Meet the 2019 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow
We are thrilled to announce our 2019 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow!
Sanaz Toossi
We are proud to have selected Sanaz for the sixteenth annual Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship. Selected from 375 applicants, Sanaz will receive a $10,000 award and an additional $10,000 budgeted for developing several new plays over the course of the year.
About Sanaz
Sanaz is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, CA. She holds an MFA in playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received the John Golden Award for excellence in playwriting. Her short play Baba Karam was read at the Atlantic Theater, where she is the recipient of the Launch commission. Her work is also being developed at South Coast Repertory and IAMA Theatre. Her play English will be read as a part of Roundabout Underground’s reading series. She is a member of Youngblood/EST and the Clubbed Thumb early career writers’ group. Sanaz is a proud child of immigrants.
Sanaz’s Writing in Her Own Words:
“When I started writing plays, I was trying to bridge the gap between my Iranian-ness and my American-ness. I believe now though, that when I write about Iran, I’m writing about America, and these two parts of my identity aren’t meant to be extricated from one another. I’m hung up on the less explored side of the immigrant narrative, namely what it means and takes to stay in your homeland. I am obsessed with beauty in language (Farsi instilled this in me) and culture and shared histories—particularly for Iranians and the Iranian diaspora community. Maybe I won’t write about Iran forever (or maybe I will!), but for now, when I’m writing about Iran’s past, I’m thinking through America’s present.”
From Producing Artistic Director Michael Walkup:
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Sanaz to Page 73 this year. Her plays are finely attuned to the beauty of language, the weight of tradition, and the difficulty of traversing national borders. She often writes about the lives of Iranians and Iranian emigrants, crafting her characters with a deep appreciation for the cultures that have shaped them and the longings that drive them. Sanaz is at such an exciting moment in her career, and we are proud to support her creative and professional growth through the Fellowship.”
Congratulations also to the 2019 Fellowship Finalists: Kevin Artigue, Emily Feldman, and Phillip Howze.
