Faculty

Office hours: Monday/Wednesday: After 4pm and by appointment. Location: 65 West 11th Street, Room 257

About Zishan (Zisan) Ugurlu: Zishan (Zisan) Ugurlu has worked extensively both in New York and abroad as a theater artist since 1995. She is a director and performer-in-residence at La MaMa Theater. Zishan was invited to New York City from Istanbul by Ellen Stewart (former artistic director of La MaMa Theater) to be a member of Great Jones Repertory Company. Through Ellen Stewart / La MaMa Theater, Zishan obtained her Green Card followed by her citizenship. She holds two MFA degrees: one from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Turkey, where she completed a directing thesis in “Staging Concepts of Raymond Queneau’s Exercices De Style” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cevat Capan; Columbia University, completing an Acting Thesis Production, a devised theater piece "Godard-Distant and Right" under the direction of Robert Woodruff. Zishan holds a Ph.D from Ankara University, exploring “The Importance of the Play as a Cultural Concept” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sevda Sener and Prof. Dr. Metin And.

After teaching at Wesleyan University and Trinity College, she has been teaching at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School since 2004. She is a tenured faculty member.

Zishan's directing career has spanned over more than two decades across several countries. She recently directed The Marriage (2024) by Witold Gombrowicz and invited to The International Gombrowicz Festival in Radom - Jan Kochanowski Powszechny Theater and she received the "Best Director Award" by the Jury. The Jury also granted the production the "Best Male Actor Award" and two "Distinctive Acting Awards". The Marriage was performed at Dramatyczny Theatre in Warshaw (2024) and received an outstanding reviews in New York and Poland. Medea (2024) is based on the text of Andrei Serban’s Greek and Latin text by Euripides and Seneca, a composition by Elizabeth Swados (1972). This newly adapted and reimagined version is set on the global refugee crisis. Fragments, Lists, and Lacunae (2020) written by Alexandra Chasin, featuring philosopher Judith Butler as a performer; the production was presented at New York Live Arts.  She is the founding artistic director of “Actors without Borders-ITONY.” It is an ensemble-based theater company with a commitment to introduce well known and highly regarded but rarely produced national and international playwrights to American audiences. Her directing credits include: The Franca Rame Project (2019) by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Agamemnon - in Greek (2016) by Aeschylus, Measure for Measure - in Turkish (2015) by William Shakespeare,  She Talks to Beethoven (2015) by Adrienne Kennedy, Baghdadi Bath - in Arabic (2013) by Jawad Al Assadi, π-ROJECT - in Greek  (2012) based on The Persians by Aeschylus, Purge (2011) by Sofi Oksanen, Kebap-Mady Baby.edu - in Turkish (2010) by Gianina Carbunariu, The Father (2008) by August Strindberg, Operetta (2005) by Witold Gombrowicz, The Last Supper  (2004) by Lars Norèn, Serious At All (1998) and Watershed (1996) by Tom Soper, Until the Next Whirll (1995) by Rumi.

Zishan's particular affinity and fascination in the genre of Solo Performance has led her to direct a multitude of performances presented at United Solo Festival in New York. She was awarded “Best Direction” for Yu Ling Wu’s  Dream American, (2018) Harlem Blooms in Spring by Jersten Seraile, Race Free by Maria Mukuka, In the Storm of Pleasure (2014) by Daniel Benhamu (Winner of Best Debut Award). Zishan has also directed other solo performances for different venues: The Surrender (2014) by Toni Bentley at The Clurman Theater, (Theater Row), Oysters, Orgasms, and Obituaries (2011) at La MaMa, written and performed by Raina von Waldenburg (Nominated for New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance), and Request Program (2005) by F. X. Kroetz at La MaMa. She was selected to have an honored Membership at United Solo Academy on the heels of her successes.

Zishan has performed in numerous notable productions with the Great Jones Repertory Company, including Disappearances: What We Talk About When We Talk About Protest, and R for Rebel (2025). She commenced the durational performance on Thursday, October 30, at 12:00 pm and concluded it on Friday, October 31, at 2:30 pm. Throughout the 26.5-hour performance, she focused on reading texts concerning disappearance, a phenomenon that characterizes our time. Panorama (2018-2019), directed by the Italian theater company Motus (led by Daniela Nicolò and Enrico Casagrande), was selected for "The Under the Radar Festival." The production was nominated for a Ubu Award for Best Direction, as well as Outstanding Innovative Design and Outstanding Performance Art Production, at the New York Innovative Theater Awards. Panorama was presented in several cities and festivals in Italy and across Europe: Ghent- Belgium, Barcelona-Spain, Innsbruck- Austria, and Berlin, Germany. She has also acted in The Trojan Women, (Helen) directed by Andrei Serban and composed by Elizabeth Swados; the production toured internationally across Asia and Europe. She played Carmen in Robert Wooduff’s award winning Godard-Distant and Right (2000) which was awarded as The Best Production in the Nanterre Theatre Festival in Paris. Zishan has worked closely with directors including Jay Scheib as Monique in Koltes' West Pier (2003), Medea in Müller's Medea, (2008) and Betina in Veronese's Woman Dreamt Horses (2006). Solo performance credits include the world premiere of Fo's Peasants Bible, (2002) Alighieri's Dante (2003) both directed by Ron Jenkins and Watanabe's Antigone, directed by Gisela Cardenas (2007). Zishan also played leading roles in short and feature films. Mektup (The Letter), directed by Ali Ozgenturk, and attended the Cannes and Calcutta Film Festivals. Dog Race, directed by Enid Zentelis, was nominated for “Best Short Film” for the Torino Film Festival and awarded for “Best Student Short” at the New York Film Festival. She recently acted in the short film ZW directed by Joshua Laclé (2026). Zishan gave a Turkish musical concert in 2002 titled Musica Alla Turca. 

Zishan leads the Lang College Prison Initiative Reading Group, which is supported by Lang's Civic Engagement and Social Justice Office and is related to the Prison Abolition movement. She has been teaching Scene Study: Prison Plays with Fortune Society, formerly incarcerated individuals at Lang and in prisons, since 2008. Zishan's significant contributions to prison education and social justice were recognized when she was awarded the prestigious 2020 Gramsci International Prize for Theater in Prison by INTIP (UNESCO Partner).

She has also worked as a science fellow at Ligo Project working with Dan McCloskey Lab. Zishan has been inclined to expand her knowledge in neuroscience and was creating theater courses integrating Neuroscience.

Zishan is the awardees of the Mellon Foundation's Periclean Faculty Leaders in the Humanities. She recently received the 2025 Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Justice Teaching.

Zishan teaches a range of theater classes including: Fundamentals of Acting, Scene Study, Creating Solo Performance, Monologue Workshop for Auditions, Acting for the Camera, Scene Lab: Epic Theater, Introduction to Directing: Chekhov, Post-Modern Directing, and Directing: Devised Theater. Each of her courses are designed to explore a range of scientific and socio-political issues.

Zishan firmly believes in Andrei Tarkovsky's wisdom:

“An artistic discovery occurs each time as a new and unique image of the world, a hieroglyphic of absolute truth. It appears as revelation, as a momentary, passionate wish to grasp intuitively and at a stroke all the laws of this world-its beauty and ugliness, its compassion and cruelty, its infinity and its limitations.”

MFA: Columbia University School of the Arts, New York - Completed Acting Thesis Production, a devised theater piece "Godard - Distant and Right " under the direction of Robert Woodruff 

Ph.D: Theater Department of Ankara University, Turkey - Completed Dissertation: “The Importance of the Play as a Cultural Concept” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sevda Sener and Prof. Dr. Metin And   

MFA: Theater Department of Istanbul Mimar Sinan University, Turkey - Completed Directing Thesis “Staging Concepts of Raymond Queneau’s Exercices De Style” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cevat Capan 

BA: Theater Department of Ankara University, Turkey - Completed thesis “Aziz Nesin’s Plays and Structuralism” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Aysegul Yuksel - Summa Cum Laude