The Far East meets the East Coast in Andrew Weems’ world-premiere play, Namaste Man.

Namaste (“Na-ma-stay”), a Hindi expression, can mean both hello and goodbye. For Andrew Weems, a childhood as a Foreign Service kid meant endless greetings and partings, endless motion, and an adulthood searching for a real home.

It's a rainy night in New York City a few weeks before Christmas when Andrew Weems finds himself lost among the skyscrapers and bustling holiday traffic. Ducking into a coffee shop, he meets a friendly Nepali man, Mr. Lama, who could be a new friend or the greatest con artist this side of Kathmandu. What follows is a whirlwind coming-of-age story that takes place in locations (ranging from the exotic to the familiar) that Andy traveled to as the son of a US State Department officer.

Compelled by the memory of his extraordinary mother—a mysterious, “undiscovered country” in her own right—Andy takes us on a journey from Virginia (full of the hope and despair only a Washington Redskins fan can know) all over the world to dusty Zambia and the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, where he meets his first love and discovers the theatre and all its bittersweet charms. The story continues through time and place to Andy’s current-day life as an actor in New York, his continual ability to get lost and his quest for connection. His traveling companions are all the characters he meets along the way, especially his unforgettable parents.

Namaste Man asks, what is home? What, if anything, is permanent? What do people of radically different backgrounds have in common? Why is it that every time you think you know someone, another unanswerable question pops up? Where do we come from—is it a place or the people who made us? Why do the Washington Redskins always get really terrible after almost becoming good? What if John Wayne could speak Nepali? What if the sacred bull in the front yard could hear my mother’s Tony Bennett records? What if Jessica knew I was sitting in the shadow of a mountain, on a cold rock at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, thinking of her? What if?