d put together reaped reward,” she smiled.
With newfound confidence, Gopal aims to perform in more short films, write a “serious” script that’s not culture dependent and can instead be played by “any two sets of people” as well as performing “Like, Share & Subscribe!” at local events in Jersey, especially ones for fundraisers or charities.
“It feels great to give back to the community via your talent and arts,” she said.
“… I feel like life is short. If you have talents, if you have interest to do things, if you are passionate about things, don’t let anything and anyone stop you.”
