Kristin Johnsen-Neshati

Kristin Johnsen-Neshati is Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and International Programs and Professor of Theater at George Mason University, where she has taught theater history, dramatic literature, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism since 1993. For 18 years, she also served as Resident Dramaturg/Artistic Associate for Theater of the First Amendment, focusing on new play development and launching a professionally-mentored staged reading program for high school and college playwrights.

Kristin has translated four of Chekhov’s plays, which have received several productions. She also founded 1,001 Plays (co-directed with Nicholas Kfoury Horner), a 10-minute new play exchange for students around the world. Recent Mason projects include Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good (co-directed with Maderi), Gogol’s Nose and Other Strange Tales from the City, an original devised piece drawn from The Petersburg Tales, co-conceived for Mason students and co-directed with David Gaines, in collaboration with guest artist Vladimir Shpitalnik. 

Awards: Virginia Humanities 2022 Grant, Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas 2022 Innovation Grant, Robert K. Purks Faculty Enrichment Grant, Yale’s Kenneth Tynan Prize for production dramaturgy, Fairfax County’s Strauss Fellowship, the Kennedy Center/ACTF Criticism Fellowship, and a Fulbright Faculty Research Grant to interview independent theater artists in Egypt.

Degrees

• DFA, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale School of Drama
• MFA, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale School of Drama
• BA, Russian and Theater, Swarthmore College