Sojourn at Ararat
May it live forever!
Sojourn at Ararat
101 Cooper Street
# 3E
New York, NY 10034
United States
fax: (212) 210 2971
alt: (212) 253 2022
Who are THE ARTISTS
Actor / Director / Producer
Nora Armani was born in Egypt to Armenian parents, educated and trained in England and has appeared on stage and screen worldwide performing in different languages. She has also directed a number of plays, a feature film and short films. She holds an M.Sc. degree from the University of London (LSE) and a BA from the American University in Cairo.
She continued her training at UCLA and RADA in acting and directing in addition to a number of noteworthy workshops such as Ariane Mnouchkine’s internationally acclaimed Theatre Du Soleil (Paris) and Simon MacBurney’s equally well-known Complicity Theatre (London).
Her stage work includes: The Lover (Harold Pinter - Los Angeles, London & Cologne), Papa You’re Crazy (William Saroyan - Yerevan, Armenia), Evocations of Armenia (Metropolitan Museum New York - coming to the New York Society Library in 2010), Beyond the Veil (Off- Broadway), Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising (Arcola Theatre - London), The King and I (Cairo), Arms and the Man (Young Vic Theatre - London), On the Couch with Nora Armani (London, Paris, NYC, LA & on tour), The Virile Celebration (Fatima Gallaire - Paris), No Possible Return (Hakob Ghazanchyan - National Theatre of Armenia).
Her own stage creations, Sojourn at Ararat (with Gerald Papasian), Nannto Nannto, On the Couch with Nora Armani, and Snowflakes in April, have garnered international accolades.
Films & TV include: Running Dog: Kindness of Strangers (currently in production), Santa Claus in Baghdad, Law and Order SVU, Gossip Girl, Enchanted, The Doors of Denis, Le Néflier, La Nouvelle Eve, Deadline in Seven Days, Last Station (co-director), Labyrinth (best actress award - Siunik Film Fest), Casualty (BBC) and The Friends (Egyptian-TV).
Directorial work includes: William Saroyan’s Papa You’re Crazy (adapted and directed) - Yerevan, Armenia, Sojourn at Ararat (Fountain Theatre - Los Angeles), Khawaga Story (The Wings Theatre - New York), Ali Ali (The Wings Theatre - New York), J.J. Varoujean’s Forest at the Bottom of the Sea (Paris & Los Angeles), Thornton Wilder’s Bernice (The Producers Club - New York), Snowflakes in April (Chicago & Detroit), Nannto Nanto (Paris & Venice), Last Station (feature film), The Photographer Photographed (short film) Evocations of Armenia (MET Museum New York - 2008).
Training & Education: RADA & UCLA, Ariane Mnouchkine (Theatre du Soleil), Yoshi Oyda (CIRT), Simon McBurney (Complicity Theatre). Nora Armani has a B.A. in Directing from the American University in Cairo and M.Sc. from the University of London (LSE).
Lecturing/ Teaching: Nora Armani has taught acting, directing and history of theatre at the University of La Verne in California, Media Studies at LSE (London School of Economics), Nickerson Language School in Paris (Business English and Public Speech) and currently teaches public speech and coaches in NY.
Awards: Two Drama-Logue awards for Performance and Creation for Sojourn at Ararat, Best Performance & Creation (Armenia - 1991), Best Actress in a film for Labyrinth (Armenia - 1999).
Membership: She is an Honorary Member of the National Theatre of Armenia, a member of the actors' unions SAG & Equity, the French actors' union CoJSp, TRU (Theatre Resources Unlimited) and LSE Alumni.
After Los Angeles (1981-1993) and Paris/ London (since 1993), Nora divides her time between New York and Paris.
Publications: Nora Armani’s poems, short stories and essays are published in anthologies and literary journals. Her plays were broadcast on radio in France and in Armenia.
GERALD PAPASIAN
Actor / Director / Dramaturge
Gerald Papasian was born in Egypt into a musical and artistic Armenian family. He holds an MFA in Directing form Yerevan State Institute of Fine and Dramatic Arts of the Stanislavski School and studied in Los Angeles with Lee Strasberg teachers.
Gerald is a founding member of the Irina Brook (daughter of legendary Peter Brook)
Theatre Company in Paris and is currently touring extensively with Brook’s produc- tions of Midsummer Night’s Dream (En Attendant le Songe) where he plays Bottom and Demetrius, and Don Quixote (Somewhere...La Mancha) where he plays Sancho Panza.
His stage work includes: Several works of George Bernard Shaw that he directed and performed in Los Angeles, London, Cairo and Yerevan, Shakespeare's - Much Ado about Nothing, for which he was awarded the “Golden Star” by the California Motion Picture Council. If France he has appeared in lead roles in such classics by Gogol, Moliere and Shakespeare.
He has translated numerous Armenian works into English and French and presented them on international stages throughout his career. Among these is his translation of Armen Tigranian’s Anoush, at the Michigan Opera Theater, which he also directed. The work was labeled “Best of the M.O.T. Season”. He directed it again in a different production for the 2001-2002 season at the Detroit Opera Theatre, home of the M.O.T.
He has translated, adapted and directed Taparnigos, Ladies’ Dentist, by Hagop Baronian in London and the USA (Washington, Boston and New York). He created and directed the French version of the same at the Théâtre Firmin Gémier in Antony (Paris suburb) and the Théâtre Déjazet in Paris.
He translated most of the poems in Sojourn at Ararat together with Nora Armani and John Papasian, his uncle, and published them in an edited book: Sojourn at Ararat: Poems of Armenia.
In 1997 he established the Dikran Tchouhadjian Research Centre in Paris for the restoration and promotion of Armenian theatre and music worldwide. He restored the original score (in collaboration with Haig Avakian) as well as the book of Tchouhadjian’s Arshak II (Arsace II), creating the singing Armenian translation of the opera. The work had its World Première at the San Francisco Opera in 2001 directed by Francesca Zambello with Hasmik Papian and Nora Gubish.
Films & TV include: 8th Wonderland (the multiple award-winning soon to be released feature film), Aram, Mauvais Joueurs (Bad Players), Nervous Ticks (with Bill Pullman), Wanted Dead or Alive (with Rutger Hauer), Le Coeur à l’Ouvrage, Last Station, Assignment Berlin, Suite Noire: Quand La Ville Mord, Code Name DP, Tout Pour Etre Heureux, Reves en France, Cagney & Lacey, MacGyver, Hunter.
He is working on the production of Dikran Tchouhadjian's Gariné (Leblebidji Hor-Hor) in his own French translation and adap- tation for a mid-2010 première in France.
Lecturing/ Teaching: Papasian was a visiting lecturer at the University of Venice in the department of Armenian Language between 1990-94 where he conceived and directed a Western Armenian audiovisual language instruction course. He has also taught acting, directing and history of theatre at the University of La Verne in California and has published numerous articles and a few books (see list below.)
Awards: In addition to the awards for Sojourn at Ararat, Gerald Papasian was recently awarded the Movses Khorenatsi medal by the president of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. It is considered to be the highest possible award in the Republic.
Membership: Gerald papasian is an Honorary Member of the National Theatre of Armenia, a member of the actors unions SAG & Equity and the French actors union CoJSp.
Gerald Papasian is the Director of the Dikran Tchouhadjian Reserach Centre which he founded in 1997 in Paris.
After Detroit and Los Angeles (1981-1993) Papasian is now based in Paris since 1993, where he pursues his acting and directing career on stage, the silver screen and television.
Sojourn at Ararat
101 Cooper Street
# 3E
New York, NY 10034
United States
fax: (212) 210 2971
alt: (212) 253 2022
