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9. Sara Katzoff

Sara Katzoff

Areas of Specialization

• Creative Process Facilitation & Directing
• Acting and Performance
• Physical Theater
• Devised Theater

Interests

Research Interests: Director/designer language building & collaboration, movement direction consent based practices for intimacy and fight direction, adaptations, intergenerational theater, multi-media/hybrid works, site-specific/immersive works

Teaching Interests: Acting, physical theater, directing and creative process facilitation, contemporary performance, devised theater, new play development and dramaturgy, writing for performance (actor/creator empowered authorship)

Other Interests: Arts entrepreneurship, horizontal collaboration and leadership, event curation and producing, anti-racist theater/inclusive pedagogy and practices, restorative/transformative justice, community and civic based performance

Biography

MFA, Boston University
BA, Bard College at Simon's Rock

Sara Katzoff (she/her) is a theater maker, director and producer who is dedicated to amplifying new work by emerging artists and investigating contemporary performance through multiple lenses and embodied practices.

As a director, deviser and educator, Sara is particularly interested in work that reignites the cultural relevance, potency and accessibility of live performance as a space where diverse communities and artists can gather and engage with one another. Some of her recent production credits include: And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi (Booth Theater); The Waypoint (MASS MoCA, artist in residence), Laughs In Spanish (Boston Playwrights Theater); Particularly in the Heartland (Artist In Residence, The Foundry); PASSAGE (Kickwheel Ensemble Theater); Facing Our Truth (WAM/Colonial Theatre); The Motherf**ker With the Hat, Intimate Apparel, Palimpsest (Guest Artist, Mass College of Liberal Arts); The Exonerated (Guest Artist, University at Albany); ​ Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, The Clean House and The Lathe of Heaven (Boston University).

Prior to returning to Simon’s Rock, Sara served as the co-artistic director of Bazaar Productions and The Berkshire Fringe where she was the recipient of the Moxie Award for distinguished arts innovation and leadership. Her writing has been published in HowlRound and American Theater Magazine and she has received grants from The Martha Boschen Porter Fund and The Massachusetts Cultural Council. Sara holds an MFA in directing from Boston University, is a graduate of Dell’Arte International and is a proud alumni of Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She has been teaching at Simon’s Rock since 2022.

Highlights

• Co-Producing Artistic Director, The Berkshire Fringe
• Co-envisioned, produced and curated international theater festival based in the Daniel Arts Center at Bard College at Simon’s Rock from 2005-2013
• Organized 50+ events annually including theater, dance, music and multi-media performances, free programs, community workshops, exhibitions, films and panel discussions
• Established EarlyStages, a new play development program for emerging writers under the mentorship of Laura Maria Censabella and Susan Kim
• Gained local, regional and national media attention for the festival and Simon’s Rock in numerous outlets including The New York Times, New York Sun, Boston Globe, NPR, American Theater Magazine and more Cultivated a network of 500+ artists, playwrights, actors, directors choreographers, musicians, solo performers, composers and filmmakers (including many Simon’s Rock alumni)
• Artist in Residence and Director of New Work, The Foundry
• Director, Particularly in the Heartland (Bazaar Productions)
• Participant and Co-Facilitator, The Pastrana Project
• Co-curate and co-produce artist residencies including The Wandering Womb, a new piece in development with composer and multi-instrumentalist Meaghan Burke
• Activating memory as a site for intergenerational healing and justice with poet and wordsworker, Micah Rosegrant
• Don’t Touch the Art with visual artist and poet, Marudjina Normil
• Forthcoming: Requiem for a Stranger with New Orleans based artists Renee Benson and Jenny Sargent
• Artist in Residence at Mass MoCA (Director of The Waypoint by Iris Daughterman)
• Director/Curator, 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan Lori Parks (Collaboration with The Berkshire Fringe)
• Guest Artist at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Barrington Stage's PMP program, WAM Theater, Boston University, Boston Playwrights Theater, Made In the Berkshires Festival, Flying Cloud Institute, Tyler Street Lab, Upstreet Arts Festival, Kickwheel Ensemble Theater, University at Albany, Dell'Arte International
• Recipient of the Moxie Award for Distinguished Arts Leadership
• Recipient of Grants from The Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Martha Boschen Porter Fund