Theater

Gisela Cardenas

Initial PGF Award: Theater Fellowship, Directing, 2007, Robert and Gloria Hausman Award
Additional PGF Awards: 2012 Special Project Award

Peruvian Theater Director living in New York City. Gisela is interested in working with classics and adaptations of mythological material from a contemporary perspective. She has a B.A in Anthropology from Universidad Catolica in Peru, an M.A in Performance Studies from New York University and an M.F.A in Directing from Columbia University. Before becoming a director Mrs. Cardenas worked as a professional actress of Film, Theater and T.V in her former country and has trained professional actors in Chile, Brazil and Peru. In 2001 Gisela was invited by Arianne Mnouchkine and the Theatre Du Soleil to attend a workshop in Paris. Her New York credits include “Iphigenia at Aulis”, Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” at the Riverside Church Theater, and Federico Garcia Lorca's “Don Perlimplin” for Repertorio Espanol as part of the Van Lier Fellowships for New Directors.i¿½i¿½Ms. Cardenas has taught at New York Stage and Film "Powerhouse" at Vassar Collge, Fontys Hogeschool/ Academie Voor Drama in the Netherlands, Colgate University, New York University, Columbia University and the National theater Academy in Norway. Between 2004 and 2008, Gisela was a Director in Residence at The Vortex Theater Company where she directed a version of Aeschylus “Agamemnon” that gave her a Drama Desk Nomination for Directing in 2006. In 2007 Ms. Cardenas directed Brecht's "Drums in the Night" for Colgate University, "Antigone" a one woman show adapted from Sophocles by Jose Watanabe and that Premiered at the "Sibiu International Theater Festival" in Romania, the New York Revival of “The Kiss of The Spider Woman”, and Sophocles' Ajax for Target Margin's Helenic Lab.i¿½ In 2009 shei¿½i¿½i¿½co-Directed with Brian Kulick Agamemnon and Elektra for Classic Stage Company, Odon Von Horvath's "Figaro gets a Divorce" for INTAR and Sophocles 'Ajax. Ms. Cardenas was a 2007 Princes Grace Theater Fellowship recipient, the 2008 Phil Killian Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and a member of the Women's Project Director's Lab and the current NEA/TCG Director recipient for the 2009/2011 period.

website: www.giselacardenas.com