HALALish opens on Valentine’s Day at The Tank, NYC
Our Bureau
New York, NY
The Tank presents the world premiere of HALALish, a raw, hilarious, and stereotype-shattering solo show, starring Pakistani-American actress Rudaba Zehra Nasir. Written and produced by Nasir, the production launches its four-performance run on Valentine’s Day, Saturday, February 14 at 9:30 PM at The Tank (312 W. 36th St., NYC), with additional performances on February 15, 21, and 22. Directed by Darpan Joshi and featuring special musical guests, HALALish delivers an unfiltered, deeply personal, and sharply funny look at love, identity, and belonging. Tickets are $20 and up available through The Tank’s website.
After a successful acting career in her native Pakistan, Nasir moved to the United States in 2011. She later graduated from an acting conservatory and relocated to New York City in 2022, where she has appeared in multiple film and stage productions. Confronted with the scarcity of nuanced roles for Muslim women on stage, Nasir took matters into her own hands—writing and producing HALALish, inspired by her own experiences as a single Muslim woman navigating the tension between cultural expectations and personal autonomy.
Performed by Nasir as a one-woman tour de force, HALALish centers on a modern-day immigrant Muslim woman in New York City who finds herself single—yet again—on Valentine’s Day. Inviting the audience into her living room, the play unfolds as an intimate, laugh-out-loud exploration of love, loss, longing, and the very real possibility of getting laid on Valentine’s Day.
“I wanted to create a play that reflects the full experience of the Muslim American woman in New York City,” says Nasir. “It’s an authentic story rooted in a specific culture, but it speaks to universal human emotions. Beyond labels and stereotypes, it shows how much we all have in common.”
In addition, the show thoughtfully explores mental health themes—an area deeply aligned with Nasir’s work as a certified, trauma-informed, transformational life coach. The production is fiscally sponsored by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Healing TREE (Trauma Resources, Education & Entertainment), making donations to the show tax-deductible.
HALALish opens on Valentine’s Day at The Tank. Tickets and additional information are available at HalalishthePlay.com.
About Rudaba Zehra Nasir
Writer / Producer / Actor
Rudaba Zehra Nasir is a Pakistani-American, conservatory-trained actress, writer, and singer as well as a transformational coach based in Manhattan. On screen, she has starred in award-winning films The Foreign Patriot and The Train I’m On, and was a series regular in Kabhi Na Kabhi (Someday) on Hum TV. Her New York theater credits include sold-out shows such as Novecento (Paradise Factory Theater), Arsinoe IV (Chain Theatre), Talk of the Town (The Players), and Measure For Measure (The Resident Acting Company).
In addition to her acting, Rudaba has spent over 20 years in international humanitarian and development work, speaking on global stages (UN, Oxford) and leading gender equity work in nearly 40 countries. She is also a certified, trauma-informed, transformational life coach. In 2025, she launched The Runiverse, a spiritual hub for people going through life transitions and looking for deeper healing, stronger intuition, and lasting transformations in all areas of life.
About Darpan Joshi
Director / Producer
Darpan Joshi (he/him) is a writer, filmmaker, and theatre artist based in NYC. He writes and directs for both film and stage and loves working on stories with immigrant roots, relationships, existentialism, global flair, and characters that are easy to adore or abhor.
The multi-hyphenate characters that inhabit the world of his scripts often find themselves at a fork in the road, a point in their lives where small, seemingly minute decisions can have long lasting effects on their existence within their world. They often find themselves questioning everyday norms, behaviors, and habits with the ultimate goal of learning how they arrived at this particular point in their lives, who they are, their purpose in life, how and where they fit in and belong in the universe.
About Healing TREE
Healing TREE (Trauma Resources, Education & Entertainment) advocates healing from abuse and trauma rather than coping with the symptoms, in order to transform lives and, ultimately, society. They achieve this by providing trauma-focused resources and education and by producing and partnering with relevant film, television, and theatre, empowering the social change necessary to create a healing movement.
About The Tank
The Tank is a small, Manhattan-based non-profit arts presenter and producer serving emerging artists. Our goal is to remove economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers or experimenting within their art form, while being inclusive and accessible. We keep ticket prices affordable, expanding the creation and attendance of the arts for a broad and diverse community.
