Saviana Stanescu (Condeescu) is a Romanian award-winning playwright, poet, and ARTivist, one of the most cutting-edge voices to have emerged in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Her work has been widely presented internationally and in the US.

After protesting in the streets at the Romanian Revolution against Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, Saviana worked in the newly created Free Press as a cultural journalist at the daily newspaper Adevărul, a contributor to Radio Free Europe, and a TV talk-show host for TVR International.

Saviana Stanescu has been based in New York since August, 2001. She writes in English and Romanian.

US productions of her plays include Don't / Dream at the National Black Theatre, American Slavery Project, and The Kitchen; Toys at 59E59, What Happens Next and Zoom Birthday Party at The Cherry; Bee Traped Inside the Window at the Civic Ensemble, Ants at Ney Jersey Repertory; For a Barbarian Woman at Fordham/EST; Aliens with extraordinary skills at Women’s Project; Useless at IRT; Bechnya at Hudson Theatre in LA; Waxing West (2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-length Script) and YokastaS Redux at La MaMa Theatre; Suspendida and Vicious Dogs on Premises at Ontological Theatre; Polanski Polanski and Aurolac Blues at HERE Arts Center; The E-Dating Project at Strasberg Institute for Theatre&Film; and I want what you have at the World Financial Center. 

International productions include Kilometer Zero - The Revolution Project and Clown Visa at Odeon Theatre in Bucharest; Organic at Bucharest’s National Theatre; Aliens with extraordinary skills (Inmigrantes con Habilidades Extraordinarias)and Final Countdown (Cuenta Regresiva) at Teatro La Capilla, Teatro El Milagro, and Foro La Gruta in Mexico City; Bucharest Underground (2007 Marulic Prize for Best European Radio-Drama) at Radio Romania; White Embers (2010 OOB festival winner) at Dramalabbet in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Saviana's plays have received readings and workshops at The Lark, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage&Film, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Women's Project, New Georges, Playwrights' Foundation, Traveling Jewish Theatre, Immigrants Theatre Project, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Origin Theatre Company, PS122, HERE, The Cherry, Civic Ensemble, La MaMa Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center, etc.

Ms Stanescu has published books of poetry and drama including: The New York Plays (NoPassport Press), Hurt (The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013, Applause), Aliens With Extraordinary Skills and Ants (Samuel French), Google Me(Vinea), The Inflatable Apocalypse (Best Romanian Play of the Year UNITER Award, Unitext Press).

Saviana Stanescu is a member of EST (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and a Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop. She was a 2005-2007 New Generations / New Leaders TCG fellow with the The Lark, 2007-2008 NYSCA playwright-in-residence with Women’s Project, writer-in-residence for Richard Schechner’s East Coast Artists, and an inaugural Audrey fellow with New Georges (in a team with director Tamilla Woodard).

Saviana holds an MA in Performance Studies (Fulbright fellow) and an MFA in Dramatic Writing (John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting) from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and a PhD in Theatre from the National University of Theatre and Film, in Bucharest, Romania.

Dr Stanescu has taught Playriting and Contemporary Theatre at New York University – Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University, Fordham University, Strasberg Institute for Theatre&Film, Primary Stages – Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), Lark Transylvania Playwriting Camp, Centro Cultural Helénico - Mexico City, etc. Currently she is a tenured Associate Professor of Playwriting and Theatre Studies at Ithaca College.

Saviana has served as Director of International Exchange for the Lark Play Development Center, Director of the New Drama Support Program for the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and curator of playgroundzero for undergroundzero festival of experimental theatre in NYC. 

She is the founding artistic director of Immigrant Artists and Scholars in New York (IASNY), and curates&hosts the recurring IASNY programs: Liberty’s Daughters – Immigrant Women’s Monologues, New York with an Accent, and Global Poetry Series (GPS) at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York.

Fellowships & Awards

Inaugural Audrey Residency with New Georges, Indie Theatre Hall of Fame, Indie Theatre Person of the Year, NY Innovative Theatre for Outstanding Full-Length Script, Marulic Prize for Best European Radiodrama, NYSCA playwright in residence with Women's Project, TCG, Fulbright, Goldberg, MacLaine, Antoine Vitez, Best Romanian Play of the Year 2000 UNITER Award.

Teaching

Saviana has taught and lectured at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University, Fordham University, Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) - Primary Stages, NY Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Mexico’s Instituto Cultural Helenico, etc.

Currently Saviana is a tenured Associate Professor of Theatre Arts (Playwriting & Contemporary Theatre) at Ithaca College and a Visiting Regional Fellow with Cornell University's Institute for European Studies.

Learn more by visiting her Lectures & Workshops page here.