Rahaleh Nassri is an actor, writer, and director based in New York.
Born in Iran and raised in South Carolina, with brief stints in France and Switzerland, she speaks four languages. Her predilection for political and classical works led her to work on productions such as In Darfur, A Bright Room Called Day, Benedictus, The Disputation, Hannah and Martin, Rock N Roll, Caligula, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Titus Andronicus, and Romeo & Juliet. Rahaleh has a BA in International Affairs and an MFA in Classical Acting.
Washington Post Profile
by Eve Zibart
Theatrical dialogue is not usually a challenge for Rahaleh Nassri. She speaks four languages, plays out ornate hoaxes in public -- reading fortunes in espresso grounds in a Swiss cafe, impersonating a would-be spy being recruited in Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe -- and has performed with the Washington Shakespeare Company. She can also speak "diplomatically," having earned a degree in international affairs from George Washington University and served as press officer at the French Embassy.
But when Studio Theatre invited her to direct the Washington premiere of Kia Corthron's "Breath, Boom," a harshly realistic, extremely violent play about Prix (pronounced Pree), the leader of a girl gang in the Bronx, Nassri says she found it overwhelming. The script is curt, often crude, written in dialect and punctuated with the stage direction (Beat). Meaning and emphasis often conflict; "drive-bys" and "hits" are discussed casually while petty annoyances arouse fury. (Corthron, a Cumberland native who lives in Harlem, once said she admires writers who "fiddle with the language, and you have to keep up.")
"It's the hardest play I've ever been involved in," says Nassri, 35. "Every word has a purpose; you could see the play 50 times and not hear everything in it. And the language she uses -- it's spot on, spot on."
The play, which runs through Jan. 6 at Studio's 2ndstage, begins with a gang member being beaten by her "sisters" on Prix's orders; near the end of the play, the victim's daughter takes vicious revenge, repeatedly slamming Prix's head into a toilet. Prix, who ages from 16 to 30 in 13 quick-cut scenes, is exceptionally ruthless, and there is little hint of redemption in the ending. Casting the play, which has 19 characters played by 12 women and one man, took from July to September. (Nassri made Roxy Trapp-Dukes, who plays Prix, read so often that eventually Trapp-Dukes jokingly accused her of torture.)
Nassri, who was born in Tehran, was finishing her master's degree in acting when she was invited to direct "Breath, Boom." She had already accepted a role in the Washington Shakespeare Company's "Caligula," so she was rehearsing and acting even as she was working on the Studio show. Several weeks ago, she started production meetings for "The Skin of Our Teeth," which she's directing for Rorschach Theatre; it opens in February.