A struggling yoga teacher. A billionaire with a meditation machine. And a luxury wellness retreat that slowly reveals itself as a controlled experiment in influence.

The Yoga Project will be an immersive live performance that blends theater, movement, music, and visual projections together to pull audiences into a world that investigates wellness culture, power, and the commodification of spiritual practice.  

Your support makes it possible to build this world from the ground up. 

Funds raised will cover: the performance space, music licensing, a live band, choreography, digital backdrops, and fair pay for our cast of creative professionals. 

Any size donation is greatly appreciated! While creativity is being outsourced to AI all around us, you can be a part of supporting an independent theatrical program built on human-driven artistic collaboration.

The play encourages critical reflection on how information and authority operate in contemporary culture, particularly within the rapidly expanding wellness industry, the rise of influencer-driven expertise, and the wealth worship of billionaires.

At at time when our belief systems are increasingly shaped by curated information that is monetized and algorithmically fed to us, we want our audience to walk away questioning how unseen influences in their lives are absorbed and expressed in their everyday behaviors. 

Dan Ward is our writer, director, producer, actor, and the creative force behind The Yoga Project. A conservatory trained actor, previous artistic director of a Venice theatre company, and a yoga teacher with 17 years of experience, he's spent the last year workshopping the piece with actors, dancers, visual artists, and yogis.

Lila Ash is our production artist. Based in LA, Lila attended RISD (BFA 2011) as a painting major. Her cartoons and illustrations have been published since 2018 in The New Yorker, LA Times, The Washington Post, Mad Magazine, Wired, Air Mail, Lenny Letter, and more. Her first graphic memoir, Decodependence, was published in 2023 by Princeton Architectural Press/Chronicle Books. She has been a Display Artist creating interior and window art installations for Anthropologie since 2024.

Kelly Byrne is our producer. A Princeton graduate with a Master's from the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, she has spent years in film and television in writing and production. In between seasons, Kelly tutors students, sails, and spends as much time outside as possible.

Ruth Fowler is our script consultant. She is a Welsh journalist, screenwriter and director currently living in LA. She worked with Dan to help adapt his story into a playscript for the stage. Ruth teaches screenwriting at UCLA.

Joey Nappa is our producer and a film and television professional with experience across talent representation, independent film sales, festival programming, and event production. A certified yoga teacher, he's excited to bring together his passions for storytelling, community and wellness to produce this production.

Ashley Miyawaki is our producer and a creative strategist who has developed original content and led international marketing campaigns for prominent entertainment brands like Disney, Netflix, Nike and YouTube. A dedicated yogi and lifelong theater enthusiast who studied theatre in college, she is thrilled to support this new work onstage.

Shilpa Rajpara is our costume and visual designer. She brings global design experience spanning fashion, film, advertising, and live entertainment. Her work includes leading activewear and lifestyle brands such as Amazon, Athleta, 2XU, Adidas and Splits59. Drawing from her Indian-American heritage, she brings a blend of culture, creativity, and performance to costume and visual design.

Tulsi Shah is our choreographer and a multidisciplinary performance artist with a passion for storytelling through dance. Tulsi pulls from a rich background in various styles from Afro-Brazilian dance to musical theatre. With roots in India and the US, her performances blend cultural influences and contemporary dance.