ASSURBANIPAL BABILLA

Writer, director, designer and actor ASSURBANIPAL BABILLA (1944–2011) was born in Tehran, Iran, raised in an Assyrian-Presbyterian household and attended college at the American University of Beirut. There he studied theology and theater, becoming deeply impressed by the work of visionary Polish director Jerzy Grotowski. He was one of three resident directors with the famed Drama Workshop of Tehran from 1973 to ’78, where he staged several of his own plays. The fundamentalist revolution of 1979 forced Mr. Babilla to flee his native country. He immigrated to the United States, briefly teaching at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles before moving to New York City. He taught acting at New York University and Bard College, and founded the theater troupe Purgatorio Ink. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Mr. Babilla led Purgatorio Ink in a series of critically acclaimed productions at La MaMa E.T.C., PS 122, St. Marks Church, The Kitchen and others. On tour, Mr. Babilla brought his work to Poland, the Czech Republic and throughout the U.S. Babilla’s plays include Three Angels Dancing on a Needle; Eating the Audience: A Presbyterian Tragedy; The True Story of a Woman Born in Iran and Raised to Heaven in Manhattan; The Rise and Fall of H.M. Dick; Suddenly Something Recklessly Gay, or Cirque de Ca-Ca; All About Jeez, or the Sacred Squirt; The Sisters Karamazov; Homo Americanus; Othello and the Circumcisèd Turk; Something Something Über Alles (Das Jackpot); and Assyrian Monkey Fantasy. Mr. Babilla said that his great theme was the inseparability of sex, politics and religion.

Shows participated in:
Something Something Uber Alles (2013 - 14) Writer