Lisa Kirazian's Webpage

LISA KIRAZIAN
Playwright
kirazian@mac.com, kirazian@san.rr.com

Lisa Kirazian is a writer with nearly twenty scripts and numerous articles and fictional works to her credit. Five of her plays – Not What the Doctor Ordered, The Glorious Bride, The Visitor, The Way You Look Tonight and Soul Fire -- have been produced across California, and her play Armenian Voices has received readings in Los Angeles, Bulgaria and New York. The Visitor is published and available on Amazon.com.

Her articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Performing Arts Magazine and the San Diego Union Tribune. She has also been interviewed by KPBS Public Radio, San Diego. Her other writing work includes narrative introductions and/or abridgements for more than twenty fiction and nonfiction audiobooks -- such as Joyce Carol Oates’ “We Were the Mulvaneys” and Monica Ali’s “Brick Lane.” She also has written a novel, The Music We Made, inspired by her own experience as a violinist, and is currently at work on its sequel.

Ms. Kirazian’s screenplay, Cassatt and Degas, won the 2002 Telluride Indiefest Screenplay Contest. Her screenplay, The Independents, was honored in the Script Magazine and Writer’s Digest competitions, as was her screen adaptation of her play, The Visitor. Her play The Blackstone Sessions was honored by the New Century Writer’s Awards and is currently being workshopped at the Fountain Theater. Her latest script, Mr. First Date, was a finalist at the San Diego Film Festival, a semifinalist with Scripatpalooza and Slamdance and is currently under consideration for production, as is a film adaptation of her play, The Glorious Bride.

Ms. Kirazian was born and raised in San Diego and attended Stanford University (BA English with Honors, ’92), where she was mentored by playwright/actress Anna Deavere Smith. She in turn now mentors young writers and Armenian youth. Living in Los Angeles for several years, she assisted Gordon Davidson on the Mark Taper Forum production of Leslie Ayvazian’s “Nine Armenians.” She was mentored by screenwriter Paul Peterson, who wrote for filmmaker Sam Peckinpah, as well as by leading playwrights at Los Angeles Theatre Center. Her prior work experience includes several years of arts administration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and the Music Center of Los Angeles.

Currently, Ms. Kirazian is Contest Administrator of the William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting, administered by the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance. The Prize will be awarded in 2008, the year of playwright William Saroyan’s Centennial. See www.armeniandrama.org for more information.

Ms. Kirazian resides with her husband Steve Kradjian in La Jolla, California, where she is currently at work on her second novel and a new screenplay and is in demand as a speaker. She serves on the boards of Playwrights Project and the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance as well as several Armenian charitable organizations. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Stanford Alumni in Entertainment, and many other arts organizations.

Management:
Ariel Ciudadano
Acrobatic Entertainment
acrobaticent@gmail.com

Sites of interest:

Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance

Lisa Kirazian on Doollee

Ensemble Jourine

San Diego Theater Scene

Lisa Kirazian on Amazon

Lisa Kirazian in the Los Angeles Times

Playwrights Project