Pirronne Yousefzadeh is a New York based theatre director. Recent projects include What Happened to Bill Viola? by Cory Hinkle, They Call Him Young Lou by Daniella Shoshan, and Grace, or the Art of Climbing by Lauren Feldman (Barrymore Nomination, Outstanding New Play).
Her work has been seen at The Public/Joe's Pub, New York Theatre Workshop, Ars Nova (ANT Fest '09 and '10), Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons (Sam French Festival), The Woodshed Collective (The Tenant: Best of 2011, The L Magazine), HERE Arts Center, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Cherry Pit, Atlantic Theater School, Bowery Poetry Club, Collective: Unconscious, Emerging Artists Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theater Company, Milwaukee Rep, Berkshire Fringe Festival, Power Plant Productions, Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, and Hangar Theatre, where she was a 2006 Drama League Directing Fellow.
With support from New York Theatre Workshop, New Georges, and The Space at Ryder Farm, Pirronne is currently developing a new ensemble-based piece, The Food Project (Working Title), with playwrights Nastaran Ahmadi, Lauren Feldman, and Leah Nanako Winkler, and a company of actors.
Pirronne has assisted Anne Bogart, both on Who Do You Think You Are (SITI Company), and at the 2007 Training Intensive in Saratoga Springs, where she trained extensively in Suzuki and Viewpoints. She has also assisted Leigh Silverman (world premiere of Coraline), Tina Landau (world premiere of Paula Vogel's A Civil War Christmas), Anne Kauffman, Kip Fagan, Aaron Posner, Eleanor Holdridge, and Joseph Hardy, among others.
Pirronne received her M.F.A. in Directing from Columbia University, where she was a Shubert Presidential Fellow and Matthews Fellowship recipient. She studied with Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff, and Brian Kulick, and directed Big Love by Charles L. Mee, Fool for Love by Sam Shepard, and several devised pieces. This past fall, Pirronne was among five directors chosen to take part in a course in collaboration at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, taught by Oskar Eustis and Rinne Groff.
Pirronne trained at Shakespeare's Globe in London, and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Theatre and English Literature from Washington University. She is an Emerging Artist of Color Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop and the Interim Fellowship Coordinator, member of the 2011 Lincoln Center Directors Lab, New Georges Affiliated Artist and member of The Jam, member of the Old Vic/New Voices Network, and an alumna of the 2009-10 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre's Resident Director Program and Drama League Directors Project. Pirronne has been a guest artist at the UCSB Summer Theater Lab, led by Naomi Iizuka, and has taught for education programs at McCarter Theatre, Two River Theater Company and Play Group Theatre. She recently joined the faculty at Bard High School Early College, is a directing mentor at Fordham University, and continues to train in Suzuki and Viewpoints with SITI Company. Upcoming projects include Blood Wedding (Ramapo College), Building Anew (Noor Theatre & The Center for Architecture), and Exile by Nastaran Ahmadi (Playwrights Realm INK'D Festival).