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Taking the Stage and Making a Statement: Lipica Shah Dazzles as an Actor While Advocating for Inclusion

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By Remy Sisk Photos provided 


If visiting Actors Theatre of Louisville to check out “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy” was on your Fall agenda the last couple years, then you may already be familiar with Lipica Shah’s work on stage. In the central role of Mina Harker, Shah has captivated audiences in this revitalized Spooky Season tradition, but her work spans beyond Louisville and indeed beyond theatre; in addition to her career as an actor, Shah is also a voice actor and audiobook narrator and co-founded the nonprofit 1497, which works to support and uplift creatives of South Asian descent, particularly within the American film and television industry.


Of South Asian descent herself, Shah is an Indiana native who now calls New York City her home but, for the last few years, has spent her Octobers in Louisville. She auditioned for “Dracula” during the pandemic and was cast as Mina Harker in 2022. And every year since, she has reprised the role.


“I’ve really come to enjoy being in Louisville,” Shah shares. “I found a lovely theatre community and a group of friends that I truly love working with and spending time with every year, and I’m very happy to go back.”



The arts community in Louisville is, of course, remarkably vibrant and varied, and Shah credits Actors Theatre leadership with their intentionally inclusive work as part of her positive experience here. “I think that Robert [Barry Fleming] and Emily [Tarquin] and Amelia [Acosta Powell] and the rest of the folks at Actors Theatre have done an incredible job,” she emphasizes. “I never had an opportunity to experience it before their tenure, but they have done this beautiful job at crafting a very welcoming and actually inclusive space. And I feel very at home at that theater, and being able to be there and work there and live there for two months has given me the opportunity to learn about the rest of the artist community in Louisville. And it’s just really wonderful and really supportive.”


Shah got her start in theatre by (on a dare) landing the role of the Witch in her high school’s production of “Into the Woods” and in that process, was enchanted by the experience of rehearsing; the collaboration, the preparation and the collectively piecing together of it all was what she fell in love with more than the actual performance in fact. 


Originally planning to go to school for science, she opened her mind a bit to a more arts-focused trajectory, and after getting into the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she, “had that moment of, ‘You know what, this is a really good school and if they’re saying yes to me, I feel like I should say yes back and explore this world.’”


Now, Shah is an experienced actor in myriad mediums with a particular love for new play development; however, a great deal of her passion additionally lives in advocacy work, so much so that she co-founded a nonprofit called 1497.


Shah notes that she has always been outspoken and likes to find solutions to the root causes of issues, perhaps because she is a lifetime Girl Scout. Her formal advocacy work began as a volunteer for the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), which she is now on the Steering Committee of, and which advocates for representation of Asian artists on and behind New York City stages. As a member of several affinity groups for Asian and South Asian artists, she soon started asking, “But how can we actually get to the next level? How can we increase this? How do we get our people into decision-making positions and how can we get people who are gatekeepers to see us and support us? Because it doesn’t actually matter how much we support each other if nobody in that gatekeeping position is willing to also see us right in terms of change. I was doing that work with AAPAC in NYC theater, and co-founded 1497 during the pandemic with two friends as a way to try to answer those questions for tv and film and build a bigger table for the community that we love and want to support.”


A highlight of 1497 is the annual Features Lab, a five-day intensive in-person retreat, and subsequent pitch day designed to develop and elevate screenplays by writers who further the mission of 1497 and provide mentorship and resources to activate their careers. Since its inception in 2020, the program has seen 12 mentees move through the Lab with tangible, net-positive results on their career sustainability and longevity.


Whether on the stage, in the rehearsal room or in the nonprofit world, Shah is always keeping advocacy and inclusion at the forefront. As she says, “My very existence on stage is a statement sometimes.” Her staying visible, staying present and showcasing what sort of talent lies in those of South Asian descent is certain to have long-lasting, substantial and influential impact in the arts industry.

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