Nakissa Etemad is an Iranian American dramaturg, producer, and French translator specializing in new BIPOC plays and musicals for over 25 years. Recent MTC credits include Producer for The Catastrophist and Brilliant Mind. Marin Theatre Company’s Associate Artistic Director, she is also a Resident Artist of Golden Thread Productions, Regional VP Metro Bay Area for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and a member of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and the Anti-Racism Task Force of LMDA. Recent dramaturgy with Yussef El Guindi on Hotter Than Egypt (2020 Colorado New Play Summit), Heather Raffo’s Noura (Marin Theatre Company/ Golden Thread), Marcus Gardley’s Play on! commission of King Lear (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and recent world premiere productions with Marcus Gardley, Lauren Yee, Marisela Treviño Orta, Margo Hall, and Torange Yeghiazarian. She is a frequent collaborator on Golden Thread’s ReOrient Festivals of Short Plays and Bay Area Playwrights Festivals, including plays by Betty Shamieh, Naomi Wallace, Niku Sharei, Katori Hall, Terence Anthony, Dustin Chinn, and Bennett Fisher. Festival Director for the 5th Annual New America Playwrights Fest, featuring new plays by Lynn Nottage, Naomi Iizuka and Polly Pen (San Jose Rep). Former dramaturg and literary manager of The Wilma Theater, San Jose Rep, and San Diego Repertory Theatre and Exec. VP Freelance of LMDA. Recipient of the 2015 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for The Lark’s four-city premieres of Gardley’s the road weeps, the well runs dry. Nakissa dedicates this show to Dr. Galen A. Etemad, the patriarch, inspiration, role model, and guiding light to his family and friends for 99 wonderful years.