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JOANN YARROW

AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, PERFORMANCE COACH, NARRATIVE CONSULTANT

Joann Maria Yarrow is an accomplished director and producer with 35 years of experience specializing in story development across serval platforms. Born in Colombia, with roots in the UK, she has lived and worked many countries around the world including Korea, Japan Singapore, Denmark, Spain, Peru, Ecuador, Kenya and all over the US. She is the Director of Community Engagement at Syracuse Stage in New York, as well as the Executive Director of Distinctive Voices, a company that provides narrative consulting for professional theatrical content, commercial voice-over, directing and performance coaching. In addition, she is the CEO of Live Animation Studios producing content for film and television in both English and Spanish.
Joann began her career as a director and choreographer while with Double Edge Theatre in Boston. She trained with Odin Teatret in Denmark, co-founding A Laboratory for Actor Training with Vernice Miller in New York City. She was also a part of Richard Schechner’s company, East Coast Artists, and worked for Broadway director, Hal Prince on the productions of Parade, Whistle down the Wind, Candide, Show Boat, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Phantom of the Opera. For 12 years Joann was Artistic Director of Teatro Prometeo, where she directed and produced over 80 productions in Spanish, translated, adapted and commissioned new works that have toured nationally and internationally in multilingual communities. With Lau Lapides Company, Joann created the Miami Hispanic Showcase, a networking event that brings bilingual talent together with agents and casting directors as well as teaching professional acting and voice-over classes.
Navigating between film, animation and stage, Joann partners with VFX Director, Dean Lyon of Splinter Studios, Black Cub Productions, MyGosh Switzerland, and Tres Monstrous Media in Spain to bring to life various live action and animation projects, from live events to television series as well as voice-over for animation and motion capture performance. She is also a story development consultant for ADA Animation in Nairobi, Kenya
Joann is an Associate Producer of the Directors Lab West in Los Angeles. She is published in the books: Latinx Actor Training; The art and practice of directing in Latin America: Central America and United States; Inside the Performance Workshop: A sourcebook for Rasaboxes; and A History of Latinx Performing Arts in the U.S.; (Routledge 2023) She has been featured in Vanidades, The Miami Herald, American Theatre, PBS, Tramoya and has several awards for her social justice work and her mission to empower women's voices on the global stage.
Joann loves to collaborate and is passionate about fostering multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary productions that challenge and shift our thoughts, actions, and perspectives.

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