(She/Her/Hers)

Associate Artistic Director
talya@wamtheatre.com

Talya  is a dramaturg, playwright and educator, who is inspired by the live interactions between artists and audiences and how these can be a catalyst for social change. She was a Visiting Professor of Theatre at Hampshire College.  She has also held the positions of Education Director at Hartford Stage and of Educational Programs Coordinator at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco. Talya is originally from Britain and returned for five recent summers to co-teach a University of Massachusetts course at the Edinburgh Festival. Talya’s writing on theatre has appeared in Theater Journal, Scene Magazine, The Moving Voice, European Stages, HowlRound, and the Valley Advocate. Talya curates WAM’s Fresh Takes Play Reading Series and has directed readings of Swallow, Paradise, Campus Unrest and The Thanksgiving Play. Her professional dramaturgy credits include: ROE and Lady Randy at WAM, the premiere of Eve Ensler’s Necessary Targets at Hartford Stage/Variety Arts Theatre, the US premiere of Helmet by Douglas Maxwell at the New York Fringe Festival, an immersive production of The Lonely Soldier Project by Helen Benedict, Seriously… What Did You Call Me? written and performed by Onawumni Jean Moss at the Ko Festival and Late Style, a stage adaptation of conversations between Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim featuring performances by members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.  Talya is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, the Dramatists Guild and the Northampton Playwrights Lab, and holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.