Si Mon'
Salah
Si Mon' is a multi-faceted theater artist and educator who takes pride in empowering others. A practicing artist and life-long learner, she has taken much joy in directing both youth and adults, leading production teams, developing Drama-Based pedagogy that focuses on Social Emotional Learning, and facilitating workshops on Hip Hop Theater. She is the recipient of the 2020 B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Digital Direction for a live performance and a former fellow of Berkeley Repertory Theatre where she is now employed.
Having received her Theatre Education Teacher Certification in May 2018 from the University of Texas at Austin, her mission as an artist, educator, and administrator is to build a positive learning environment where anyone can feel free to explore and take risks that are vital for growth even beyond the boundaries of the classroom or rehearsal space.
RESUME
See personal features on sites like Howlround Theatre Commons, Broadway World and IMDB
ARTIST STATEMENT
If all the world’s a stage then I believe each human experience to be rehearsal—a series of opportunities for communal discovery, trial--and--error, and deep, challenging inquiry. This is why an intentional creative process is at the center of every work I produce. To develop a piece of theatre is to curate an intimate experience where the audience is invited to step into a world, a deep secret, another individual’s life, an interrogation of society. The sacred right to share stories is not to be taken lightly, yet as a theatre-maker I have found it crucial to ensure that just as much enjoyment comes out of the process for my team as I would expect the product delivers to the audience.
Through directing, devising, and teaching theater, my commitment to community engagement has remained present in my work with non-profit organizations across the country. From my hometown of Dallas to Chicago then Austin and now the Bay Area, my creative projects have been centered on amplifying young, queer, and BIPOC voices throughout -- and now beyond -- my Texas community.
I’ve enjoyed using non-traditional elements to dissect commonly explored narratives, such as using the 4 elements of Hip Hop to tell Greek tragedies. In regard to aesthetic style my interests live in the tactile and visceral representations of the human condition, similar to the works of Mary Zimmerman, and not being bound by linear time or fourth walls to challenge an audience. I am excited by the mystical nature of live theatre and the endless possibilities a director has to use bodies, shadows, and soundscapes to creatively examine how movement informs life.