Yale Rep's WISH YOU WERE HERE Cast and Creative Team Revealed

Yale Repertory Theatre  begins its 2023–24 season with Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi, directed by Sivan Battat, October 5–28, at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, October 12, which is also press night.
 
The production features scenic design by Omid Akbari, costume design by T. F. Dubois, lighting design by David Anthony-Ken DeCarolis, projection design by Sam Skynner, sound design and original music by Mike Winch, production dramaturgy by Amy Boratko and Hannah Fennell Gellman, technical direction by Shawn Poellet, vocal coaching by Cynthia Santos DeCure, intimacy direction by Kelsey Rainwater, casting by Calleri Jensen Davis, and stage management by James Mountcastle.
 
The cast of Wish You Were Here includes Anita Abdinezhad, Vaneh Assadourian, Bahar Beihaghi, Sahar Bibiyan, Ava Lalezarzadeh, and Shadee Vossoughi.
 
Production support for Wish You Were Here is provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre.

More About Wish You Were Here

It's 1978 and protests are breaking out across Iran, encroaching on the suburb where a tight-knit circle of girlfriends plans weddings, trades dirty jokes, and tries to hang onto a sense of normalcy. But as the forces of revolution escalate, each woman must choose whether to join a wave of emigration or to remain in their country, where the future is uncertain. With breathtaking humanity and cutting wit, 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Sanaz Toossi chronicles a decade of life during and after war, as best friends forever become friends long lost—scattered and searching for home.

Attendance Policies, Ticket Information, and Performance Calendar

Tickets are $15 and $30 (all previews), $15 and $45 (weeknights), and $15 and $65 (weekends and matinees). Student tickets are $15 for all performances. Tickets are available online at yalerep.org, by calling (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street).
 
Thursday, October 5          8PM   Preview
Friday, October 6              8PM   Preview, Post-Show Discussion
Saturday, October 7           8PM   Preview, Post-Show Discussion
Tuesday, October 10         8PM   Preview
Wednesday, October 11    8PM   Preview
Thursday, October 12        8PM   Opening Night
Friday, October 13             8PM
Saturday, October 14         2PM
Saturday, October 14         8PM
Tuesday, October 17         8PM
Wednesday, October 18    2PM   Pre-performance Discussion
Wednesday, October 18    8PM
Thursday, October 19        8PM     
Friday, October 20             8PM
Saturday, October 21         2PM   Audio Description; post-show Talk Back; Touch Tour
Saturday, October 21         8PM   ASL
Tuesday, October 24         8PM     
Wednesday, October 25    8PM
Thursday, October 26        8PM
Friday, October 27             8PM
Saturday, October 28         2PM   Open Captioning
Saturday, October 28         8PM

The Creative Team

Sanaz Toossi (Playwright) is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning English (co-production Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company) and Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons; Williamstown/Audible, released 2020). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company (launch commission; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant), Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). In television, Sanaz was recently staffed on Invitation to a Bonfire (AMC); A League of Their Own (Amazon Prime); Five Women (Marielle Heller/Big Beach); and sold an original idea, The Persians, to FX with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields attached as Executive Producers. Sanaz is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers' Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award, the 2022 recipient of The Horton Foote Award and, most recently, the 2023 recipient of the Best New American Play Obie Award (nytimes.com]) M.F.A., NYU Tisch 

Sivan Battat she/they (Director) is originally from Woodbridge, Connecticut, and is a proud alum of ACES Educational Center for the Arts on Audubon Street. Now based in New York City, Sivan is a theater director and cultural organizer, and is the Director of New Work Development at Noor Theatre Company. Recent credits include Layalina (world premiere, Goodman Theatre), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Studio Theatre), Brass Knuckles (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Trouble in Mind (Assistant Director, Broadway). Sivan has developed work with companies including the Roundabout, the Park Avenue Armory, NYTW, Drama League, Atlantic, Ars Nova, National Queer Theatre, New Georges, New York Stage & Film, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Mercury Store, Long Wharf, MCC, and more. Fellowships: Roundabout Directing Fellow, Drama League Musical Directing Fellow, TCG Rising Leaders of Color. Sivan is thrilled to be returning to New Haven, the city that introduced her first to the power of theater.  sivanbattat.com

Omid Akbari he/him/his (Scenic Designer) is a scenic designer and costume concept artist. He is currently a fourth-year M.F.A candidate in set design at David Geffen School of Drama, where his recent credits include Dwight/Edgewood Project, Furlough's Paradise, and Macbeth. He received his bachelor's degree in set design from the University of Art in Tehran, Iran. He has done many productions in Iran as a set and costume designer and was nominated for the Best Set Designer at the Intentional Theatre Festival in Iran. omidakbari.com

T.F. Dubois (Costume Designer) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where their selected credits include littleboy/littleman, Marys Seacole as well as Over Easy and Can the Peruvian Speak? (…) at Yale Cabaret. Other selected credits include Nodus Tollens, A Tender Reflection, and Amuse Bouche at Grace Street Theater; Blue Camp with Rainbow Theatre project; and Sins of the Father with Oxford Comma Productions. tfdubois.com

David Anthony-Ken DeCarolis (Lighting Designer) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include littleboy/littleman, Love's Labor's Lost, and Next to Normal. Other design credits include The Hedgehog's Dilemma (Yale Cabaret) and Form of a Girl Unknown (Salt Lake Acting Company). David has assisted on Saturday's Voyeur, Three Little Pigs (SLAC); Today is My Birthday, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Yale Repertory Theatre); and Seize the King (The Classic Theatre of Harlem). He would like to thank his family for all their support. @thedecarolis  |  daviddecarolislighting.com 

Sam Skynner (Projection Designer) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in design at David Geffen School of Drama.

Mike Winch (Original Music and Sound Designer) is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in sound design at David Geffen School of Drama. He has been a sound designer and composer for the past decade in Washington, DC. He is a four-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, with a tenured background in Irish fiddle and music technology.

Amy Boratko (Production Dramaturg) is the Senior Artistic Producer at Yale Rep and has previously served as dramaturg on the Yale Rep productions of The Brightest Thing in the World, The Plot, Girls, Cadillac Crew, Good Faith, Field Guide, Mary Jane, Imogen Says Nothing, peerless, Indecent, War, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Dear Elizabeth, The Realistic Joneses, Good Goods, Belleville, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Compulsion, Notes from Underground, and Eurydice, among others. Other credits include dramaturging new play workshops at New Dramatists, The Acting Company, and Voice and Vision's ENVISION Retreat. She is a lecturer at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. B.A., Rice University; M.F.A., David Geffen School of Drama.

Hannah Fennell Gellman she/her (Production Dramaturg) is a teaching artist and dramaturg who loves queer stories, movement, and poetry. Her production dramaturgy credits include the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep); Wake by Stefani Kuo, Twelfth Night, Hedda Gabler (David Geffen School of Drama); Dr. Ride's American Beach House and soft apples (Yale Cabaret). She has also collaborated on developing new dance and theater work with ruth tang (The Alcove at the Lortel), Cameron Barnett, Qualia Dance Collective, and BODYSONNET, and worked as an educator at Elm Shakespeare Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Lookingglass Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company. She holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College and is a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Geffen School.

Shawn Poellet (Technical Director) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in technical design and production at David Geffen School of Drama.

Cynthia Santos DeCure she/her/ella (Vocal Coach) is an actor, voice, and dialect coach. She is an Associate Professor of Acting at David Geffen School of Drama, certified in both Knight-Thompson Speechwork and as Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, specializing in accents, dialects, and culturally inclusive pedagogies. Some dialect credits: Laughs in Spanish (Denver Center); Queen of Basel (TheaterWorks Hartford); Cymbeline (New York Classical Theatre); Quixote Nuevo (Denver Center, Round House Theatre); Scenes with Cranes (REDCAT); Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, Today is My Birthday, El Huracán (Yale Rep); In the Heights (Phoenix Theater, Chance Theater); The Long Road Today (South Coast Rep); Orange is the New Black (Netflix); and The Affair (Showtime). Member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA. She is co-editor, Scenes for Latinx Actors, and Latinx Actor Training (Routledge 2023).

Kelsey Rainwater (Intimacy Director) is an intimacy coach, fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey's work has been seen in the premiere of Sally and Tom at The Guthrie. Some of her other credits include In the Southern Breeze at Rattlestick, The Public Theater's Measure for Measure and White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Oskar Eustis; the ripple, the wave that carried me home, A Raisin in the Sun (canceled due to COVID-19), Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles at Yale Rep; Blues for An Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; and Bess Wohl's film, Baby Ruby. She is a Lecturer in Acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaching stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.

Calleri Jensen Davis (Casting Director) is a creative casting partnership among James Calleri, Erica Jensen, and Paul Davis of over 20 years. They began their collaboration with Yale Rep last season with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home. Broadway credits: The Piano Lesson, Topdog/Underdog, for colored girls..., Thoughts of a Colored Man, Burn This, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, A Raisin in the Sun, 33 Variations. Television: Love Life, Queens, Dickinson, and The Path, to name a few. callerijensendavis.com

James Mountcastle (Stage Manager) has been at Yale Rep since 2004, where he has stage managed productions of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Girls, An Enemy of the People; Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince; Arcadia; A Streetcar Named Desire; American Night: The Ballad of Juan José; Three Sisters; The Master Builder; Passion Play; Eurydice; and the world premiere of The Clean House. Broadway credits include Damn Yankees, Jekyll & Hyde, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Boys from Syracuse, The Smell of the Kill, Life (x) 3, and Wonderful Town, as well as A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. National tours include City of Angels, Falsettos, and My Fair Lady. He was Production Stage Manager for Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis for both its national tour and at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. In addition, Mr. Mountcastle has worked at the Kennedy Center, Center Stage in Baltimore, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and elsewhere. M.F.A.: David Geffen School of Drama, 1990.

THE CAST

Anita Abdinezhad she/her (Nazanin) is an actor and writer, elated to be making her Yale Rep debut. Recent theater credits include Broadway: POTUS (Shubert Theatre); Off-Broadway: Persian Pod (Ars Nova), Bismillah (Wild Project), The Welcoming Committee (The Lark). Regional: A Christmas Carol (South Coast Repertory), Dance Nation (Lenfest Center at Columbia University). Television and film: Girls on the Bus (Max), Evil (CBS/Paramount+), Ahamed's Ramadan Diary (Comedy Central), Eradication (Tubi). Playwriting: Three Tall Persian Women (Shakespeare & Company). Pilot: Fareeda's Phantasias (Semi-finalist Sundance Episodic Lab). Columbia M.F.A. Acting. Anita dedicates this to the women in her family and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. anitaabdinezhad.com  |   @awni.joon.

Vaneh Assadourian (Rana) is thrilled to be making her Yale Rep debut. Vaneh is an actor and voice-over artist born and raised in Tehran, Iran. Most recently she was seen in the world premiere of A Distinct Society directed by Giovanna Sardelli at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Pioneer Theatre Company. Notable collaborations include work with The Geffen Playhouse, The Los Angeles Theatre Center, Skylight Theatre Company, and The Hammer Museum. A lover of languages, Vaneh is fluent in Farsi and Armenian and speaks conversational German. She holds a B.A. in acting and directing from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and is repped by SLJ Management.


Bahar Beihaghi (Salme) trained in Le Coq and Method. Previous theater credits: Ismene (Greece 2014), Medea (Paris, 2016), The Bald Soprano, A Second Birth (New York, 2019), Glimpse (New York, 2021), Woman Life Freedom (New York, 2022), Do You Know What It's Like To Be Me?, Temptations (New York, 2023). M.F.A., Actors Studio Drama School. Co-Founder of Peydah Theater Company. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Bahar enjoys contemporary dance, singing, and kickboxing alongside her passion for Farsi and French. She sends all of her love and gratitude to people of Iran, whom she'd love to represent through her art. Woman Life Freedom.

Sahar Bibiyan (New Friend) is making a Yale Rep debut. Recent theater credit: English (Berkeley Rep, West Coast premiere). Past theater credits include Haram Iran (Emerging Artists Theatre) and Veil'd (Astoria Performing Arts Center, world Premiere). Recent film credits include Uncut Gems (A24) directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. Selected television credits include a recurring role in Mr. Robot, Little America, Chicago Justice, and Bull. She is the voice of Dimah in the video game Just Cause 3.

Ava Lalezarzadeh (Zari) is excited to make her Yale Rep debut with Wish You Were Here. Off-Broadway: originated the role of Goli in English at Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, nominated for Best Ensemble, and an Obie for Best New Play. Select credits: series regular for a new AppleTV+series and an HBO Max pilot, and New Amsterdam (NBC). Upcoming voice-over on hit animation series (Netflix). As screenwriter and actress, is her latest film In the Garden of Tulips (world premiered at Aspen Shortfest, won Youth Jury Award), inspired by her mother's journey of fleeing Iran as a teen in the Iran-Iraq War. Training: UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television; British American Drama Academy; Ecole Philippe Gaulier. She thanks her team, family, and friends!

Shadee Vossoughi she/her (Shideh) is thrilled to be making her Yale Rep debut. Shadee is an Iranian-American actor, improviser, and writer based in Chicago, Illinois. Regional theater credits include A Distinct Society (Writers Theatre); Layalina (Goodman Theatre); My Dear Hussein (Silk Road Rising); Deer and the Lovers (First Floor Theater); The Tenth Muse, Romeo and Juliet (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Black History Month Show, Urban Twist, Bob Curry Showcase (The Second City). Television and film: Redwood Highway, The Bear (FX), The Big Leap (Fox). Training: B.F.A., Southern Oregon University; NBC Universal Bob Curry Fellowship, The Second City. @shadeev

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