Leslie Ayvazian
Leslie 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. Mention My Beauty will be one of four solo plays running in the In the Bricks Festival at New York Theatre Workshop in the spring of 2026.
Mention My Beauty, a solo-show written and performed by Associate Professor of Professional Practice Leslie Ayvazian, qill run at New York Theatre Workshop from May 5 through June 14, 2026.
Ghost Light, Meet the Dramaturgs is a Theatre series featuring Columbia Dramaturg students, faculty, and alumni, learning about their work, aspirations, and pandemic passion projects.
The New York Stage And Film Company 2020 Winter Season will feature the writing and composing talents of Columbia alumni Kareem Fahmy ’07 and Christina Quintana ’13 alongside adjunct associate professor Leslie Ayvazian.
Today, April 2nd, Mention My Beauty, an original play by Adjunct Associate Professor Leslie Ayvazian and directed by Martha Banta will be part of the Second Annual Liz Smith Reading Series at The Cherry Lane Theatre.