International student gains career skills, community through drama writing

Maryam Rahaseresht, now an Arizona State University alumna, came to the School of Music, Dance and Theatre, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, to expand her research.

“Before ASU, I was a Roshan Cultural Heritage Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, and my career includes performances across the USA, Europe and Asia, plus leading bilingual workshops in schools and unconventional places like women’s prisons,” said Rahaseresht. “Inspired by my past engagement with Polynesian culture, I was eager to learn from Native American traditions. ASU provided the perfect platform for these connections.”

As an international student from Iran, she faced unique challenges studying in a new place. But she also found pieces of home in the Phoenix area.

“The rich Persian presence in Arizona made homesickness more bearable — especially during Nowruz, Chelleh Night, Chaharshanbe Suri and other Zoroastrian celebrations,” she said.

At ASU, Rahaseresht was looking to develop her creativity; but more than that, she graduated with a community.

“ASU didn’t just offer a degree — it offered a home for building bridges between cultures, forms and audiences,” said Rahaseresht. “The work we do here isn’t just theater; it’s cross-cultural, cross-form; it’s cultural alchemy.”

Rahaseresht recently presented her original full-length musical at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education "Emerging Scholars Panel," where she pitched her work to Chicago producers. She said the education she received as an ASU theater student in the MFA program for dramatic writing gave her the skills she needed to be successful as a writer across a broad range of media.

“There was a lot of support for me,” she said. “Everyone was there to help me out with my creative projects, from the paperwork to figuring out the right terms for things.”

Rahaseresht said being surrounded by a supportive network of artists made all the difference.

“The theatre program course design and planning helped us to share courses and projects with the directors and with theater for youth students,” said Rahaseresht. “They became the actors and directors for our projects — a group of collaborators who are there to work with you and for you.”

She also experienced a broad variety of perspectives and support by faculty members.

“The faculty have been so supportive; they stay connected to you even after you’re graduated,” she said. “And the International Students and Scholars Center — they update you with the newest job offers. It has given me a peaceful transition from student life to creative and professional life. I feel like everyone is there to offer me chances to thrive.”

Rahaseresht shared more about her current projects, the challenges she overcame during her time at ASU and the faculty who impacted her.

Question: What can you tell us about your musical?

Answer: Set in an airport, it turns migration into a mythic trial — complete with talking luggage and a cursed vending machine. The response was enthusiastic; a few Chicago producers are already eager to stage it. In the meantime, my book, including my award-winning musicals, received its second printing in Iran.

Q: What was a challenge you faced as an international student?

A: The schooling system was a whole new system that I wasn’t used to. Back-to-back deadlines was something I didn’t have experience with. That was a big challenge; I wanted to take time and think deeply about my work. That was the hardest thing ever! But it wasn’t just my problem. I saw my American cohorts, my creative cousins, struggle with it also.

During my theater history class with Karen Jean Martinson and Kristin Hunt, there were great opportunities for me to explore the violation of human agency and how it’s nestled in different systems and different tools. I learned that you need to focus on your own trajectory and your own process.

The second part was living in the world of translation. It was at first really hard. The way that things come to people’s understanding, translated, is always different from what you really meant. Gradually I found my way to deal with it through the performativity of the language — using the gestures of the language, not just the words.

Q: What faculty members impacted you during your time at ASU?

A: One of the most influential persons was Peter Murrieta. He embraced my metaphor-heavy, nonliteral, unconventional writing. He’s Mexican American and knew how translating and transforming needs time. It’s about openness to other styles of writing and diverse ideas and experiences.

I emailed him before classes started and said, “I’m an Iranian person, and I wanted to give you a heads up about how I’m trying to explore within the language.” He actually called me and introduced me to his co-writer who was an American Iranian woman who spoke Farsi. That was the best welcome.

Kristin Hunt is a brilliant professor who I’m really grateful for. She always embraced my Persian, Middle Eastern way of thinking and allowed me to explore things. She was always there to help me. She would say, “That’s what we are looking for.” My applied project came out of my early classes with Kristin Hunt.

Jeff McMahon is retired but we still talk about projects. He had a musical writing background and that really helped my musical writing. I was fortunate to serve as a deviser on “Anthropocene,” a large-scale, site-responsive performance led by Rachel Bowditch, whose collaborative vision echoed my work with the iconic Iranian director Hamid Pourazari — bridging the socially engaged spirit of Iranian protest theater with U.S. community practice.

I had a very major accident in my very last semester, which meant I graduated later. Stephani Etheridge Woodson and my committee members helped me to postpone so I could get my treatments. They helped me with figuring out the finances and the classes to make it possible.

My work often starts where language fails — yet, here, language fails me in honoring the ASU influences that opened the doors to the heart of American theater.