Literary Management | 2012-2023
Founder and Manager | New Script Development Program | Farabi Cinematic Foundation | 2015-2017
Founder and Manager | New Script Development Program | Farabi Cinematic Foundation | 2015-2017
Literary Manager | Molavi Theater (2012-2017)
- Evaluated numerous plays and chose the Official Selections of “Festival of Saturdays.”
- Managed the logistics of “Festival of Saturdays” through collaboration with the artistic director and producers.
- Executed the talkback, awards, and social events.
- Enhanced community enrichment as corroborated by storytelling programs dedicated to social justice, bridging the generation gaps and inclusion, especially for various ethnic and age groups.
READER / EVALUATOR
Yale Drama Series, CT
Great Plains Theatre Commons New Play Conference, NE
Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NY
(2020 – 2023)
- Discovered new voices in playwriting and supported the emerging playwrights with script development workshops, feedback, and accolades, as well as publishing the award-winning plays.
- Scouted submitted plays, wrote coverages, and selected the short list out of hundreds of scripts.
- Fostered relationship with established and emerging playwrights in the US and abroad.
Founder and Manager | New Script Development Program | Farabi Cinematic Foundation | 2015-2017
Founder and Manager | New Script Development Program | Farabi Cinematic Foundation | 2015-2017
Founder and Manager | New Script Development Program | Farabi Cinematic Foundation | 2015-2017
- Pioneered in designing the program and created a systematic process of script development.
- Managed the program from its inception/initial pitch to its actualization.
- Formulated a dramaturgical model of writing analysis for Persian scripts by synthesizing numerous theories.
- Optimized the definitions of dramaturgical terms and introduced new jobs such as script development executive.
- Produced educational materials such as digital content, journals, and articles that benefited students and instructors in writing programs.
- Recruited the instructors, cooperated with the CEO, marketing team, and director of education to create a substantial program for established and emerging artists as attested by alumni’s international awards for their feature scripts.
Artistic and Literary Management | Bridge Theater Ensemble | 2011-2017
Founder and Manager | New Script Development Program | Farabi Cinematic Foundation | 2015-2017
Artistic and Literary Management | Bridge Theater Ensemble | 2011-2017
- Established and maintained strong relationships with diverse educational organizations and community leaders.
- Developed educational and outreach activities in film, media, and performing arts.
- Facilitated revenue generation and provided the financial reports and annual budget.
- Managed fundraising by developing a robust diversified pipeline of sponsors and coordinating sponsorship activations.
- Consulted and developed several new scripts.
- Evaluated project proposals and scripts.
- Partnered with creative teams to bring vision to life; Supervised project creative vision, story, & execution to ensure the creative vision of the original IP.
- Coached teams to ensure the optimal performance levels.
- Produced, directed, and wrote many digital productions in development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution phases, resulted in winning several international awards.
Judging At International Theater & Film Festivals
Judging At International Theater & Film Festivals
Artistic and Literary Management | Bridge Theater Ensemble | 2011-2017
- Jury Member and Festival Host, selected the winners, “I Will Tell International Film Festival,” Fort Lauderdale, FL, 2021
- Jury Member, selected the winners, “Conch Shell Int’l Film Festival,” New York City, NY, 2021
- Jury Member, selected the winners, New York Film Academy’s Made at Home Film Festival, Miami Beach, FL, 2020
- Platinum Non-Fiction Jury Member, selected the winners, COVID-19 International Student Film Festival, Sparta, Michigan, 2020
- Jury Member, chose the Official Selection, The 9th Annual European Independent Film Festival, Paris, France, 2013
- Jury Member, selected the winners, Dramaturgy and Performance section of Second Theater Week Festival, Art University, Tehran, 2013
Management in Publishing | Editor-in-Chief
Judging At International Theater & Film Festivals
Management in Publishing | Editor-in-Chief
- Managed publishing projects from concept to completion.
- Facilitated alignment and collaboration across editorial, design, G&E on the projects and milestones that inform the overall roadmap and priorities.
- Day-to-day project support for products, designs, and editorials to highlight risks/issues and helped drive resolutions.
- Hired and supervised authors and gave them feedback in the process of creation and revisions.
Selected Editorial Work:
- Regional Managing Editor, The Theatre Times on-line magazine, (Headquarter: NYC), since 2017
- Guest Editor-in-Chief, Farabi Quarterly Magazine, Special Issue on “Dramaturgy and Cinema: Script Development,” 2013
- Guest Editor-in-Chief, Farabi Quarterly Magazine, Special Issue on “The Relationship of Theater and Cinema,” 2013
Writing Samples - Selected Publications
Judging At International Theater & Film Festivals
Management in Publishing | Editor-in-Chief
Abstract
The research paper explores how a play, "Chess with the Doomsday Machine," directed by a Persian-Canadian artist, Shahin Sayadi, produced in English, would speak to various audiences in the West and the Middle East. The paper explains how the process of formation of the play is educational because both the Canadian artists in the play and the audiences of the play from various countries learned about the war and cultural issues. More importantly, the play bridged the Western and Middle Eastern cultures in a way that it generates powerful peacemaking meanings.
Abstract
The essay examines how some young Iranians from Tehran use Pharrell Williams' "Happy," to reflect on the public boundaries and restrictions. "Happy" blurs the line between Hip Hop and popular culture. Most importantly, Hip Hop was emerged as a form of resistance and protest to systemic violence and oppression. "Happy We are from Tehran"—depicting some young male and female Iranians dancing with—was uploaded into some social media, particularly YouTube in May 2014, enabling an Iranian counter-public (Pace Warner 2002) to voice their position. What makes this video counter-public is its oppositional ideology about how the public sphere in Iran should subsist, because social gatherings for dancing or drinking alcohol and the usage of social media are prohibited. Such thoughts about the public sphere arouse the Iranian police to respond immediately. Conflicting with the Islamic Republic’s public norms using an American song which is published and circulated in social media forms a counter-public.
I argue that the incident of the Iranian Happy is an indicative of Iranian counter-public that is looking into announcing its existence in a global world. The videos and #freehappyiranians, and people’s reactions in Iran and outside of Iran in social media, though act as sociopolitical activism, are the performances within which the ideas of oppression, discrimination, and revolution can be discussed.
In Iranian state media, there is a well-established tradition of displaying racial biases toward the blacks in the USA to prove that the US government is unjust and corrupt. In the case of "Happy," Iranians disregarded the conflict between black and white races because such racial prejudice was somehow alien to them. The performance of “Happy” in Iran can be seen as a political action against the inequitable rights in Iran. The underground Iranian musicians utilize the concepts of protest, anger, and oppression in their work to talk about the Iranian society.
Al (Ali) Pour Issa's Conference Presentation at The American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), San Diego, California
Inclusive Storytelling
The Undergraduate Theater Society of the University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Panelist: Ali Pour Issa, MFA, MA
May, 2018
University of California at Santa Cruz's Shahnameh Conference
Advocating Dramaturgy in the Middle East
Abstract
The paper analyzes Mohammad Aghebati’s Hamlet and Mehdi Koushki’s Richard II that have been produced in Tehran in 2012-13. The dramaturgy of their productions in the process—from the translation to their production—is the main subject of the presentation. The artists tried to make the plays applicable for the Iranian audiences. In doing so, they cut, edited, rewrote, constructed, and arranged the texts. The article specifically discusses each performance, and what dramaturgy the productions obtained. I argue that the artists used the plays written by Shakespeare to get away from the censorship of the Islamic Ministry, and to find new ways to talk about their own social, political, and economical situations of Iran. (All the productions need to acquire approvals for their public performances in Iran.) I talk about the literal translations and publications of the plays, and then make analogies between them. The different approaches of the artists in the process of creation are discussed. The social, political, and economical implications are contextualized with the dramaturgy of each production.
Al (Ali) Pour Issa's Conference Presentation at “Conference of International Shakespeare: Translation, Adaptation, and Performance,” University of Massachusetts Amherst
Performing Negotiation
Colloquium on Performativity and Translation
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Panelist: Ali Pour Issa, MFA, MA
January, 2014
BrownInternational Advanced Research Institute (BIARI)
Performing Negotiation
Theater and Civil Society
Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI)
Brown University
Presenter: Ali Pour Issa, MFA, MA
Providence, RI June, 2013
Yale 18th/19th C. Colloquium’s Graduate Student Conference
