Andrea Assaf

Andrea Assaf is a performer, writer, director, & cultural organizer. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Art2Action Inc., a not-for-profit collective of women artists, artists of color, queer or trans-identified artists, and creative allies, and who create, develop and produce new and devised theater work, interdisciplinary performances, performative acts, and progressive cultural organizing. Prior to Art2Action, Andrea was Artistic Director of New WORLD Theater (2004-09), and Program Associate for Animating Democracy (2001-04). She has a Masters degree in Performance Studies and a BFA in Acting, both from NYU. Andrea's performance work ranges from original, interdisciplinary solo and collaborative productions, to spoken word and community-based arts. Recent creation projects include: Outside the Circle, a new play on sexuality and (dis)ability, co-written with Samuel Valdez, premiering in 2012; Eleven Reflections on September, a poetry-based multi-media performance on Arab American experience post-9/11 (Pangea World Theater, 2011); breaking letter(s) by Suheir Hammad, and Shekadii Walaalo (Sister-Story), a community collaboration with the Walaalo! Somali Sisters Collective (NWT, 2008); Parang Sabil by Kinding Sindaw at the first National Asian American Theater Festival (NYC, 2007); and Fronteras Desviadas/Deviant Borders with Mujeres en Ritual Danza-Teatro (Mexico, US and Nicaragua, 2005-06), among others. Andrea is also directing Carpetbag Theater’s Speed Killed My Cousin, a new play about an African American woman soldier who returns from Iraq with PTSD (premiering in 2012). Andrea is a recipient of a 2011 NPN Creation Fund commission, a 2010 Princess Grace Award/Gant Gaither Theater Award; 2007 Hedgebrook residency for “women authoring change,” and a 2004 Cultural Contact (U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Culture) grant. She serves on the Board of CAATA (Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists), and on the National Steering Committee for the National Asian American Theater Festival & Conference (NAATF). She is a member of Alternate ROOTS, and the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI).