Former northeast Calgary playwright and actor Sundeep Morrison to present solo show in New York City

Former Calgarian Sundeep Morrison is presenting their solo show Rag Head: An American Story at Solofest in New York Friday night

Sundeep Morrison was a six-year-old kid in Castleridge, in northeast Calgary, one day when they went out to ride sidekick with their dad, who drove a cab.

"We had the window down," Morrison said in a recent Zoom interview, "and this car pulled up next to them, they were making a bit of a ruckus, and I heard one of them call my dad a 'rag head'.

"I knew what a rag was," Morrison added, "and I knew what a head was, but what my dad wore was a cloth crown, something very sacred."

That was one of Morrison's earliest memories of being exposed to racism, and many years later, the playwright, novelist and performer was looking for a title for their play, which explores the 2012 mass shooting at a gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Oak Creek, Wis., where a man fatally shot six people and wounded four others.

Morrison called it "Rag Head: An American Story."

"I get a lot of questions about that," Morrison said, "and it's a pejorative (term), but I was intentional about choosing that (title) because that was the first slur I ever heard as a kid."

Morrison, who went to drama school in New York before settling in Los Angeles, is presenting Rag Head: An American Story in New York this Friday night as part of United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival.

"I write what I know, and what I know is pain, sadness to be othered and the joy and fear that goes with being a child of immigrant parents who are proud Americans, proud Canadians – because my dad owns a convenience store in rural Macfarlane, Wisconsin," Morrison said. "These characters are based off my dad and my uncle and my mom and my brothers and my cousins. So you have seven stories that are people from my life, people that I grew up with and their perspective and tying together what happened."

MASS SHOOTING

Morrison remembered that day in 2012.

"I was here in L.A. with my daughter who was just a toddler at the time and it was just a regular Sunday. My parents, like many other people around the world, go on Sundays to their places of worship and so for us – I talk to my mom almost every day and so I knew that on Sunday, they would either be in meditation or prayer and so we would always have a conversation later that afternoon.

Morrison grew up in northeast Calgary in the 1980s and 1990's

"And so later that afternoon, I got a call from my brother and I could just hear it in his voice, he was frantic, something was up.

"And he said, you got to turn on the news, something horrible has happened," Morrison said.

"And that's the moment where my heart dropped into my stomach. And watching everything unfold on CNN, and realizing that this was very real, it was happening to all of us, that was a moment that changed me deeply."

SOLO SHOW

Morrison originally wrote about the shooting with the intention to have other people play all seven characters, but it morphed instead into a solo performance.

The shooting was one of a number of mass shootings that have taken place in houses of worship around the world, a trend Morrison finds disturbing.

"My mom sings hymns," Morrison said. "That is part of her devotional practice and that's where she found the closest to her higher power, so I couldn't shake the thought that, what if my mom had been on that particular stage singing hymns that day? What if he was there? And I couldn't shake that feeling. And I think for the first time, it was just that anxiety and that fear of, are my parents safe? And not being able to shake that, because it was something that hit so close to home.

"And also when you think of a church, a mosque, a gurdwara, it's 'Oh, it's a sacred place. And it's the last place where anything would happen there because we welcome everybody there.  People go there to worship.'

"So it was so devastating to me and so unnerving. It caused a lot of anxiety and fear and anger."

HEALING THROUGH STORIES

Part of the healing process for Morrison comes through storytelling – a habit learned from their grandmother.

"I would sit with her. She raised us, and so even speaking Punjabi – that's all because of her, she kept our mother tongue alive in our house – so through stories, she would share lessons and I think that's what really sparked my love of storytelling and made me want to be a storyteller as well."

Morrison hasn't lived in Calgary for a long time, but said growing up in the city's northeast had a big impact.

"I loved growing up in Calgary and I think my parents and the southeast Asian community there," they said. "Punjabi Sikhs, we have such a deep connection to the land. Growing up there, I had memories of going out to the farm and getting milk. Our community would go to Stampede for the livestock shows.

"I think there is a big blessing about growing up in a community with small-town roots that you have those values and sense of community. We definitely experienced discrimination and we're on a forward trajectory and I always have hope for the future, but I hold my time there pretty dear to my heart."

Morrison's father drove a cab when the family lived in the Castleridge neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta

And Friday night, Rag Head: An American Story will have its New York debut.

"I'm nervous," Morrison said. "I'm excited. It's a big step and a huge honour to be part of Solofest. It's the largest solo festival in the world, so just to have the show selected (is an honour) – but I do feel because 9/11 was such a life-changing moment for so many of us, but especially for children of immigrants in America, to bring a show – because one of my characters makes mention of 9/11 and how people in the name of any faith commit something horrible, they become the representatives of that faith. But that's not Islam, and that's not what Muslims believe – it also sheds light on how we look at other faiths, too.

"If someone commits an atrocity in the name of Christianity, they don't automatically become emblematic of the Christian faith, but how easily we relegate that (status) to immigrants if it's a faith that's different from our own.

"But to bring it (Rag Head) to New York, and to share it with that audience is something that's really deep for me and I'm hoping for a great turnout, but I'm just grateful to share the story."

There are no plans to bring the play to Calgary, but Morrison said they wouldn't rule out the possibility.

"It would be an immense honour to bring the show to you. That's the dream, that's the goal – to be able to share the story in the place that shaped me. That would be a huge honour and privilege so – we're working on it. We're reaching out, because again, we're a small production but there is nothing I would love more than bringing it home."