Sundance Institute Announces Fellows for Sundance Institute | Luma Foundation Directors Retreat

Six directors have convened in Arles, France for the sixth annual Sundance Institute | Luma Foundation Directors Retreat in Arles, France, from August 1-12, 2019. Founded in 2013 as a creative collaboration between Sundance Institute's Theatre Program and Luma Foundation, the Retreat is an opportunity for directors to meet, share best and emerging practices, and work self-directed on their upcoming projects.

"At this Retreat, we ask only for a spirit of inquiry from our participants," said Christopher Hibma, Director of the Institute's Theatre Program. "We've broadened our scope to include artists across disciplines, and our conversations and reflections -- about careers, aspirations, the industry, and art -- will evolve as a result. This community comes together in Arles, a city that has embodied and fostered creativity for thousands of years -- and more specifically, under the auspices of the Luma Foundation, which has focused the boundless inspiration of the place."

In addition to organized confabs and unstructured work time, the group will participate in cultural outings -- including exhibitions at the Rencontres d'Arles and the Vincent Van Gogh Fondation Arles.

The Fellows selected for this year's Retreat are:

Omar Abusaada is a Syrian director and playwright who lives in Damascus. His works include: The Factory (2018), While I Was Waiting (2016), Antigone of Shatila (2014),Syria Trojan Women (2013), Almirwad Wa Almikhala (2009), Al Affich (2006), and others. He has performed internationally at Lincoln Center in New York, Wiener Festwochen, Festival d' Automne in Paris, Zurich Theatre Spektakel, and Meeting Points, among others.

Steve Cosson is the writer/director of numerous shows as the Artistic Director of The Civilians, with productions at major Off-Broadway and regional theaters, several BAM Next Wave Festivals, international touring and as artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Director of many world premieres by writers including José Rivera, Anne Washburn, Bess Wohl and composer Michael Friedman.

Anne Kauffman. New York: Fire In My Mouth (NY Philharmonic), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Hundred Days(NYTW, Z Space, The Know Theater), Mary Jane (Lortel Award for Direction, NYTW & Yale Rep), Marvin's Room (Roundabout Theatre Company), Assassins (Encores Off-Center), Sundown, Yellow Moon (Women's Project/Ars Nova), A Life (Lortel nomination, Drama League Nomination), Marjorie Prime (Lortel Nomination, Drama League Nomination); Detroit, Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra and Maple and Vine (Playwrights Horizons); The Nether, Smokefall (MCC); Buzzer (The Public); Belleville (Lortel Nomination, NYTW, Yale Rep); You Got Older (Drama Desk Nomination, P73 Productions); The Muscles in Our Toes (Labyrinth Theater Company); Somewhere Fun, God's Ear (New Georges and Vineyard Theater); Stunning, Slowgirl (LCT3). Regional:  The Year to Come (La Jolla Playhouse), The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Smokefall (Goodman Theatre); And No More Shall We Part, You Better Sit Down: Tales from My  Parents' Divorce, Six Degrees of Separation (Williamstown Theater Festival); Belleville (Yale Rep, Steppenwolf). Artistic Director of Encores! Off-Center at City Center, Resident Director Roundabout Theater, Artistic Associate and Founding Member of The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb Associate Artist and co-creator of the CT Directing Fellowship, New Georges Associate Artist, Artistic Council of Soho Rep, SDC Executive Board Member.  Three OBIES, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award.

In 2008, Laura Penn joined SDC, the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional stage directors and choreographers throughout the United States. Prior to SDC, Laura supported the careers, and produced the work, of many of the country's leading directors and playwrights at Seattle Rep and Arena Stage, and as the Managing Director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras received an Academy Award for her film CITIZENFOUR, and a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the NSA. Her solo exhibition of installations, Astro Noise, was presented at the Whitney Museum. Her most recent film is a collaboration with Forensic Architecture. She is the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship.

Hana S. Sharif is a director, playwright, producer and the Artistic Director of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. She has served as Associate Artistic Director at Baltimore Center Stage; Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Development, and Artistic Producer at Hartford Stage. Hana also served as co-founder and Artistic Director of Nasir Productions, which brings theatre to underserved communities.

The Sundance Institute Theatre Program is supported by an endowment from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with generous additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Perry and Martin Granoff; Luma Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Wendy vanden Heuvel; John and Marcia Price Family Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Wyncote Foundation-Leonard Haas; Richenthal Foundation; The Carrie Louise Hamilton Foundation; and Francena T. Harrison Foundation.

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