About Me
Hira Ismail EDUCATION/TRAINING
Nritya Shakti Dance Studio Intensive Training Program, Eight-Month Live Online Dance Training Program SITI Company New York, NY One-Year Theatre Conservatory Training Program Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, PA Bachelor's in English Minor in Creative Writing Arizona State University Phoenix, AZ Master's in Nonprofit Leadership and Management SKILLS
Acting & Performance: Viewpoints, Suzuki Method, Choreography Stage Combat: Basic Hand-to-Hand, Broad Sword, Rapier Languages: Urdu, some Spanish |
THEATRE & FILM
Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet Recasting the Movies & The Community Cooperative
Maya Movement Coach Olomopolo Theatre
Minute Decision Maira/Writer/Director Arizona State University
“So what is it going to be? A yes or a no?” Maira and Imran have 10 minutes to decide whether or not they would like to get married. While the clock is ticking, they figure out what questions are the most important to ask in order to make this critical life decision. Minute Decision explores with hilarity and poignance what it means to be a life partner.
Rabt Actor/Co-Director/Deviser Arizona State University
This play asks the question: How, why, and when do people feel connected with self, others, and God? We looked to Sufi Muslim texts to learn more about connection, as well as examined collected stories of connection, and were inspired by bodies of water to direct the flow of our piece. I co-directed this piece, helping frame the narrative, devise moments, and put them in an order and structure.
27 Signs Viewpoints Coach/Ensemble South Mountain Community College
A play inspired by the stories of people who've lost their siblings. Amy Funk's PHD project is turned into a play by Laurelann Porter to help process this grief. At the beginning of every rehearsal, I trained my fellow actors in Viewpoints, basing each lesson in a concept we needed to work on as a cast.
This is Not SITI Company Dea (Medea) The Tank & SITI Company
SITI Company's Small Lives Big Dreams, Going Going Gone, The Medium, and Room are reimagined for the contemporary world by a new generation of artists. A collage of re-staged, adapted, and newly created work from and inspired by SITI Company creations. My group in particular worked on an original work, Beasts of Burden, in which four Greek Tragedy heroes are manifested as artists of color in various stages of homelessness on the NYC subway.
Birha: Separation from God Co-Creator/Performer Self-Produced
Love existed well before us. But what if we feared it before our souls transformed into the human flesh? What if we feared parting with God? Two souls negotiate their experiences with God before they enter their carnal shells. Rumi, Shakespeare, and Hira Ismail provide the poetry for this journey.
Toba Tek Singh Director Pakistani Students Association
Led the devising of movement to this short story by Saadat Hasan Manto which contains bits of Urdu, English, and Punjabi.
Luna City Core Artist/Director Catalyst Company/ASU
Luna City was a large-scale, immersive theatre production through which we imagined life on the moon. As part of a team of 5 core artists, I helped conceptualize, direct, and write for this project. I co-created a character named Aisha Khan, writing poetry from her perspective which was incorporated into the performance. I directed a piece of the main-stage performance titled “Barefoot on the Moon,” one of Aisha Khan’s poems.
Medea in Me? Medea Small Dance Collective
Taking the myth of Medea and the interviews of 25 women as our lens, we all played iterations of Medea. Each woman (including us the performers) was asked what she loved about being a woman, when she felt powerful, when she felt powerless, and how she constructively moved through negative emotions.
Honor Killing Mehreen/Immigration Officer The Bridge Initiative
The Language of Hands Suave/J the Dog ASU Theatre Lab
Romeo and Juliet Sampson/Friar John/Ensemble Southwest Shakespeare Company
Life Jacket & Smooth Transition Director Arizona State University
All That Matters Writer The Bridge Initiative
Where Our Stuff Goes Hoardace Brelby Theatre Company
After Orlando Mother Phoenix Theatre
A Spark Actor/Narrator/Co-Director Campus Movie Festival
Germs and Viruses Ishtar/Mother Arizona State University
All That Matters Director/Writer AZ Women’s Theatre Co
Minute Decision Writer AZ Women’s Theatre Co
Midsummer Night’s Dream Co-Director/Ensemble Bryn Mawr College
Romeo and Juliet Lord Montague/Prince Bryn Mawr College
Hijabi Monologues Director/Actor Bryn Mawr College
King Henry IV Falstaff Bryn Mawr College
The Women Ensemble Bryn Mawr College
Comedy of Errors Luciana Bryn Mawr College
Pygmalion Col. Pickering Bryn Mawr College
Cyrano de Bergerac Ensemble Bryn Mawr College
Love’s Labours Lost Princess Bryn Mawr College
Significantly Sexier Shakespeare Deviser/Performer Bryn Mawr College
Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet Recasting the Movies & The Community Cooperative
Maya Movement Coach Olomopolo Theatre
Minute Decision Maira/Writer/Director Arizona State University
“So what is it going to be? A yes or a no?” Maira and Imran have 10 minutes to decide whether or not they would like to get married. While the clock is ticking, they figure out what questions are the most important to ask in order to make this critical life decision. Minute Decision explores with hilarity and poignance what it means to be a life partner.
Rabt Actor/Co-Director/Deviser Arizona State University
This play asks the question: How, why, and when do people feel connected with self, others, and God? We looked to Sufi Muslim texts to learn more about connection, as well as examined collected stories of connection, and were inspired by bodies of water to direct the flow of our piece. I co-directed this piece, helping frame the narrative, devise moments, and put them in an order and structure.
27 Signs Viewpoints Coach/Ensemble South Mountain Community College
A play inspired by the stories of people who've lost their siblings. Amy Funk's PHD project is turned into a play by Laurelann Porter to help process this grief. At the beginning of every rehearsal, I trained my fellow actors in Viewpoints, basing each lesson in a concept we needed to work on as a cast.
This is Not SITI Company Dea (Medea) The Tank & SITI Company
SITI Company's Small Lives Big Dreams, Going Going Gone, The Medium, and Room are reimagined for the contemporary world by a new generation of artists. A collage of re-staged, adapted, and newly created work from and inspired by SITI Company creations. My group in particular worked on an original work, Beasts of Burden, in which four Greek Tragedy heroes are manifested as artists of color in various stages of homelessness on the NYC subway.
Birha: Separation from God Co-Creator/Performer Self-Produced
Love existed well before us. But what if we feared it before our souls transformed into the human flesh? What if we feared parting with God? Two souls negotiate their experiences with God before they enter their carnal shells. Rumi, Shakespeare, and Hira Ismail provide the poetry for this journey.
Toba Tek Singh Director Pakistani Students Association
Led the devising of movement to this short story by Saadat Hasan Manto which contains bits of Urdu, English, and Punjabi.
Luna City Core Artist/Director Catalyst Company/ASU
Luna City was a large-scale, immersive theatre production through which we imagined life on the moon. As part of a team of 5 core artists, I helped conceptualize, direct, and write for this project. I co-created a character named Aisha Khan, writing poetry from her perspective which was incorporated into the performance. I directed a piece of the main-stage performance titled “Barefoot on the Moon,” one of Aisha Khan’s poems.
Medea in Me? Medea Small Dance Collective
Taking the myth of Medea and the interviews of 25 women as our lens, we all played iterations of Medea. Each woman (including us the performers) was asked what she loved about being a woman, when she felt powerful, when she felt powerless, and how she constructively moved through negative emotions.
Honor Killing Mehreen/Immigration Officer The Bridge Initiative
The Language of Hands Suave/J the Dog ASU Theatre Lab
Romeo and Juliet Sampson/Friar John/Ensemble Southwest Shakespeare Company
Life Jacket & Smooth Transition Director Arizona State University
All That Matters Writer The Bridge Initiative
Where Our Stuff Goes Hoardace Brelby Theatre Company
After Orlando Mother Phoenix Theatre
A Spark Actor/Narrator/Co-Director Campus Movie Festival
Germs and Viruses Ishtar/Mother Arizona State University
All That Matters Director/Writer AZ Women’s Theatre Co
Minute Decision Writer AZ Women’s Theatre Co
Midsummer Night’s Dream Co-Director/Ensemble Bryn Mawr College
Romeo and Juliet Lord Montague/Prince Bryn Mawr College
Hijabi Monologues Director/Actor Bryn Mawr College
King Henry IV Falstaff Bryn Mawr College
The Women Ensemble Bryn Mawr College
Comedy of Errors Luciana Bryn Mawr College
Pygmalion Col. Pickering Bryn Mawr College
Cyrano de Bergerac Ensemble Bryn Mawr College
Love’s Labours Lost Princess Bryn Mawr College
Significantly Sexier Shakespeare Deviser/Performer Bryn Mawr College
TRAINING
Nritya Shakti Studio:
Online Intensive Training Program: Kathak, Contemporary Technique, Contemporary Devising, Ballet, Latin Fusion, Street, Jazz Funk, Pilates
Trained rigorously for 8 months in a variety of dance forms in live online classes.
SITI Company:
Suzuki Method of Actor Training & Viewpoints
Training daily in the Suzuki Method and Viewpoints. Researching through practice how the voice is the seventh limb of the body, and can be built up through physicality rather than solely psychologically. Exploring connections between body posture, movement, and voice.
Arizona State University:
Advanced Directing
Directed 3 open-text and artwork-inspired scenes. There were 4 directors and 12 actors in class. Wrote a weekly blog reflecting on concepts I learned and asking the professor questions that arose during the process. Proposed to direct two plays, Life Jacket and Smooth Transition, to be performed back-to-back by the same group of actors. Held auditions, cast classmates, and spent 4 weeks directing rehearsals.
Viewpoints and Composition
Our professor focused on each viewpoint individually, helping us build our ensemble by teaching us to be present, to listen to each other, to synch our breaths. We were assigned to create tableaus in small groups, advancing to creating larger compositions. I was able to experience both the performing and directing sides of composition making. Class was about personal growth as well as ensemble growth. For the final, we created gestures based on what we wanted to improve in ourselves. We were also asked to spend 10 minutes a day for a month on a deep practice that would require us to be fully present in our work. I would go on a 10 minute walk in my neighborhood every day and then free-write for 5 minutes, treating the walk as research and inspiration for creative writing. Some days I wrote poetry, others it was closer to journaling. I kept a daily log briefly describing my practice as well. I surprised myself with my ability to be so disciplined in the work I was doing, and now when I pursue a new skill, I apply these same concepts.
Intro to Directing
Directed and acted in 5 scenes, learning the concepts of actioning and blocking from a director’s perspective. Analyzed four plays, making a list of metaphors, writing theme statements, and naming their social, political, environmental, and religious circumstances in order to create a director’s concept. Collectively created a director’s toolbox of tools to consider when staging a piece. Completed four written assignments, analyzing two performances and a non-traditional theatrical event from a director’s perspective. Interviewed an artist about their experience with directors, asking what composites good directing.
Acting III
Developed performances to scenes from Shakespeare using concepts from Declan Donnellan’s The Actor and the Target. We learned to do character work from an external rather than an internal perspective, treating the character as a mask from whose eyes we are temporarily seeing. We differentiated between three elements in our performance: me, you, and the space. Using this distinction, we shed our preoccupation with fear and instead practiced being present to the story we were creating on stage.
Bryn Mawr College:
Acting Across Cultures
Collaborated with classmates and mentored eighth grade students at Stanton Middle School to create a production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream for performance at both schools. Weekly, we practiced entering a community from a place of empathy. The eighth graders were as much in charge of devising as we were. My partner and I worked to facilitate their understanding of a scene and we created our own dialogue, sometime’s using Shakespeare’s words, sometimes their own.
Acting I & II, Movement for the Actor
Learned Richard Boleslavsky’s take on the Stanislavski method of acting. Created observational journals and experimented with clowning techniques. Worked on several scenes and monologues from Chekhov and Shakespeare’s works. Emphasis on physical acting, miming, clowning, and dynamic modes of movement on stage. Researched different cultural traditions surrounding movement.
Modern, Jazz, Bharatnatyam
Took one year of Jazz and one class each of Bharatnatyam and Modern. Learned basic techniques and rehearsed and performed several choreographed pieces.
Playwriting I
Read, discussed, and wrote about 4 plays and studied playwriting theories. Wrote a series of short plays based on in-class prompts. Wrote a full-length play and gave and received feedback throughout the process. For the final, we cast and staged a 10-minute excerpt of our play. The play I wrote is called All That Matters, which later went on to be staged in Arizona twice.
JesterZ Improv:
Performance Prep Course
Learned and practiced advanced Improv techniques; performed in bi-weekly open student showcase and gave feedback to fellow student performances.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Whistling Moon Theatre Company Tempe, AZ
Core Artist August 2017 – September 2022
Devised an immersive theatre experience surrounding a fictional human space habitat on the moon called Luna City.
Collaborated with researchers, designers, and visual artists to design and build the habitat. Facilitated performing
artists in creating short and long form interactions with audiences. Wrote poetry from the perspective of a character
and helped design and conceptualize her studio space on stage. Grantwriter. Organized Harelson Park Arts in the Park Festival.
Received In Flux grant from City of Phoenix to create an artist installation and performance called Passageways, based on coming of age and growing up.
Mesa Arts Center Mesa, AZ
Teacher May 2012 – July 2018
Taught Drama and Dance classes to students ages 4-14 with a focus on Viewpoints and Bollywood dance. Directed 5 performances per week, totaling 40 performances per summer. Created lesson plans for storybook theater, lead warm-ups, acting exercises, and improvisation techniques, mentored students in devising original plays and choreographing songs.
The Phoenix Symphony Phoenix, AZ
Concert Moderator August 2017 – March 2018
Facilitated ‘Classroom Concert Series’ for the Brass and Woodwind Quintets. Memorized and improvised upon a script in order to teach musical concepts in an entertaining way.
Catalyst Company Tempe, AZ
Core Artist August 2017 – March 2017
Part of a team of 4 core artists who devised an immersive theatre experience surrounding a fictional human space habitat on the moon called Luna City. Collaborated with researchers, designers, and visual artists to design and build the habitat. Conceptualized the world, grappling with ideas of social inequities and conflict mediation. We asked: how can a city on the moon serve as an example to the earth of a just society? Aided in the facilitation of performing artists in creating short and long form interactions with audiences. Developed a character named Aisha Khan, an artist-in-residence in Luna City who founds a studio called Daryaftgah or “A Place of Discovery” for artists from the earth and the moon, in collaboration with another core artist and performer. Wrote poetry from the perspective of Aisha Khan and helped design and conceptualize her studio space on stage. Currently in the process of conceptualizing phase two of Luna City in which we take the experience of building imaginary futures into weeklong arts-based workshops for students K-12.
Arizona Science Center Phoenix, AZ
Content Specialist May 2015 – February 2016
Researched, wrote, and performed science demonstrations and activities for guests. Cultivated innovative guest experiences and engagement with exhibits. Visible resource for guests on the floor.
Mesa Arts Center Mesa, AZ
Education Coordinator Intern September 2014 – November 2014
Updated the class resources website, wrote and edited data for winter/spring class brochure, performed other duties as needed such as updating instructor biographies and fixing broken links.
Arizona Women’s Theatre Co. Phoenix, AZ
Writer & Director November 2014 – January 2015
Wrote two plays for the Pandora Festival of New Works, All That Matters and Minute Decision, the former of which I directed. I auditioned the actors, decided on a costuming scheme, coached the actors, & set the props.
New Global Citizens Tempe, AZ
Intern June 2013 – August 2013
Revised and edited lesson plans about global issue awareness. Researched articles to add to classroom resource database. Updated school patrons about purchasing lesson plan module.
Critical Response Process Bench Phoenix, AZ
Participant December 2017 – Present
Training to facilitate the Critical Response Process (CRP) created by Liz Lerman, a dancer who also works as a professor at ASU. She created CRP in order to improve the process of giving and getting feedback, which is so integral to an artist’s work. CRP involves three sets of people: a facilitator, artists with a work-in-progress, and responders. Feedback is given using four steps: statements of meaning, questions from the artist, neutral questions from the responders, and permissioned opinions. I have been on all three sides of this process and was recently invited to the bench to both learn and help further develop CRP. We are also working to take it to other disciplines besides the arts, expanding it to adapt to the sciences and the nonprofit sector.
Community of Practice Phoenix, AZ
Artist May 2017 – May 2018
Meeting monthly to present works of progress to fellow artists for critique and providing feedback to others on their work. Collaborating with other artists to develop new works, to brainstorm, and to freewrite. Providing feedback using the Critical Response Process. Building a community of artists.
MuslimGirl New York City, NY
Writer May 2016 – May 2017
Wrote 1-2 articles a month for MuslimGirl, ranging from short news updates to extended articles.
I also worked on out-of-the-box content for the blog such as creative nonfiction pieces, podcasts, poetry, a listicle and a video monologue. I contributed to one podcast and led the creation of another. For the first one, I sought out audio and video clips of chants from protests after the 2016 election, asking people from my network to send me content. I worked to compile 20 minutes of content. Across the states, people were chanting similar phrases, and I strung these together with words of support I’d received from friends into a 5-minute poem which I performed. For the second podcast, I wanted the theme to be spoken word poetry, so I asked my fellow MuslimGirl writers to share audio of their performances with me. I also contributed a poem I’d written and performed those written by a colleague.
Article:
http://muslimgirl.com/32995/muslim-girl-theater-needed-now-ever/
Podcast 1:
http://muslimgirl.com/39735/hear-voices-reading-muslim-womens-stories/
Podcast 2:
http://muslimgirl.com/45341/spoken-word-hear-voices-episode-2/