The Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is produced by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center under the Graduate Centre at the City Univerity of New York (CUNY).
Frank Hentschker
Executive Director & Co-Curator
Dr. Frank Hentschker is the Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the Graduate Center CUNY and part of the Central Faculty of the Ph.D. Program in Theatre and Performance. Hentschker holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen, Germany. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series, the annual fall PRELUDE Festival, and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series, The global Segal Center Film Festival with works for the screen by theatre and performace artists. Before coming to The Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed as a freshman student DISKURS, the largest European student theater festival existing today. During the Time of Corona Hentschker presented over 200 Segal Talks online on HowRound with theatre artists from over 50 countries, reaching an audience of over 150.000 listeners. The Segal Center was at that time of the global shutdown worldwide the only theatre institution creating new programs every day of the week. Hentschker created and acted the role of Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by Heiner Müller. Hentschker created a performance with Joseph Beuys; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne), and worked for Robert Wilson. Hentschker won the first a Poetry Slam hosted by Bob Holman at the newly renovated Bowery Poetry Club in New York. Next to programming Segal Theatre Center events where he presented over 1000 theatre artists, Hentschker taught Theatre History at Columbia University and is currently working on a book about Robert Wilson’s play texts. Hentschker runs the Segal Center Publication with three open access academic journals and publishes anthologies from plays from around the world. The Segal Center is the largest publishers of plays from the Arab world in translation. He was for three years president of the board of PAJ, A Journal of Performance and Arts. Hentschker was appointed in 2022 a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his global work by the French Minster of Culture.
Andie Lerner
Producer & Co-Curator
Andie is a New York based actor, director and theater collaborator originally from Denver, Colorado. She is a graduate from Marymount Manhattan College with a BFA in Acting and Directing with a minor in Arts for Communities. Recent production credits include: A Voluptuary Life at HERE Arts Center (PSM), Get it Together at Denver Fringe (Producer), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Director), Not Knowing at 3LD Art & Technology Center (ASM). She collaborates to produce work under the name Open Floor Plan, is an Associate Producer at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, and an Archival Assistant for Little Cinema.
Tanvi Shah
Producer & Co-Curator
Tanvi is an independent multi-lingual theatre maker from Bombay, India. She practices as director, dramaturg, writer and adaptor, documenter of oral narratives and archivist of theatre history, curator of arts conversations, and conductor of literary encounters. She was trained under Indian Ensemble’s Directors’ Training Programme 2017 – ’18. She holds an MA in Theatre Directing (Classical and Contemporary Text) from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow 2019. Direction Credits include: Vidaai OR (Ganga Nu Aavnu), Lethewards OR [The Play They Have All Come To See], The Age of Blindness, and Unshared Childhoods. She has previously worked with theatre organisations like CRY HAVOC Company (New York), The Woodstock Players (New York), Tamaasha and Arpana Theatres (Mumbai), Junoon Theatre (Mumbai), Jana Natya Manch (Delhi), The Freedom Theatre (Palestine), Indian Ensemble (Bangalore), Drama School Mumbai, Flinn Works (Berlin), India Foundation for the Arts (Bangalore), HowlRound Theatre Commons (Boston), Those Women Productions (Berkeley), and others. She presently works remotely as the Associate Artistic Producer at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. She approaches theatre – a form that encompasses all her preoccupations – as an investigation into identities, histories, languages, and perspectives.
Gaurav Singh Nijjer
Web Designer
Gaurav is a theatre-maker, actor, arts manager and freelance marketer who works across New Delhi and London. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice, supported by the Chevening scholarship. His artistic practice investigates live performance and audience-performer interactivity using technology and distanced composition. Gaurav is the General Manager at Kaivalya Plays, a Delhi-based independent theatre company where he co-created the Theatre Management Fellowship, a unique training initiative that focuses on the strategic management and creative administration of theatre. He is also the Communications & Community Manager at The Nursery Theatre, a London-based improvisational theatre company. In a past life, he was a digital marketer and now seeks to work at the intersection of theatre, technology and communications.
Cactus Juice
Digital Marketing
Cactus Juice is an all-inclusive creative marketing solutions agency based in Bombay, India. Founded by three college friends and entrepreneurs—Elton Dmello, Shannon Fernandes and Nihar Nair, Cactus Juice specializes in telling stories that relate to audiences and seamlessly integrate the brand.
Bukola John Omokore
Festival Coordinator
John is based in London and is the Festival Coordinator for the Segal Film Festival. His educational background and work experience have placed him in positions where effective communication and quantitative proficiency are required and he believes the competencies and skills he has acquired from his endeavours, have made him intellectually curious about art film, and culture and its intersection with societal constructs like race and class.
Additional Credits
We would like to acknowledge the support of the staff of The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Festival Trailer: Tushar Ranebennur and Viraj Tadwalkar
Festival Music Theme: Second Sight feat. Anusha Ramasubramoney and Pushkar Srivatsal
We would like to thank Jackie Spaventa for her support with digital production for the festival.
