Nakissa Etemad (Dramaturg) 

Nakissa Etemad (she/her) is Associate Artistic Director of Marin Theatre Company (MTC) and an Iranian American dramaturg, producer, and French translator specializing in new BIPOC plays and musicals for over 25 years. She is a Resident Artist of Golden Thread Productions, Regional VP Metro Bay Area for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and a member of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and the Anti-Racism Task Force of LMDA. She is thrilled to serve as dramaturg on this co-production of her choosing between ACT and MTC of this brilliant new play, which she worked on with El Guindi at the 2020 Colorado New Play Summit. Recent dramaturgy: Heather Raffo’s Noura (MTC/ Golden Thread), Marcus Gardley’s Play on! commission of King Lear (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and recent world premiere productions with Marcus Gardley, Lauren Yee, Marisela Treviño Orta, Margo Hall, and Torange Yeghiazarian. She is a frequent collaborator on Golden Thread’s ReOrient Festivals of Short Plays and Bay Area Playwrights Festivals. Former positions: Festival Director for the 5th Annual New America Playwrights Fest, featuring Lynn Nottage, Naomi Iizuka and Polly Pen (San Jose Rep); Dramaturg and Literary Manager of The Wilma Theater, San Jose Rep, and San Diego Rep, and Exec. VP Freelance of LMDA. Recipient of the 2015 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for The Lark’s four-city premieres of Gardley’s the road weeps, the well runs dry. Nakissa dedicates this show to Dr. Galen A. Etemad, the patriarch, inspiration, role model, and guiding light to his family and friends for 99 wonderful years.