Episode 13 of the PAD podcast features director, writer, educator Pirronne Yousefzadeh who joins the podcast from Minneapolis, Minnesota in her current role as Associate Artistic Director at the Playwrights' Center. Pirronne has directed and developed work all over the country at places like The Public, New York Theatre Workshop, The Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Conservatory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, and Geva Theatre Center to just name a few. She is also a founding member of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with stories from the Middle East and beyond. Pirronne received her MFA in Directing from Columbia University under the mentorship of Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff, and Brian Kulick and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Theatre and English Literature from WashU. Do not miss this inspiring and thought-provoking episodewith the delightful and talented Pirronne Yousefzadeh.

Episode Twelve of the PAD pod features actor, director, producer, writer, and teacher Sanjit De Silva. Sanjit shares his incredible story about arriving in the U.S. as an immigrant from Sri Lanka and finding his way to WashU where he double majored in Biology and Drama with a minor in Film Studies. While still at WashU, his film study started with an internship at Spike Lee's company 40 Acres and a Mule where Sanjit was a PA on films Summer of Sam and Man on the Moon. He went on to receive an MFA from NYU’s prestigious Graduate Acting Program and followed that with roles both on Broadway in War Horse and Off-Broadway with some of the most acclaimed directors in the world of theatre. He wrote, starred and co-directed the short film Time After and directed and produced the short film Tea Time. His film and television credits are extensive and include roles in The Girl is in Trouble (with Spike Lee), The Company Men, and American Desi (film) and Evil, Blindspot, Madam Secretary, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Law & Order, and New Amsterdam (television). He’s also written four plays with wife Deepa Purohit and is the founder of SilvaDollar Films which exists "to create and produce stories about the American experience that aren’t seen in the mainstream". Do not miss this insightful interview with the amazing Sanjit De Silva!

On this episode, Rob welcomes alum Jack Isaac Pryor (they/them). Jack is a writer, theater artist, and performance studies scholar specializing in experimental forms; queer, trans, and feminist theories and methods; and the politics of time. As an Associate Professor of Theater at Penn State-Abington, Dr. Pryor specializes in experimental performance and queer, trans, and feminist theories and methods and teaches courses that combine studio-based practice with the rigorous study of social history and critical theory. Their first book, Time Slips: Queer Temporalities, Contemporary Performance, and the Hole of History (Northwestern University Press), examines the capacity of performance to revise histories of racialized and gendered violence, as well as to reveal queer and transgender futures not determined by past harm. The book also experiments with form, moving between academic prose and creative nonfiction. Dr. Pryor received their BA in Performing Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and MA and PhD in Theater from the University of Texas at Austin (designated emphasis in Performance as Public Practice), earning Doctoral Portfolio Certificates in both Cultural Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.