Directed by Timothy Douglas, The Lake Effect will feature Minita Gandhi, Adam Poss and Mark Smith.

Here's how Silk Road bills the play: "In a depressed Cleveland neighborhood amidst a fierce winter storm, an Indian American brother and sister, long estranged, are reunited by the sudden death of their father. Enter their late father's African American confidante and gambling bookie, and a slew of family secrets get unearthed. The Lake Effect sets in motion a complicated web of relationships and conflicts that challenge our perceptions of race, gender and success."

Opening night is April 27. The title is a reference to extra precipitation that builds and falls as a snowstorm passes over massive bodies of water, like Lake Erie.

Silk Road performs in Pierce Hall at The Historic Chicago Temple Building at 77 W. Washington St. in Chicago.

The playwright's The North Pool makes its Off-Broadway debut soon by Vineyard Theatre. The Lake Effect was co-commissioned by Silk Road Rising and Crossroads Theatre (New Brunswick, NJ) with development support from The Lark Play Development Center (New York City). For tickets and information, visit silkroadrising.org.

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Silk Road's co-founders are artistic director Jamil Khoury and executive director Malik Gillani. Silk Road Rising (formerly known as Silk Road Theatre Project) "creates live theatre and online videos that tell stories through primarily Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. In representing communities that intersect and overlap, we advance a polycultural worldview."