JULIAN MESRI: is a New York-based Argentinean-American director, playwright, and composer. He is the artistic director and founder of Sans Comedia, a bilingual theatre company. Recent work with the company includes Red, (Sanctuary Festival, HERE Arts Center), The Gauchos (Teatro Extranjero, Buenos Aires) and the musical Bethlehem (St Paul's Theater, BAX Space Grant), Lisa and Her Things (The PIT, INTAR Theater), Immersion (The Treehouse), and Oedipus Gol (Dixon Place). As a director, his work has recently been produced at IATI Theater (Los Columpios and Flor de Lirio) and Repertorio Español. His production of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna at Repertorio Español won the 2013 Gilberto Saldivar Outstanding Production HOLA Award and two ACE Award nominations for Classical Theatre productions. He served as Artistic Director for the 2013 PEN World Voices: New Plays from Spain festival, bringing together seven notable Spanish playwrights with contemporary New York City directors and actors during a two day-festival at The Martin Segal Theatre Center He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, where he was a 2012-2013 Emerging Artist of Color Fellow. As a member of Panorama Sur, a collective of Hispanic-American playwrights led by Alejandro Tantanian, his work was showcased at the Buenos Aires International Theater Festival in 2015. He was also the 2010-2011 Van Lier fellow at Repertorio Español, where he directed Rafael Spregelburd’s La estupidez in its New York premiere (ACE nominee, Best Direction) and Calderón de la Barca’s La dama duende. Other recent work includes a production of Mar Gomez Glez’s 39 Defaults, and an adaptation of The Weavers with Pace University’s International Performance Ensemble, showcased in May 2014 at the Accidental Festival in the UK. He is an adjunct professor of Performing Arts at Pace University.
CV
EDUCATION
Columbia University Masters in Fine Arts, Playwriting - in progress 2020
Williams College Bachelor of Arts 2009
The Dalton School High School Degree 2005
HONORS / AWARDS
Usual Suspect New York Theater Workshop 2014 –2017
BAX Space Grant BAX 2015
Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship New York Theater Workshop 2012-13
Gilberto Saldivar Award Hispanic Organizaiton of Latin Actors 2013
Invited Artistic Director PEN World Voices: New Plays from Spain 2013
Invited Playwright Panorama Sur 2012
Van Lier Fellowship Repertorio Español 2010-2012
EMERGENYC member Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics 2010
Wilmers Travel Fellowship Williams College 2007
SELECTED PLAYS – FULL LENGTH
Red Production – Sanctuary Festival – HERE Arts Center, 2017
The Gauchos Americanos Production – Teatro el Extranjero (Buenos Aires), 2016 – (open run)
Bethlehem – a Saturnalia Pageant Reading – Brooklyn Generator, 2016
Workshop – Sans Comedia, 2015
Workshop – BAX, 2015
Workshop – Dixon Place, 2015–
Reading – Brooklyn Generator, 2015
Progress – An American Fable Reading – Intar Theater, 2016
Reading – New York Theater Workshop, 2015
Oedipus Gol Production – Sans Comedia, 2015
Workshop – Dixon Place, 2015
Lisa and Her Things Workshop – Intar Theater, 2016
Workshop – Peoples Improv Theater, 2015
Immersion Workshop – Sans Comedia/Peoples Improv Theater, 2015
Reading – Invisible Dog
Pace U. Presents the Weavers Production - Accidental Theater Festival, Royal Central School, 2014
Workshop (as the Weavers), NYTW, 2013
SELECTED PLAYS – TRANSLATIONS
The Human Scale Workshop – Pace University, 2016
(by Rafael Spregelburd, Javier Daulte, Alejandro Tantanian)
My Uncle the Exile (Yerandy Fleites) - Reading – PEN New World Voices Festival 2015
Leakages and Anticoagulants – Workshop/Reading – Lark Theater Center, 2014
SELECTED DIRECTED WORKS
Storage Locker by Jeff Stolzer Production – IATI Theater, 2016
Los Columpios (The Swings) by Roger Simeon Production – IATI Theater, 2015
Flor de Lirio by Walter Ventosilla Production – IATI Theater, 2014
Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega Production – Repertorio Español, 2013
La Dama Duende by Pedro Calderón de la Barca Production – Repertorio Español Van Lier Festival, 2011
The Homophobes by Susana Cook Production – Dixon Place, 2011
La Estupidez by Rafael Spregelburd Production – Repertorio Español Van Lier Festival, 2010
SELECTED THEATRICAL SCORES/SOUND DESIGN
Evensong (by Christina Quintana, dir. David Mendizabal) Production – Astoria Performing Arts Center, 2016
Romeo y Julieta (Shakespeare/Neruda, dir. Jerry Ruiz) Readings – Public Theater Mobile Shakespeare Unit, 2016
The Red Book (Hybrid Stage Project) Production – Incubator Arts Project
We Are Caligula (Susana Cook) Workshop – Joe’s Pub/BAAD, 2013
American Jornalero (Ed Cardona Jr.) Production – INTAR Theater, 2012
Intringulis (Carlo Alban) Production – INTAR Theater, 2011
Artifacts of Consequence (Ashlin Halfnight, dir. Andrew Lazarow) Production – Washington Ensemble Theater, 2010
Mannequins Ball (Bruno Jaslenski) Workshop – Martin Segal Theater, PERFORMA Festival, 2010
Auto Da Fe (International WOW) Production – Baruch Performing Arts Center, 2010
Reconstruction (International WOW) Production – The Ohio Theater, 2009-2010
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Contemporary Spanish and Latinamerican Theater Pace University, New York 2013-2017
Acting, Theater techniques Sans Comedia 2016-2017
Invited Teaching Artist UNIT 52, INTAR 2015
ARTICLES
Fish out of Water – the US/Mexico Convening The Lark Theater Center 2016
Notes from the Latino Underground Howlround/Café Onda 2014
Exit the Stage TCG 2014
Looking Towards Latinamerica Culturebot 2013