Pirronne Yousefzadeh News

The Drama League has announced the formation of its first Directors Council, featuring nationally-renowned directors Daniel Banks, Melia Bensussen, Christopher Burris, Jillian Carucci, Jennifer Chang, Desdemona Chiang, R.J. Cutler, Estefanía Fadul, Raz Golden, Brian Eugenio Herrera, Adam Immerwahr, Gwynn MacDonald, Tony Phelan and more.

MRT will present a new work-in-progress by playwright and actor Vichet Chum (KNYUM at MRT in 2018) as the final entry in MRT's FIRST LOOK reading series live on Zoom at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, according to Courtney Sale, the Nancy L. Donahue Artistic Director, and Bonnie J. Butkas, Executive Director. Pirronne Yousefzadeh will direct.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has announced the recipient and three finalists for the annual Zelda Fichandler Award. The Fichandler Award recognizes directors and choreographers who have demonstrated great accomplishment to-date with singular creativity and deep investment in a particular community or region.

MRT will present The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge, Trista Baldwin's winsome new comedy, as the second entry in MRT's FIRST LOOK reading series live on Zoom at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 22, according to Courtney Sale, the Nancy L. Donahue Artistic Director, and Bonnie J. Butkas, Executive Director.

Geva Theatre Center's 2020-2021 season was artfully devised to provide audiences with engaging, inclusive and delightful theatre throughout the year a?" safely. 

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society announces the digital publication of the Fall 2020 issue of its magazine, SDC Journal. The special issue, running 80 pages, is focused on the devastating impact of COVID-19 on theatre and theatre artists, and the long-overdue racial reckoning and call for equity in all facets of society, including the theatre.

MRT will celebrate the commissioning of two of the country's most adventuresome playwrights, Trista Baldwin and Vichet Chum, with the launch of a new reading series, MRT's First Look. The series will kick off September 24 with a new adaptation of a classic, spinetingling thriller, Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight by Steven Dietz, according to Courtney Sale, the Nancy L. Donahue Artistic Director, and Bonnie J. Butkas, Executive Director.

Today (June 10) in live streaming: Betty Buckley visits Stars in the House, Quarantine Cabaret is back, and so much more!

Geva Theatre Center has released the following statement regarding upcoming performances:

Actors Theatre of Louisville's current production of The Wolves has an embarrassment of riches, onstage and off. Sarah DeLappe's Pulitzer Prize nominated, soccer-centric play is an important script that features 10 girls and femmes who pass the Bechdel Test as easily as the ball. They probably only spent about five minutes of the hour and a half run time talking about boys, and even those five minutes were really more about girls, friendship, and betrayal. The Wolves also has a production staff that is 90% women. That offstage commitment to forwarding gender parity at the industry-wide level is even more rare than the onstage corollary, and includes director Pirronne Yousefzadeh, and movement director Rocia??o Mendez, both of whom are clearly functioning at the height of their game.

On the surface Geva Theatre Center's Fielding Studio series production of QUEEN examines the potential devastation caused by the dwindling honeybee population due to Colony Collapse Disorder. This first look seems to indicate that Madhuri Shekar's play will be another social drama about the capitalistic monolith and its insidious corruption in greedy pursuit of wealth. Monsanto stands as the corporate boogeyman that needs to be taken down to save the bees and thereby rescue the planet. The plot could be linear and predictable, clearly establishing villain and hero. Thankfully, Shekar's play delivers a much more complex and thoughtful dramatic work.

Geva Theatre Center's 2019-2020 Fielding Studio Series begins with Queen, written by Madhuri Shekar and directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. The production begins performances on November 6 and runs in the Fielding Stage through November 24.

Geva Theatre Center's 2019-2020 Fielding Studio Series begins with Queen, written by Madhuri Shekar and directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. The production begins performances on November 6 and runs in the Fielding Stage through November 24.

This rap-infused, woke update of Mark Twain's The Prince and The Pauper, a world premiere theater piece for young audiences commissioned by the Kennedy Center, has many charms and much humor, even if it goes more than a little heavy on the agitprop for audiences under the age of 10.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the theatrical Union that represents over 4,000 professional stage directors and choreographers kicks off their 4th season of Screen-to-Screen, an exclusive program for SDC Associate Members working in academia on October 7th.

As Geva opens its 47th season, the organization looks outside of their four walls to focus firmly on education and community engagement and to be the leader in the area for connecting theatre directly and deeply to its constituents. Current programming occupies all available space in Geva's 150-year old historic home. Renovations completed in 2016 included the addition of a hospitality suite, and those rooms now host a full schedule of events for both Geva and, as an additional revenue stream, as rental venue to outside organizations.

Atlantic Theater Company will present Immigrant MixFest, a series of free readings co-produced by director Saheem Ali, writer/director Shadi Ghaheri, and actor/co-founder of Waterwell Arian Moayed, that will run Wednesday, August 14th through Tuesday, August 20th at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

Directors Gathering (DG), a Philadelphia-based membership organization that provides development, community, and process-based opportunities for regional theatre directors, is excited to announce their 2019 (DG) Jam, a day-long workshop, performance, and celebration of theatre directors and their original work. This special event, which is akin to a performing arts take of the popular television baking competition The Great British Bake-Off, will take place on May 11, 2019 at The Painted Bride Arts Center in Philadelphia. The public is invited to the event starting at 6PM.

The Drama League has announced the twelve stage directors who have been selected as the 2019 Directing Fellows of The Drama League Directors Project: NJ Agwuna, Sharifa Elkady, Raz Golden, Chika Ike, Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly, Ismael Lara, Jr., Amanda McRaven, Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Ben Randle, Tai Thompson, Gabriel Torres, and Sophia Watt. They will be publicly introduced to the professional theatre community during the 85th Annual Drama League Awards, which will be held on Friday, May 17, 2019 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square (1535 Broadway). More information can be found at www.dramaleague.org

Geva Theatre Center's 2018-2019 Fielding Studio Series concludes with The Royale, written by Marco Ramirez. This production comes to Geva from the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, N.Y., with the original cast and design team and is directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. The production begins performances on April 11 and runs in the Fielding Stage through April 28.