Copious Notes

Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson, Reshma Shetty as Divya Sharma, and Paul Costanzo as Evan Lawson in Royal Pains, premiering in USA June 4. Photo by Barbara Nitke | USA Network.

When she was on stage at the University of Kentucky early this decade, Reshma Shetty was known for playing ambitious young women such as Zelina in Don Giovanni and Musetta in La Boheme.

Reshma Shetty. Photo by Justin Stephens | USA Network.

Next week, the nation will get to know Shetty as an ambitious physician assistant in the new USA Network series, Royal Pains.

The series, which debuts at 10 p.m. June 4, centers on a doctor, Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein), who retreats into private medicine for wealthy residents of the Hamptons after a career setback. Shetty plays a woman from a wealthy family who talks her way into being Hank’s assistant. It’s a gig she has to hide from her family, who would not approve.

After leaving UK, Shetty studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and had the lead role of Priya in the national tour of Bombay Dreams by A.R. Rahman, who went on to win two Oscars this year for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. Shetty is now based in New York, where she has worked with numerous theaters, made her Off-Broadway debut in Ayub Khan-Din’s Rafta Rafta, and has appeared in guest roles on shows such as 30 Rock.

Reshma Shetty as Dorine in UK Opera Theatre's 2001 production of Tartuffe. Photo by Dwayn Chambers.

In a 2006 article previewing UK Opera’s annual Grand Night for Singing showtune concert, director Everett McCorvey recalled suggesting Shetty be in the annual event and, “”She looked at me as if I just asked her to kill her mother,” McCorvey said.She has since become something of a poster child for how an opera student’s career can evolve away from the High C’s. Grand Night for Singing, by the way, is June 12-14 and 19-21 this year.