Widening the Lens
Dalia Ashurina
Assyrian-American director and writer Dalia Ashurina (drama, '17) hopes to change the perception of Middle Eastern women and culture
By Greg Hardesty
Dalia Ashurina grew up in the Central Valley city of Turlock, far from her Assyrian mother’s birthplace of Baghdad, Iraq.
But one-quarter of Turlock’s 80,000 residents are Assyrians, the largest concentration of any other California city.
Ashurina had plenty of cousins on her mother’s side to recruit as actors in homemade music videos and commercials she made as a kid using her Florida-born father’s camcorder.
That early love of directing has blossomed into a thriving career that includes work on large-scale Broadway productions of Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In other stage and film projects in which Ashurina has completed or is working as a director-writer, she taps into her Assyrian roots with the aim of changing the perception of Middle Eastern women and culture.
“Most Middle Eastern productions tend to tell stories through one lens,” said Ashurina. “The focus is mainly on trauma.”
“As a director, I’m very interested in comedies and familial stories,” said Ashurina. “I want to tell Middle Eastern stories that counter how the media portrays us. It’s really all about highlighting the complexity of all our stories and laughing along with us.”
“I want to tell Middle Eastern stories that counter how the media portrays us. It’s really all about highlighting the complexity of all our stories and laughing along with us.”
Compelling Work
Ashurina initially pursued a musical theater degree at the Claire Trevor School of Arts (CTSA) as a performer.
In her junior year, she took a directing course with the late Professor Emeritus Dr. Keith Fowler, the former head of directing at UC Irvine.
“I really loved performing and had kind of forgotten about directing,” said Ashurina. “When I took that class, my brain was like, ‘No, this is what you’ve always done.’ It’s just how my brain works. I love the analysis of it.”
Ashurina participated in Director Class Projects at UC Irvine and, at one point, was directing almost a show a quarter.
Her senior year, she directed Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Another directorial effort was Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal, a challenging 1928 expressionistic play.
“I remember being very impressed with her work,” recalled Juliette Carrillo, associate professor of directing. “Machinal requires imaginative staging, and Dalia directed a highly visual, beautifully physical production on a dime. You know a real director when you are compelled by their work, and I was certainly compelled. I told her she had a future in directing if she wanted it.”
Ashurina graduated from UC Irvine with honors in directing.
Image: Three Tall Persian Women, Shakespeare and Co. Photo: Maggie Hall.
From L.A to D.C. to NYC
Ashurina moved to L.A. after graduating to get experience in directing, assisting at Cornerstone Theater Co. and Center Theatre Group through her connections with Carrillo.
A directing fellowship in 2018 took Ashurina to the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The following year, she moved to New York City but the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought her back to L.A., where she worked as a production assistant and testing coordinator in the film industry.
“I wanted to be on set and learn what the directors were doing,” said Ashurina.
She then moved back to New York after being invited to serve as resident director of Phantom of the Opera.
Myrona DeLaney, head of Music Theatre at CTSA, recalls how Ashurina chatted with some of DeLaney’s students about Phantom through a program DeLaney runs, the New York Satellite Program (NYSP).
DeLaney’s NYSP students went to the Big Apple to attend the Stephen Sondheim favorite Sweeney Todd, for which Ashurina served as associate director.
Ashurina even arranged to have some top cast members talk to the students after the show. “Because the cast valued Dalia so much, star Josh Groban and fellow actor Ruthie Ann Miles, among others, came into the house where we were seated and talked to the students about life in the business for almost an hour,” said DeLaney. “It was such a kind gesture and happened all because of Dalia,” said DeLaney.
Current Projects
Ashurina recently directed Three Tall Persian Women in Lenox, Mass., which was written by fellow CTSA-alum Awni Abdi-Bahri, one of her closest friends.
She and Abdi-Bahri wrote a half-hour TV comedy pilot, UNDERSTUDIES, about two women navigating Broadway.
Up next she will direct Iraq, But Funny which is set for the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago in Summer 2025.
“I continue to try to look for stories that make us laugh,” said Ashurina. “They are as real as anything else.”
“I can trace back everything I have learned to my friends at UC Irvine and the professors there," said Ashurina. "The connections have been invaluable.”
For more information on Dalia Ashurina’s work, visit her website at daliaashurina.com.
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