Three Tall Persian Women

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Awni is thrilled to be returning to Shakespeare & Co. after last summer’s Plays in Process series for this same play! Awni is a writer and actor based bicoastally in both LA and New York. Her previous writing credits include Three Tall Persian Women (the one act) at San Francisco Playhouse, Turbulence (a solo show) at Columbia University, and Fareeda’s Phantasias (a ½ hour comedy pilot) at semifinals with Sundance Episodic Lab. Awni is a proud member of Peacedale Global Arts’, an international Generative Writing Residency. As an Actor she has worked on Broadway in POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive (Shubert Theatre); Off-Broadway: in Persian Pod (Ars Nova), Bismillah (Wild Project), and The Welcoming Committee (The Lark); TV and Film: Girls on the Bus (HBO Max), Evil (Paramount+), Ahamed’s Ramadan Diary (Comedy Central), and Eradication (Tubi). Awni is always keen to tell stories with universal themes that transcend borders and demographics, and yet remain deeply specific to the world they inhabit. She is currently especially interested in continuing to shine light on S.W.A.N.A. stories, in an effort to keep reminding the world that people are not their governments. She holds an MFA in acting from Columbia University. She dedicates this play to all immigrant mothers and the women of Iran. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi.

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Dalia is an Assyrian-American director and writer whose work centers on theatricality and changing the prevalent narrative on Middle Eastern women. She recently finished her time as Associate Director of Sweeney Todd on Broadway, and previous to that, was the Resident Director at Phantom of the Opera. Last year in Spain, she directed the concert Omar Bashir's Back to My Assyrian Roots. Her new play development work has been seen at Sound Bites, Wayward Artists Ensemble, San Francisco Playhouse, Dixon Place, Access Theatre, and heard on the Parsnip Ship Radio Theatre Podcast. She is an alumnus of the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship in Directing at Arena Stage and UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Up next, she continues to write and develop Edessa of Baghdad with composer Avi Amon and will be directing Iraq, But Funny! Written by Atra Asdou at Lookingglass Theater Company in May 2025.

Lanna Joffrey is an award-winning Iranian performer/writer working in the UK and US. She has enjoyed performing extensively in theatre, film, audio projects and her spoken word, which has been published in print and online. Select Theatre: English (RSC & Kiln), Sister Radio (Pitlochry, Traverse, Tron, Perth…), I Call My Brothers (Gate Theatre), The Time of Our Lies (Park Theatre), The Eyes of the Night (Cervantes Theatre), Muse of Fire and Sonnet Walks (Shakespeare’s Globe), A Thousand Splendid Suns (A.C.T., Old Globe, Arena Stage & Seattle Rep), Soulless Ones (Hoxton Hall), Cause (Vaults Festival), The Profane (Playwrights Horizons), Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens and Julius Caesar (The Factory), They Promised Her the Moon (Old Globe), Measure for Measure (The Public), Richard III and Hamlet (Epic Theatre). Awards: NYFringe, IRNE & Ovation. Her critically acclaimed verbatim docudrama of women’s war stories, Valiant has toured throughout the UK/US and was published by NoPassport Press.

Afsheen Misaghi is a performer and two time Tony Award® nominated producer (New York, New York, The Piano Lesson) based in New York. He has performed at numerous regional theaters including Mosaic Theater Company, Barrington Stage Company, Stageworks Theatre, American Stage Theatre Company, the Weathervane, and Gulfshore Playhouse. TV credits include Succession (HBO), The Blacklist (NBC), Blue Bloods (CBS), Power Book II: Ghost (Starz), FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), and Normal for Now (Amazon Prime). He received his BA in Theatre from West Virginia University, MFA in Theatre from the University of Florida, was a part of the 2022 ViacomCBS Showcase, and is a Fulbright alumnus.

Niousha Noor is a Los Angeles-based actress and writer. She stars in Sony Pictures Classics’ critically acclaimed film The Persian Version, now available on Netflix. The recipient of the 2023 Sundance Audience Award, Niousha's portrayal of Shireen, the resolute and unwavering matriarch, garnered widespread critical and audience acclaim. Noor can also be seen starring in the Netflix limited series Kaleidoscope (#1 Show Worldwide) as FBI Agent Nazan Abassi. In 2020, she starred in IFC’s The Night, opposite famed Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini, earning widespread praise from critics. Her other credits include Here and Now (HBO), Stitchers (ABC) and 9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox). Niousha is currently developing her screenplay, Blue Flower.

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Lyra Abbott is thrilled to be making their debut at Shakespeare & Company! They studied theater with a focus in Stage Management at Washington College and worked on productions of Antigone (2020) and She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms (2021), as well as directing a production of God of Carnage (2022). They also spent a summer working as a production assistant for Berkshire Busk in Great Barrington. Around their theater involvement, they enjoy writing, both plays and prose, and spending time with their cats.

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Omid Akbari was recently named the 2024 Burry Fredrik Design Fellow, is a freelance scenic designer and costume concept artist based in New York. He started his career in Iran, where he received his bachelor’s degree in set design from the Tehran University of Art. He also holds an M.F.A in Theater Design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, where his recent credits include the Dwight/Edgewood Project, Furlough’s Paradise, and Macbeth. At Yale Rep, he was the scenic designer for Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi in 2023.

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Anthony Feola is thrilled to be returning to Shakespeare & Company for his third summer! Shakespeare & Company credits include: A Walk in the Woods (Asst. Stage Manager), Hymn (Tech & Performance Assistant Stage Manager) and 2023 SSI (Workshop Manager). Other Selected credits: Twelfth Night (Production Stage Manager), The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe (Production Stage Manager Sub) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Asst. Stage Manager) with Northern Stage. Anthony recently spent the past year on an international tour with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo as their Production Associate. Anthony graduated with a BFA in Stage and Production Management from Emerson College and would like to thank his family and friends for their support!

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Costume Design credits include: A Cry of Players, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, Carrie the Musical, The Coronation of Poppea, Peter Pan, The Producers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hairspray the Musical, and 42nd Street. In addition to her design work she has been involved with the management, construction and mounting of over 100 other productions.

Amelia Heastings is excited to be returning to the Shakespeare & Company this Summer season! Favorite stage management credits include: Shakespeare & Company: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Hamlet: A Staged Reading, Golda’s Balcony (Berkshires 2023, Boston 2024); Pittsburgh Public Theater: Ken Ludwig’s Murder on the Orient Express, The Tempest; Greenbrier Valley Theatre: Frankenstein, Mountain Home Christmas; PICT Classic Theatre: After Independence, As You Like It; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado About Nothing.

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Andrea is a Costume Designer born and raised in Colombia. She recently got a M.F.A in Theatre from the University of Florida where she designed multiple productions such as Antigone and Cabaret. Other credits include Three Sisters, Clyde's, Miss Julie and Romeo & Juliet at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, and the world premiere of Ruby at West Coast Black Theatre Troupe. The last two years she's also been part of the NHSI Northwestern University summer camp where she has designed adaptations of An Iliad, Dracula, Box of Stories and more. She is beyond grateful for having the opportunity of working at Shakespeare & Company on their production of Three Tall Persian Women with such and amazing team.

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Erika is excited to return to S&Co for a fourth summer season. Before relocating to the Berkshires, Erika was based in New York City lighting for television, theater, and dance. She had the pleasure of designing shows for everything from Red Bull Music to Animal Planet; and spent full seasons with some truly fabulous institutions such as San Francisco Opera, New York City Ballet, Broadway, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Erika spent her summers before S&Co as the production manager/ head electrician for Adirondack Theatre Festival, putting on Broadway-bound productions like Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat, Loch Ness, Calling All Kates, and Beau. Erika has spent the last seven years traveling the world as the lighting supervisor for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a company of folks very close to her heart. She is happy to finally put down roots and call Shakespeare & Company her artistic home.

Bryn Scharenberg is recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama with an MFA in sound design. She grew up in Seattle, where the murmur of rain is near-constant. The damp, the dark, and the vividness of the natural world is a core theme in their designs, as well as an earnest love for the melodramatic. Her professional credits include a mix of designing, assistant designing, and engineering for New York Theater Workshop, Juilliard, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Yale Repertory Theater, and Yale Cabaret, among others.

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Atalanta is an Intimacy Director, actor, and educator specializing in new work, film, and reimagined classics. Previous intimacy credits include The Mountaintop, Vanity Fair, Niagara Falls, In the Blood, and Ackworth.