Cambridge, MA – October 25, 2005 –

The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA), a newly established organization dedicated to promoting theatre and film, has made its debut with a new website highlighting theatre and film artists of Armenian heritage and their achievements both past and present.  The website, www.armeniandrama.org, represents the organization's first step toward realizing its mission to “make the Armenian voice heard on the world stage through the dramatic arts of theatre and film.”

The ADAA organization calls itself an “Alliance,” and that's apparent in its effort to provide an umbrella for anyone interested in the dramatic arts, from the scholar to the networking professional to the theatre-lover.  Designed in contemporary shades of blue, gold and chocolate brown, the website was established with the support of the Techfusion Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where ADAA is headquartered.  Application has been made to the I.R.S. for tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

The idea of a meeting-place on the web was initially conceived by Bianca Bagatourian, Diana Hekimian and Anne Vardanian in May this year in California.  Over the summer, Bianca Bagatourian and Joyce Van Dyke, both Boston-based playwrights, created the organization and website.  ADAA now has advisors and affiliates on both coasts and abroad.

The ADAA website focuses on the work of playwrights and screenwriters of Armenian heritage and is the first site on the web to collect and make available Armenian play-texts which have been translated into English, including works by major 19^th century and 20^th century Armenian playwrights. ADAA also hopes to commission more such translations each year. 

Among the major 20^th century writers featured on the site are playwright William Saroyan and screenwriter and filmmaker Atom Egoyan whose biographies are available on the site as well as articles and essays about their work.

On its “Spotlight” page, the website pays tribute to the notable achievements of directors, actors and other theatre and film artists: among them are Sergei Paradjanov, creator of a world-renowned film oeuvre; the late world-class stage-and-screen director Rouben Mamoulian; and acclaimed contemporary actors Arsinée Khanjian, Simon Abkarian and Karen Kondazian.  The occasional non-Armenian is also included – most notably Richard Kalinoski, whose Armenian-themed play Beast on the Moon has been produced and highly acclaimed internationally.

Site visitors can click on “What's on” to get information about upcoming festivals, productions and events related to Armenian film and theatre. Visitors can also find information about the history of Armenian drama as well as a rich collection of critical and scholarly essays and articles, and interviews with actors and filmmakers from Joan Agajanian Quinn's cable TV show, “The Joan Quinn Profiles.” Other features of the website include a directory of professionals in all aspects of theatre, film and media–from boom operators and stuntmen to costume designers, directors, and studio executives. The directory currently lists over 500 professionals of Armenian heritage, and one click takes you to a Google-search of their names.

“We couldn't have developed the website so quickly without all the help from scholars, stage and screen actors and writers, and organizations like NAASR,” says Joyce Van Dyke, ADAA co-founder and author of the play A Girl's War, adding: “so many people in the Armenian community have responded with such enthusiasm to this project.”  

One feature of the website which reaches beyond the performing arts is the oral histories of genocide survivors.  These are selections from the oral history tapes loaned to ADAA by the Armenian Library Museum of America and digitized by Techfusion.  These oral histories have never before been publicly released. The excerpts, which are in English, can be heard on the website.

Further exploration of the website uncovers historical tidbits such as the fact that playwright Levon Shant's Ancient Gods was so successful that royalties from the 1913 production financed his move to Europe for the next five years; thus he escaped the 1915 Armenian genocide that claimed the life of many of his colleagues. Site visitors can click on the text of Shant's Ancient Gods, or dive into other plays including those in two recent collections: Contemporary Armenian American Drama, edited by Nishan Parlakian, and Modern Armenian Drama, edited by S. Peter Cowe and Nishan Parlakian, both members of ADAA's Honorary Board along with Saroyan expert Dickran Kouymjian and Lifetime Obie Award winning playwright Mac Wellman.  

Says playwright Bianca Bagatourian, ADAA's President and co-founder: “The reason for the website is to connect us to one another and to our cultural heritage so that we can tell our stories. We believe this is something long past due.  It's time our stories were told.”

For further information on the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA), contact the Alliance at adaa@techfusion.com or 617-871-6764.

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22 Concord Lane Cambridge MA 02138  USA
Phone 617 871-6764
Fax 617 491-1011
www.armeniandrama.org

CONTACT: 
Bianca Bagatourian
President
Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance
617-871-6764
adaa@techfusion.com

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