- UMass Theater Major Checklist — 2023
- UMass Theater Minor Checklist — 2023
- Theater Courses that Fulfill the Major and Minor
- UMass Theater Undergraduate Handbook
- UMass Theater Graduate Handbook
- Undergraduate Admissions
- Graduate School Admissions
- Fine Arts Center Box Office
- UMass Theater's Flickr account
- UMass Theater's Youtube account
- Academic and Production Calendar
- HFA Advising & Career Center
Graduate Students
Behnam Alibakhshi MFA
Directing
Behnam Alibakhshi is an Iranian actor, director and theater teacher. He is the founder of CHAKHSHOOSH Film and Theater Group where he has produced and directed plays since 2002. He worked as a teacher in Iran's universities and performed more than 20 performances. Social issues like women's equality and discrimination in the society by religious governments are the most important subjects of his interest. Now he is excited to start earning his MFA at UMass Amherst!
Some of the best his performances are: The Silk Road (Outdoor Theater in Public Places), The Night of Disaster at #13 (Outdoor Theater in Public Places), Sahoori (based on Romi’s Poems), One Minute of Silence, Barzakh, and In Asal Shahde Gole khoonin ast
Kyle Boatwright MFA
Directing
Kyle Boatwright (she/her) is a director, actor, musician, and educator based in the Pioneer Valley. Her work as a director was last seen on stage at Smith College with Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, as well as the premiere of Christin Eve Cato's Stoop Pigeons. Recent acting credits include Mayme in Intimate Apparel and Vicky in Bright Half Life (Silverthorne Theater). Other favorite regional acting credits include Bright Half Life (WAM Theater), The Revolutionists (Silverthorne Theater), Significant Other (Ghost Light Theater), Boeing Boeing (The Majestic Theater), Seminar (New Century Theater), and A Year with Frog and Toad (New Century Theater). She has served as a guest artist/lecturer at UMass, Smith College, Amherst College, and Hampshire Regional High School, and sits on the board of Silverthorne Theater.
Kyle is the co-founder of Rise Up Productions, a Valley collective of performing artists that produces shows to support social justice organizations. She also works as a developmental editor and sensitivity reader for new musical and literary pieces. A frequent music director and designer, Kyle received her BA in music composition from Amherst College in 2009, and is currently pursuing her teacher certification in the Miller Voice Method. This season, catch Kyle's work as co-director and co-creator of WAM Theatre's Me and the Sky, a cabaret highlighting the full scope of the female experience.
Drishti Chauhan MFA
Scenic Design
she/her/hers
Drishti is an interior designer from India. She earned her B.Des in Furniture and Interior Design from Unitedworld Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Growing up, she thoroughly enjoyed the process of putting up small performances, whether she was narrating the show, or just playing a tree in it. However, she never planned to make a career in it, mostly because she was not anyhow an exceptional performer but also because her skills lie in the field of design.
She is now studying MFA in Scenic Design to learn to create spaces that help tell stories, show emotions and represent cultures.
Pedro Eiras MFA
Dramaturgy
he/his
Pedro Eiras is a dramaturg, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and filmmaker. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Social Communication from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and an MA in literature from UMass. He is a US State Department alumni, having been a part of the 2008 Observing the US Institutions Program. He has two Certificates from the International Cinema Academy in Rio de Janeiro, one in Film Studies and another in Assistant Directing. As a screenwriter and filmmaker, he is responsible for the short films Save Ana and The Interview and the TV project/pilot Genesis (semifinalist at the 2018 Frapa Screenwriting Contest - Brazil's largest screenwriting contest). His historical fiction miniseries Savage Land was selected for the 2018 Rio Content Market Festival, for the 2018 Varilux Film Festival Screenwriting Lab, and was a finalist at the 2018 Frapa Screenwriting Contest. Pedro also loves teaching and has lectured at universities on Dramaturgy, Literature and the Portuguese Language. He is on Instagram @pedro.e.eiras.
Taylor Jaskula MFA
Lighting Design
Taylor Jaskula is a Lighting Designer, Master Electrician, Production Manager, and Educator. Originally from New Jersey, she is coming to UMASS from Saratoga Springs, New York where she served as the Assistant Technical Director and Lecturer for the Skidmore College Theater Department. Select design credits include Pump Up the Volume (Adirondack Theatre Festival), The Chaparral, Springfest, and Off The Shelf (Skidmore College), and Memphis (Vanguard Theater Company). Outside of Designing, she has worked in multiple capacities for SITI Company, Elizabeth Streb’s Streb Extreme Action Company, The Adirondack Theatre Festival, The South Orange Performing Arts Center, and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Most recently, she served as the Theatrical Consultant for a new stage space that was constructed in Morristown, NJ. When she isn’t working she enjoys visiting local ice cream shops, baseball, and walking her dog, Bailey.
Hyejung Kang MFA
Lighting Design
she/her/hers
Hyejung was born and raised in South Korea where she first studied theater directing. But, when she saw the immense effect of lighting on stage performances, she was captivated by lightning design. After she found her passion in life, everything changed. She began to dedicate every moment in her life to studying light and its effect on the environment.
In-depth training in lighting design began in the theater. She is still fascinated by the beauty and surrealness of the theater space and continues to learn more about lighting design in theatric performances, but she also started her research on lighting in public spaces in order to meet more audiences and study lighting in multiple dimensions. She is excited to see what kind of synergy will be created when research on theater lighting design and research on lighting design in public spaces are combined.
Emily Irene Peck MFA
Costume Design
she/her
Emily is a costume designer and technician originally from Iowa and is joining UMass from Nashville, Tennessee. She received a BA in Theatre: Design and Production from the University of Northern Iowa. Design credits include Every Brilliant Thing (Nashville Repertory Theatre), Tall Tales (Woven Theatre Collective), and Holes (Street Theatre Company). Assistant design credits include Shakespeare in Love (Nashville Repertory Theatre), and Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, and The Taming of the Shrew (American Shakespeare Center). She has also been the Rentals Manager at Nashville Repertory Theatre.
Malory Rojas Grillo MFA
Costume Design
Malory Rojas Grillo is originally from San José, Costa Rica. She is a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts, Artist, writer, and designer, and grew up in the south of the Capital, attending a Catholic school where she discovered her vocation for art.
From the age of 13 to 17 she participated in various dance, theater, puppet and writing groups. At the age of eighteen, she entered the Dramatic Arts career at the University of Costa Rica, hoping to become a playwright. During her years at the Dramatic Arts school, she worked as an actress, writer, and dancer, and specialized in the field of scenic plastic design with an emphasis on Costume and Theater Clothing. She also belonged to the circle of Poets in 2012. She has been writing since she was 11 years old, and in 2019 she directed her first play called Náufragos ó ..., in which she launched herself to explore the theatrical style of Absurdism. Maldita Golondrina was her first published play and winner of the Dramaturgy contest 2020 in Costa Rica; it was inspired by real events.
At 30 years old, she has worked on many plays as a Costume Designer and actress as the same time. She believes her passion is Theater no matter in which field, but that Costume Design is her love. Creating characters and developing a bond with them is what really makes her fall in love with the dramatic arts field.
Rose Schwietz MFA
Directing
Rose Schwietz is a director, performer, and educator born and from Minnesota. After a lifetime of writing and making music, her theatre career began in earnest in Kathmandu, Nepal. She spent several years in Nepal teaching theatre and English literature, and directing and performing with One World Theatre. She is also a 2022-2023 US Fulbright Performing Arts Research in Nepal Alum; her research examined and documented a traditional ethnic dance-drama, sati ghatu naach, which led to an original play — Deurali Daandi: The Last Chapter of Ghatu (director, researcher, co-creator). Other recent theatre highlights in Kathmandu include Macbeth Massacre (assistant director, actor), The Incubator Series (co-producer, guest director, directing mentor).
Schwietz has trained with SITI Company in Suzuki and Viewpoints methods, completed an internship with The Wooster Group, and joined two tours with Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theatre (director, deviser, stage manager). She has begun to make her mark on the Twin Cities theatre scene as well, with recent credits like Clue (Lakeshore Players Theatre, Director), Love From a Stranger (4C Theatre, Cecily Harrington), and Around the World in 80 Days (Lakeshore Players Theatre, Director). When she’s not on her bike or in rehearsal, you can find her reading, writing, or singing arias. Her greatest love in theatre is the collaborative process of building, creating, and performing together. She is thrilled to be joining UMass Amherst as a Directing MFA candidate.
Iris Sowlat MFA
Directing
she/her/hers
Iris Sowlat is a director from Chicago IL, and is excited to start earning her MFA at UMass Amherst! Her work examines socially relevant issues seen through a surprising or unexpected lens. Directing credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Accidental Shakespeare Co.), Joan of Arc and Underworld Anthem (Prop Theatre’s RhinoFest), ABCD (Piven Theatre’s Lab), The Days Are Shorter (Pride Films & Plays), Narratives of Achromatopsia (Chicago Fringe Festival), and many more! She has also worked with Northlight Theatre, About Face Theatre, American Theater Company, and NoPassport Theatre Alliance, among others. She is the co-Artistic Director of Violet Surprise Theatre.
