Texas Talent Sweeps National Acting Competition

Amphibian Stage held an acting competition June 8, 9, and 10th as part of SparkFest 2023, an annual festival of new plays in development, workshops, concerts, and parties.

This year, the 14-day event focused on MENASA (Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian) culture, bringing together 68 playwrights, directors, musicians, actors, and other creatives from across the country. On June 10th, the North Texas theater announced the results of the 1st Annual Acting Competition.

From L to R: Ari Derambakhsh, Haneen Arafat Murphy, Victoria Nassif, Jamie Rezanour, Christian Tannous. Photo and Illustration by Evan Michael Woods

Victoria Nassif, the Austin-raised SMU alumni who walked away with a $5000 cash prize, is a Chicago-based Lebanese, Palestinian, and American performer, intimacy director, and narrator. Her work has been seen across the globe at places like The New Victory Theater, The Kennedy Center, American Players Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Constellation Stage & Screen, TheatreSquared, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Playhouse Square, Arts Center at NYUAD, and FringeArts, to name just a few.

Second place winner, Jamie Rezanour, also an SMU alumni, won $4000. She is a native Texan of Iranian descent from Houston, currently living in New York City. Regionally, she has performed at theaters such as Dallas Theater Center, Hartford Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Guthrie, and Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Her TV credits include: The Blacklist, Bull, Blindspot, and a recurring role on Blue Bloods. Haneen Arafat Murphy won $3000 by placing third in the competition. Born and raised in Fort Worth, she began her career as a dancer in the pre-professional program at Texas Christian University. Drawn to broadcast media, she moved to New York and was among the founding program directors at Sirius Radio. Her national campaigns as a voice actor include Pringles, Delta, Walmart and Ford. Her most recent stage work includes the debut season of American Fast (Constellation Stage).

Houston-based Finalist Christian Tannous won “Audience Favorite” and $1000. The fifth finalist was Ari Derambakhsh, who received $500. The competition was judged by four influential industry professionals from outside of Texas; Taylor A. Blackman, performer, writer and professor based in New York City; Spencer Gualdoni, a casting agent with Tara Rubin Casting based in New York City; Kate Moore Heaney, an arts leader and freelance director based in New York City; and Sharifa Yasmin, a playwright and stage director based in Providence, Rhode Island. Semi-finalists included Lois Abdelmalek, Savannah Elayyach, Ahmad Kamal, Andrew Nicolas, and Mariana Saba. The ten actors in the competition were selected from over 140 submissions.

SparkFest 2023 was made possible by generous grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts, Arts Fort Worth, and Fort Worth Promotion and Development Fund.