PHILADELPHIA, PA.: PlayPenn will add Susan Dalian and Santiago Iacinti to its leadership team as associate artistic directors. Their decades of experience on and offstage will support PlayPenn’s work in preparation for the 2022 return of the annual New Play Development Conference, which will feature original scripts exclusively from Philadelphia playwrights. They will work alongside artistic director Che’Rae Adams, who took the job earlier this year, after founding leader Paul Meshejian and other staff resigned in the wake of allegations of racism and exclusion.
Susan Dalian is a director based in Los Angeles. She recently worked with Ricardo Pérez González to direct a virtual reading of his play Mother of God at Echo Theater Company’s Playwrights LAB 2022. Dalian directed several staged virtual readings in 2021, including Iseult et Tristan by Pia Wilson, How To Raise a Freeman by Zakiyyah Alexander, Breaking Barriers by Katrina D. Richard, and Villains by Marq Ewing. She was resident director at Sierra Classic Theatre from 2014 to 2018, has acted in many plays, films, and television shows, and has been a guest artist for the past four years teaching Storytelling through Improv with Burbank Unified School District.
Santiago (Santi) Iacinti is a director and educator based in New York City. Their work includes plays by contemporary playwrights Basil Kreimendahl, Kimber Lee, Winter Miller, Nick Gandiello, Mat Smart, Andrew Bovell, Rajiv Joseph, Guadalís Del Carmen, Andres Osorio, and Jordan Ramirez Puckett. Santi was an inaugural member of the Roundabout Directors Group. They worked as a casting associate at X Casting NYC, a sexual harassment prevention trainer at ART/NY, in arts engagement at The Old Globe, and as a directing resident at Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
PlayPenn is an arts organization dedicated to the development of new plays and playwrights. Since 2005, PlayPenn has helped to develop over 140 new plays. With its annual New Play Development Conference, educational programs, and year-round development workshops, PlayPenn aims to support artists at all stages of their careers. As of 2019, PlayPenn’s budget was $468,401.
