Sharifa Yasmin Awarded 2021 Barbara Whitman Award
Sharifa Yasmin, has been chosen to receive the 2021 Barbara Whitman Award. Yasmin said of her selection, “Being a part of trans and Arab American communities, we are so often told that we don’t matter—that our voices are insignificant. I became a director to change what stories are being told, to uplift voices that are so often silenced, to tell myself and my communities that we are here and we deserve to be heard. This award is life-changing for me in that endeavor, both in the recognition of my labor and in the support that enables me to continue this work. I am profoundly grateful to SDCF, Barbara Whitman and this incredible committee for seeing my voice, my goals, my craft, and saying they matter.”
Directors Ty Defoe, Miranda Haymon, Tara Moses, Aya Ogawa, Tatiana Pandiani, and Mei Ann Teo were all named as finalists for the award. SDCF received over 100 applications for this Award.
Yasmin was selected for this honor by a committee chaired by Barbara Whitman, which also included Chris Burney, Luis Castro, Mia Katigbak, Moisés Kaufman, Dan Knechtges, Shakina Nayfack, Leigh Silverman, Eric Ting, and Tamilla Woodard.
Says Whitman, “I’m thrilled that Sharifa Yasmin has been named the inaugural winner of this award, and I’m equally excited that we were able to name six other exceptional directors as finalists. The caliber of the applicants was outstanding, and I’m honored to get the chance to help lift up the work of these extraordinary storytellers.”
About Sharifa Yasmin
Sharifa Yasmin (she/her) is a trans Egyptian-American director and playwright. She has completed directing fellowships with The Drama League, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Manhattan Theatre Club, Geva Theatre, Pure Theatre, and Hypokrit Theatre, and she is a 2020 Eugene O’Neill national directing fellow. Directing credits include The War Boys by Naomi Wallace, 3:59AM by Marco Ramirez, In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks, for colored girls… by Ntozake Shange, Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts, Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist by Carolyn Gage, and Mosque4Mosque by Omer Abbas Salem. She has assisted directors including Pirronne Yousefzadeh, Steve H. Broadnax III, Saheem Ali, Leslie Ishii, Mark Brokaw, Arpita Mukherjee, Sharon Graci and Meredith Mcdonough. Yasmin’s plays have been produced with Uprising Theatre Company, Trans Theatre Fest, Women’s Theatre Festival, taught at DePaul University, and published in The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays. Her short film, Blinding, a series of stories centered around the global impact of COVID-19, is in development with the Antiviral Film Project. Starting Fall 2021, Yasmin will be a MFA Directing Candidate at Brown/Trinity Rep. www.sharifayasmin.com
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2021 Barbara Whitman Award Finalists – Ty Defoe, Miranda Haymon, Tara Moses, Aya Ogawa, Tatiana Pandiani, and Mei Ann Teo
Ty Defoe
Ty Defoe (Giizhig), Citizen of the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations. Grammy award winning interdisciplinary artist: writer, actor, choreographer, and director. Works authored and created: TransWorld, Red Pine, Ajijaak on Turtle Island, Wind Changes Direction, Before the Land Eroded, BasketBall Is ‘War, Minus the Shooting’ In Sectarian Lebanon, Firebird Tattoo, Copper Horns in Water, and currently, The Lesson (with Nolan Doran and Avi Amon), core member of All My Relations Collective, Devise Theater Working Group at the Public Theater. Direction: The Winter Bear (Perseverance Theater), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Arizona Shakespeare Company). Movement Direction for Mother Road, Dir. Bill Rauch (OSF), Manahatta, Dir. Laurie Woolery (OSF, Yale Rep), and choreographer for Tracy Lett’s The Minutes on Broadway, Dir. Anna Shapiro. Member of: Dramatist Guild Council, SDC, ASCAP, AEA. he |we | ty | allmyrealtions.earth | tydefoe.com
Miranda Haymon
Miranda Haymon (she/they) is a Princess Grace Award/Honoraria-winning director, writer and curator. Recent projects include A Cakewalk (Garage Magazine & Gucci), Really, Really Gorgeous (The Tank), Everybody (Sarah Lawrence College), In the Penal Colony (Next Door @ NYTW, The Tank) and Mondo Tragic (National Black Theater). Miranda is a Resident Director at Roundabout Theatre Company and The Tank, a New Georges Affiliate Artist, a Usual Suspect at NYTW, a Space on Ryder Farm Creative Resident, member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and the Wingspace Mentorship Program. Miranda has held directing fellowships at WP Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company and Arena Stage. Miranda graduated from Wesleyan in 2016. For more information, visit www.mirandahaymon.com.
Tara Moses
Tara Moses (she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke, director, award-winning playwright, co-Artistic Director in Residence of Red Eagle Soaring, Producing Artistic Director of telatúlsa, and co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. She is a Participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project (2021); a Cultural Capital Fellow with First Peoples Fund (2020); fellow with the Intercultural Leadership Institute (18/19); member of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center (2017); recipient of the Thomas C. Fichandler Award (2016); associate member of SDC; and Dramatists Guild member. She is expected to attend Brown University/Trinity Rep as an MFA Directing Candidate in the fall of 2021. www.taramoses.com
Aya Ogawa
Aya Ogawa (she/they) is a Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based playwright, director, performer, and translator whose work reflects an international viewpoint. Their original plays include The Nosebleed (Incoming! Under the Radar), Ludic Proxy (The Play Company), Journey to the Ocean (Foundry Theatre), andoph3lia (HERE). They reconceived Ludic Proxy for an on-line platform to launch in March 2021 with Japan Society. As a director they directed Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning Suicide Forest at The Bushwick Starr and its Off-Broadway remount for Ma-Yi Theater. They have translated over a dozen plays by Toshiki Okada and numerous other contemporary Japanese playwrights into English that have been published and produced in the U.S. and U.K. They are currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists, a Usual Suspect at NYTW, and recipient of the President’s Award in Performing Arts, LMCC. ayaogawa.com
Tatiana Pandiani
Tatiana Pandiani (she/her/hers) is a South American, NYC-based writer & director-choreographer who works in English and Español. She serves as the Associate Director of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck. A highlight of Covid times: writing for and directing Brian Cox for the Homebound Project. Tatiana has developed and directed new work at the Park Theatre (London), Long Wharf, Cleveland Playhouse, NYTW, IATI, Primary Stages, Signature. Last summer her musical AZUL was part of NMTC at the O’Neill Center. As a choreographer, Tatiana works with Latin Indie artists in concerts & music videos. She is an adjunct professor at Hofstra University and the Atlantic Acting School. Member of SDC. MFA: Columbia. www.tatianapandiani.com
Mei Ann Teo
Mei Ann Teo (they/she) is a queer immigrant from Singapore making theatre & film at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice. As a director/devisor/dramaturg, they create across genres, including music theatre, intermedial participatory work, reimagining classics, and documentary theatre. Teo’s international work includes Belgium’s Festival de Liege (Bryonn Bain’s Lyrics From Lockdown, “Truly polished, meaningful and entertaining” -New York Times), Edinburgh International Fringe (MiddleFlight, “Stunning” -Scotsman), Beijing International Festival (Labyrinth – Top 8 in Beijing News). Dim Sum Warriors the Musical by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo, composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun for national China twenty-five city tour, Jillian Walker’s world premiere SKiNFoLK: An American Show at the Bushwick Starr (NYTimes Critics Pick, NYMag’s matrix “Highbrow and Brilliant”), Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong at Shakespeare’s Globe and Woolly Mammoth. Teo is the Visiting Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University and the Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory. www.meiannteo.com