INTAR THEATRE ANNOUNCES INNAGURAL MAX FERRÁ DIRECTOR FELLOWSHIP
Press Contacts:
Rick Miramontez / Pete Sanders
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
INTAR
ANNOUNCES
INNAGURAL MAX FERRÁ DIRECTOR FELLOWSHIP
PRESENTED TO
ITZEL AYALA
FELLOWSHIP NAMED IN HONOR OF THEATRE’S FOUNDER
FOR PHOTO OF AYALA, CLICK HERE.
New York, NY (January 27, 2022) – INTAR THEATER (Paul Slee Rodriguez Executive Director, Lou Moreno, Artistic Director) announced today that the award-winning off-Broadway theater company has presented its first Max Ferrá Director Fellowship to Itzel Ayala. The fellowship is in memory of INTAR’S founding Artistic Director and is intended to supply a major career boost and visibility for the recipient. The Fellowship package includes the following:
- $10,000 Fellowship funds
- Assistant Directorship of the INTAR production of ¡OSO FABULOSO & THE BEAR BACKS! upcoming productions in 2022
- $35,000 stipend to workshop a new stage work at INTAR of the recipient’s choosing
- $10,000 stipend to commission a playwright for the project
- Associate Membership package in SDC
- Full Production of new stage work subsequent to its workshop development
Itzel Ayala (she/her) is a graduate of Allegheny College with a major in Theatre with a Latin American & Caribbean studies minor, and hails from Calexico, California, Mexicali, Mexico. At Allegheny, she ran a student theatre organization as its President, engaged with working playwrights to produce work with students, and served as Assistant Director for productions of Detroit and August Osage County. For her culminating thesis project, Itzel directed Cherrie Moraga’s Shadow of a Man, where alongside a group of Latina artists she explored the theatricality of bilingual performance. She fell in love with theatre and is passionate about the diversification of this industry both on and off the stage. An avid theatre artist, she has continuously been interested in the multiple facets of theatre and she continues to hold production jobs alongside the pursuit of the kind of story building that directing allows. Among the organizations that she has worked with she has been an active collaborator and contributor to their respective anti-racism committees where her ideas have continued to grow beyond her involvement as others take the helm. Itzel’s core values of equity and commitment have led her to be recognized by her peers as an asset to their productions and have currently led her to continue her work in production management with The Bushwick Starr. She is profoundly interested in art that speaks to the core of our human essence. And although our human experience is both alike and different, how artists share pieces of themselves with their culture is a ritual that continues to inspire her as an individual and as a director.
Lou Moreno, Artistic Director of INTAR said “There are so many challenges for early career directors to get ahead we hope that this is instrumental in alleviating some of that pressure. The Max Ferrá fellowship is looking for new ways to give directors agency in their work as well as a platform to be showcased. The award will coincide with a direct commission to a playwright. It is my hope that this will help center a director’s vision as well as expose them to a wider group of playwrights.”
INTAR wants to thank the following funders for the Fellowship:
- Curtis W. McGraw Foundation
- New York State Council on the Arts
- NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/Cultural Development Fund
- Peg Santvoord Foundation
- Radio Drama Network
- Stanley T. Stairs
INTAR: International Arts Relations, Inc., one of the United States’ longest running Latino theater producing in English, is an organization committed to the development of “theater arts without borders.” Over the past four decades, INTAR has produced classics, Latino adaptations of classics, cabarets, and 70 world premieres of plays written by Latino-Americans, including 2005 Oscar nominee José Rivera and Pulitzer Prize recipient Nilo Cruz.
INTAR works to nurture the professional development of Latino theater artists; produce bold, innovative, artistically significant plays that reflect diverse perspectives; and make accessible the diversity inherent in America’s cultural heritage.
To date, the theatre has commissioned, developed, and produced works by more than 175 Latino writers, composers, and choreographers. It has helped hundreds of Latino playwrights, directors, and actors in obtaining their first professional theater credits, union memberships, and reviews in English-language media.
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