Autobiography of a Terrorist

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is the author of the story collection, BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ENEMY, a finalist for the 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Fiction Prize, and the critically acclaimed memoir, WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE, selected as one of the ten best books of the year by Dwight Garner of THE NEW YORK TIMES*.His short stories and personal essays have appeared in THE NEW YORKER, THE PARIS REVIEW, GRANTA, MCSWEENEY’S, THE NEW YORK TIMES, and NEW AMERICAN STORIES,*among other publications. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction, a fiction fellowship from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and two playwriting fellowships from New York Theatre Workshop. Saïd teaches memoir in the MFA program at Hunter College and creative writing at New York University, where he received a 2013 Outstanding Teaching Award. He currently serves on the board of directors for theNew York Foundation for the Arts.

Evren Odcikin

Evren Odcikin is a Turkish-American director based in San Francisco and serves as the Director New Plays & Marketing for Golden Thread Productions, where he has been an artistic associate since 2005. For Golden Thread, he directed the premieres of Yussef El Guindi’s LANGUAGE ROOMS, in San Francisco and Los Angeles Theater Center (critic’s pick for LOS ANGELES TIMES), Mona Mansour’s URGE FOR GOING, Denmo Ibrahim’s ECSTASY | A WATERFABLE, Kevin Artigue’s THE MOST DANGEROUS HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD (four SF Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle award nominations, including best director and production) as well as short plays by El Guindi, E.H. Benedict, Ken Kaissar, Ignacio Zulueta as part of ReOrient Festivals. For the company, he leads all new play development activities, including the annual new play reading series New Threads, assists in season selection, and helps produce the mainstage season including the biennial ReOrient Festival. His other credits include the regional premiere of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s I CALL MY BROTHERS at Cleveland Public Theatre; the world premiere of Christopher Chen’s MUTT: LET’S ALL TALK ABOUT RACE at Impact Theatre and Ferocious Lotus (“Top New Play of 2014”, Theater Dogs); the world premiere of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s 410[GONE] (Production Notebook feature in AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE) and the West Coast premieres of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s INVASION! and I CALL MY BROTHERS (Theatre Bay Area Award nomination for outstanding direction) for Crowded Fire; his adaptation of Plautus’s THE BRAGGART SOLDIER, OR MAJOR BLOWHARD for Custom Made Theatre Company (Theatre Bay Area Awards Recommended Production, four SFBATCC nominations including best director); THE OLDEST PROFESSION (two BATCC nominations) and MACHINAL (three BATCC Award nominations including best director and best production) for Brava Theater Center. A graduate of Princeton University, Evren was awarded the 2015 National Director’s Fellowship by O’Neill Theater Center, National New Plays Network, the Kennedy Center, and SDCF; the 2013 TITAN Award for Directors by Theatre Bay Area; and selected as an Emerging Theatre Leader by TCG for their American Express Leadership Bootcamp.