Beyond NYU: From High School Debate to the Broadway Stage

Former NYU Tisch student Nihar Duvvuri had no theater program at his high school – his only acting at the time was 10-minute performances for the high school’s speech and debate club. Now he is making his Broadway debut in the show “Romeo and Juliet.”

The show, which opens on Broadway today, is well-represented over $3.4 million from 4 weeks preview and runs until February 16, 2025. Duvvuri accompanies the main actors Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler on stage as he plays the role of Balthazar, Romeo’s friend and servant, and also as an understudy for Romeo. One day, Duvvuri hopes to channel his passion for performance into telling South Asian stories in films.

In an interview with WSN, Duvvuri talked about preparing for the Broadway stage, telling Indian-American stories on screen, and pursuing both acting and directing in the future.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

WSN: How did your experience at NYU impact you as an artist?

Duvvuri: It taught me a lot about my creative process. By high school, I had really developed an identity – both personal and creative – that was simply largely uninfluenced by others. Working with all these different directors at NYU, I was forced to explore other parts of my identity that I didn’t know before. This may have been one of the biggest lessons I learned at the core of my artistic identity while studying at NYU – using art as a way to explore life and the human condition.

Duvvuri began studying at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2022. Atlantic Drama School. He decided to drop out of university last school year to pursue acting full-time, although he said he wasn’t sure if he would eventually complete his studies.

After leaving NYU, Duvvuri began rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet in August and is also the understudy for the male lead. The production is a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, featuring critically acclaimed cast and music by Grammy Award-winning producer Jack Antonoff.

WSN: What was your experience like being cast in “Romeo and Juliet”?

Duvvuri: I am so creatively fulfilled by this project. It offers such an interesting perspective on the pain and grief our generation goes through as we inherit this world. It’s really moving. I think Sam Gold, our director, does such a good job of explaining why this project is the way it is. Because Romeo and Juliet has been performed hundreds of times, each new production must provide a reason why it is performed in that particular way. We found this reason and I’m really happy about it. I’m also such good friends with the cast. It just feels like you’re leaving, spending time with people and coming home. It’s wonderful.

Duvvuri’s acting career began in eighth grade when he took classes at a studio in San Jose, California, where he met his mentor Vijay Vanniarajan, whom Duvvuri considers an influential figure in his life, having rarely seen other Indian actors on screen had high. In high school, Duvvuri used the speech and debate club as a platform for his acting – he performed 10-minute performances to condense the plots of books and films in competitions, an experience he said inspired his love of preparing for a career Show woke up.

He also said that he made a few short films as a teenager, including a magical realist work called “The Boy & the River,” which features an Indian protagonist. Duvvuri said that in recent popular works starring South Asian characters, including the Netflix show “Never Have I Ever” and the film “Slumdog Millionaire,” cultural identity is the only defining characteristic of their characters.

WSN: How do you hope to change the way South Asian stories are told?

Duvvuri: I hope to one day open a production house that tells South Asian stories or at least builds minority voices in the media. The way people are portrayed in the media is very reflective of the American psyche. Any way we can change media representation has a direct impact on the psyche, even if it still has a big impact subconsciously. I want to see Indians in normal roles where they don’t necessarily have to be Indian. They are just Americans living their lives. It’s not necessarily about culture. I really want to show people the universality of these stories – less the cultural aspects of them, which are wonderful and very specific and close to my heart, but they’re not necessarily the exact stories that I want to tell right now.

Duvvuri said that while he doesn’t know what his next project will be after “Romeo and Juliet,” he hopes to finish writing some of his scripts and apply for fellowships and residency programs. He said he hopes to use his inspiration from artists such as actor Paul Mescal and filmmaker Christopher Nolan to both star in and direct his own independent features.

WSN: How do you think your artistic approach has changed since you began your career?

Duvvuri: I did acting because I liked it – that’s the biggest thing that struck me when I started acting. I had a passion for it and I enjoyed acting and just doing things that I enjoyed, but now I’ve found a deeper purpose in acting: to explore life more deeply and understand myself better . Actor Ian McKellen really beautifully read this letter from Kurt Vonnegut saying that everyone should pursue any art, no matter what it is – music, painting, acting, dancing – not to find money or fame, but to experience becoming. He said it was there to grow the soul, and I’ve experienced that side of things more intensely in recent years. That was a big change from when I started and now.

Contact Rory Lustberg at [email protected].