Mention My Beauty, a solo-show written and performed by Associate Professor of Professional Practice Leslie Ayvazian, is getting ready for a run at New York Theatre Workshop. The show will run at the East Village theatre from May 5 through June 14, 2026.
Through the course of the autobiographical show, Ayvazian tells decidedly unsentimental, often hilarious stories of her life as a young woman surviving the cultural revolution of the '60s and '70s without a plan. She speaks candidly about navigating the anti-war movement, the women’s movement, and the sexual revolution. There’s also the heartbreak of the expectations of Armenian parents still reeling from the Genocide of 1915.
Mention My Beauty is one of four shows being performed as part of the In The Bricks Festival at NYTW, "a curated festival of intimate work that explores the elemental connection between performer, audience, and our times."
This solo-show has been a developing project for Ayvazian. One of its first readings took place in 2016 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Through the years it has been met with much positive acclaim. Following a 2024 production at Pangea, the show received a 5-star review from Holli Harms at The Front Row Center. She called it, "a must see!"
Ayvazian’s play Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play, the Roger L. Stevens Award, and second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; it premiered at the Intiman Theatre directed by Christopher Ashley. Other productions were directed by Lynne Meadow/MTC, Oskar Eustis/Trinity Repertory, and Gordon Davidson/Mark Taper Forum. Her play Rosemary and I received an honorable mention from the Susan Smith Blackburn jury. Make Me, directed by Christian Parker, was produced by the Atlantic Theatre. High Dive, directed by David Warren, premiered at the Long Wharf Theatre and then in NYC at the Manhattan Class Company. Her short film Every Three Minutes, starring Olympia Dukakis, was produced by Showtime and won a Telly Award. Her play Deaf Day was produced as a film in Damascus, Syria; it won Best Short Film at the Bahrain Film Festival. Leslie has performed her solo shows Mention My Beauty and Porcupine Girl at the Rose Auditorium at The Cooper Union. She has performed Porcupine Girl at the Guggenheim.
Tickets for Mention My Beauty can be found here.
