Children of the Wise
Playwright
Aidaa Peerzada
Aidaa Peerzada (she/her) grew up between the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland and the suburbs of Lahore, Pakistan. She is interested in the phenomenon of erasure in popular history; her work focuses on reimagining cultural mythology to inform the present. Workshops of her original work include: SHINING, at The New Roots Theater Festival (SFBATCO) and Catalyst (C3T). ONE GOOGOL AND ONE with The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company. She co-wrote the book and story for the original musical SUNFLOWERED, which premiered at Northern Sky Theatre in 2022. Aidaa’s regional credits as an actor include Magic Theatre, Word for Word, Marin Theater Company, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, American Players Theatre, and Quantum Theatre. Aidaa is part of the creative staff at the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Co. Aidaa studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts and went on to receive her BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.
Meet the Creative Team
Director
NAKISSA ETEMAD
Nakissa Etemad (she/her) is an Iranian American Dramaturg, Producer, Director, and French Translator specializing in new BIPOC plays and musicals for 30 years, Resident Artist of Golden Thread and former Associate Artistic Director of Marin Theatre Company. Recent new play dramaturgy: Justice: A New Musical (world premiere at Marin Theatre Co.), Hotter Than Egypt (Denver Center for the Performing Arts; world premiere co-production at Marin Theatre Co. & ACT in Seattle), Dramaturg for nine Bay Area Playwrights Festivals with playwrights including Terence Anthony, Dustin Chinn, Bennett Fisher, and Katori Hall, PF readings and workshops with Geetha Reddy and Garret Jon Groenveld, and Director for Marisela Treviño Orta including her Resident Playwright Showcase, Rough Readings, and BASH! 2007. Regional VP of LMDA, and former Dramaturg & Literary Manager of The Wilma Theater, San Jose Rep, and San Diego Rep. MFA in Dramaturgy, UCSD. Elliott Hayes Award winner 2015 for outstanding dramaturgy on Marcus Gardley’s four premieres of the road weeps, the well runs dry.
Dramaturg
KARINA GUTIÉRREZ
Karina Gutiérrez (she/her/ella) is a Bay Area-based director, dramaturg, and scholar. She is passionate about supporting new play development, fostering local artists, and creating welcoming, equitable, and accessible theatre spaces and classrooms. She considers theatre a powerful space for social change and the mending, healing, and restoring of communities. She is thrilled to join the fearless team of artistic collaborators at Crowded Fire.
As a director and dramaturg, Karina has had the pleasure of working with Bay Area Children’s Theatre, BRAVA, Magic Theatre, Crowded Fire, Huntington Theatre, Magic Theatre, PlayGround, Playwright’s Foundation, Shotgun Players, Stanford University, TheatreFirst, Townhall Theatre, UC Berkeley, West Edge Opera, and Word for Word. She is additionally a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons Steering Committee, Theatre Bay Area Board Member, Crowded Fire Board Member, and a founding member of the Bay Area Latinx Theatre Alliance Network (BALTAN).
Production Assistant
CAMRYN DANIELS
Camryn Daniels (she/her) This is Camryn’s first show with the Playwright’s Foundation. She is thrilled to join the team as a Production Assistant for Children of the Wise. Camryn would like to thank the Playwright’s Foundation, her parents, friends, and her boyfriend Max (plus Jinx the cat) for their continued support and excitement surrounding her career in theater.
Meet the Cast
Nemma Adeni (she/her) is a Yemeni-Desi actress and writer based in Los Angeles. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Computer Science, and subsequently studied filmmaking at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking and acting at Empowerhouse Acting Studio in Berkeley. Her first short, Brown Girls and Hair, screened at the South Asian Film Festival of America 2021. She was most recently in Golden Thread Productions’ 2023 ReOrient Festival of Short Plays, which was featured in KQED’s list of Best Bay Area Theater to watch in 2023! Aside from the art of performing, Nemma is passionate about languages (she speaks almost seven!), improvisational dance, and her day job in VR tech.
*Sofia Ahmad (she/her) previously appeared in the BAPF reading of Erin Bregman’s “Before and After.” She is thrilled to return with Aidaa Peerzada’s “Children of the Wise,” the first time that she’s acted in a piece set in her dad’s native Pakistan. Sofia is a Resident Artist with Golden Thread, where she was last seen in “ReOrient 2023.” Other local acting credits include: “English” at Berkeley Rep (u/s Marjan & Roya; appeared as Marjan), A.C.T., PlayGround, Word 4 Word, SF Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Pacific Repertory Theater, and San Jose Stage. Sofia is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.
Saqib Mausoof (he/him) is an actor, writer, and filmmaker whose credits include award-winning noir thrillers like Kala Pul and Absolution, as well as his documentary on the Indus Valley civilization, In Search of Meluhha. His debut novel, “The Warehouse/Nuit sans lune au Waziristan,” set in Pakistan and Afghanistan, was based on the author’s experience doing relief work in the region and was shortlisted for the Karachi Literature Festival. As part of the San Francisco Bay Area South Asian diaspora, he has performed at Berkeley Repertory Theater (Domestic Crusaders) and Z Space (Rebel Courtesan & The Black Bridge), and frequently serves as a host for SF Litcrawl.
Sherrif Shivakumaran (he/him)
Sindu Singh (she/her) is an actor, director, writer and producer. In 2014, she co-founded Bay Area Drama Company, a South Asian theatre company focused on social justice themes, and oversaw 18 productions as Co-Artistic Director from 2015 to 2020. Recent favorite roles include Judy (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, South Valley Civic Theatre), Dinah, (Quality of Life, Altarena Playhouse), and Mailer, (Galatea, Spreckels Theatre). Directing credits include Boiled Beans on Toast, The Invisible Hand, Kanyadaan, Counter Offence, Wedding Album, Dance Like a Man, and Yoni ki Baat (the South Asian version of The Vagina Monologues). Writing credits include 4 short plays for ‘Our Stories,’ a project she conceptualized to highlight the South Asian immigrant experience in the US. In March 2022, Sindu was nominated for ‘Principal Performance – Drama’ by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. She will be seen next in Central Works’ World Premiere of Patricia Milton’s Accused!
Puneet (he/him) is a film and theatre actor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite being away from theatre in recent years he has always felt a strong connection with the stage. He is excited to return to the theatre world playing a central role in Aidaa Peerzada’s Children of the Wise at the 46th Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Previously he has played the lead in several Bay Area theatre productions such as Enacte’s The Waiting Room, Go To Your Room Mother! and Chaos Theory as well as Generation Theatre’s Tartuffe, and Naatak’s God of Carnage, among others. Most recently he was seen in the role of Indian freedom fighter Lala Hardyal in the Punjabi film, “Sarabha – Cry for Freedom” which enjoyed a global theatrical release last November. He can next be seen in two feature films – “Designed by Preeti” and “Not Tonight” in which he plays the lead.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
**Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society