INTAR Theatre Presents Inaugural Max Ferrá Director Fellowship to Itzel Ayala

INTAR THEATER announced today that the award-winning off-Broadway theater company has presented its first Max Ferrá Director Fellowship to Itzel Ayala. The fellowship is in memory of INTAR'S founding Artistic Director and is intended to supply a major career boost and visibility for the recipient. The Fellowship package includes the following:

$10,000 Fellowship funds

Assistant Directorship of the INTAR production of ¡OSO FABULOSO & THE BEAR BACKS! upcoming productions in 2022

$35,000 stipend to workshop a new stage work at INTAR of the recipient's choosing

$10,000 stipend to commission a playwright for the project

Associate Membership package in SDC

Full Production of new stage work subsequent to its workshop development

Itzel Ayala (she/her) is a graduate of Allegheny College with a major in Theatre with a Latin American & Caribbean studies minor, and hails from Calexico, California, Mexicali, Mexico. At Allegheny, she ran a student theatre organization as its President, engaged with working playwrights to produce work with students, and served as Assistant Director for productions of Detroit and August Osage County. For her culminating thesis project, Itzel directed Cherrie Moraga's Shadow of a Man, where alongside a group of Latina artists she explored the theatricality of bilingual performance. She fell in love with theatre and is passionate about the diversification of this industry both on and off the stage. An avid theatre artist, she has continuously been interested in the multiple facets of theatre and she continues to hold production jobs alongside the pursuit of the kind of story building that directing allows. Among the organizations that she has worked with she has been an active collaborator and contributor to their respective anti-racism committees where her ideas have continued to grow beyond her involvement as others take the helm. Itzel's core values of equity and commitment have led her to be recognized by her peers as an asset to their productions and have currently led her to continue her work in production management with The Bushwick Starr. She is profoundly interested in art that speaks to the core of our human essence. And although our human experience is both alike and different, how artists share pieces of themselves with their culture is a ritual that continues to inspire her as an individual and as a director.

Lou Moreno, Artistic Director of INTAR said "There are so many challenges for early career directors to get ahead we hope that this is instrumental in alleviating some of that pressure. The Max Ferrá fellowship is looking for new ways to give directors agency in their work as well as a platform to be showcased. The award will coincide with a direct commission to a playwright. It is my hope that this will help center a director's vision as well as expose them to a wider group of playwrights."