STIFFLER — DECEMBER 17-20, 2025

Protest-Performance
Written by award-winning Kosovan playwright Doruntina Basha (US Premiere)
Directed by Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva

December 17-20, 2025 @ 7pm

AnomalousCo @ The American Theatre of Actors:
314 W 54th Street
New York, New York 10019

Tickets:
General Admission: $40 (includes admission to BOUNDS the same evening)

ABOUT

— A woman arrives at the hospital. She has a knife in her back. No one notices.

— She arrives at the police station. She has a knife in her back. No one notices.

— She arrives at the morgue. She has a knife in her back. No one notices.

A searing work of absurdist-macabre, Stiffler takes a hard look at femicide, sex work, and systemic neglect of women.

As the Epstein revelations and the Pelicot trial lay bare a culture that repeatedly exploits and abandons women, Stiffler lands with stark relevance—and a fierce cry for justice.

AnomalousCo depends on generous donors who understand that ticket sales alone cannot sustain the creation of meaningful, socially engaged theatre. Your contribution directly fuels our mission, our community, and the impact we strive to make—both onstage and in the world.  When you make a tax-deductible donation to AnomalousCo your generous gift extends far beyond the walls of the theatre! This production is partially supported by the Nancy Friday Foundation and the Puffin Foundation.

CREDITS

Doruntina Basha – Playwright
Diana Zhdanova, Ylfa Edelstein, Jeremy Goren, Giovanni Sandoval, Rina Brown – Ensemble
Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva – Director

BIOS

Diana Zhdanova (Stiffler: Hava) graduated Summa Cum Laude from the renowned V. Filshtinsky Acting Studio of the Department of Acting and Directing in the St. Petersburg Institute of Performing Arts (Russia). As an actress, Zhdanova has performed in Russia, Latvia, Poland, and the US. In New York, she has performed in numerous Manhattan theaters, including 59E59 with Labyrinth Theatre; Culture Lab; and with AnomalousCo at Center at West Park, HERE Arts, American Theatre of Actors and others. Diana is a 2025 recipient of the Boris Sagan Directing Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she will serve as Assistant Director on “Spirit of the People,” a new work by Tony-nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris ("Slave Play"). Since 2020, she has served as Co- Artistic/Producing Director of AnomalousCo, New York’s queer-women led, immigrant, feminist theatre ensemble.

For film and television, Diana is represented by the agency Hanns Wolter International Inc, NYC.

Ylfa Edelstein (Stiffler: Nurse, Mindless Girl, musician) was born and raised in Iceland. As a child, she immersed herself in theater, ballet, and violin, working steadily in theater, film, and TV throughout her youth. She emigrated to the United States as a teenager to study at Webster University and with mentors such as Alan Langdon and Fred Kareman, remaining to pursue a life in the arts. Her stage work includes (Beyond) Doomsday Scrolling (ATA 2025; HERE Arts 2023; The Center at West Park 2022), Beckett.Women and Footfalls (HERE Arts 2023), Shackleton on Ice (Castillo Theater 2020), A City of Refuge with The Primitive Grace Theater Company (The Center at West Park 2020), and Puma, portraying Marlene Dietrich at New Jersey Rep. Her screen credits include The Knick (Cinemax), MacGyver, The Gifted Man, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, The Blacklist, The Education of Max Bickford, The Dinner Guest, Listen, Perception, You Can Kiss Me, Loosies, The Wisdom Tooth, and Landing Home. Ylfa is a proud member of AnomalousCo, Primitive Grace Theater Co., and The Actor’s Gym with Bobby Moresco. For more information: www.ylfaedelstein.com

Rina Brown (Stiffler: The Girl of the Two-Hundreed-Year-Old Cobblestone, musician) is an emerging multidisciplinary Ukrainian American artist whose practice bridges music, performance, and photography. Trained as a professional pianist and composer, Rina brings a finely honed musical intelligence to her performance work. She made her American stage debut in January 2025, joining the ensemble of AnomalousCo as an actor-musician in (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling at The American Theatre of Actors. Her work is grounded in political engagement and artistic activism: Rina’s creative process is dedicated to examining and deconstructing inherited social and political norms, seeking forms of self-expression that resist constraint and catalyze dialogue. As a photographic artist, Rina collaborated with AnomalousCo as the production photographer for Stiffler and Bounds.

A multidisciplinary theatre artist focused on socially engaged, devised performance, Jeremy Goren is Co-founder of Wistaria Project, Facilitator of the community song initative, NYC Seed Group, former longtime collaborator with Terra Incognita and the U.S. projects of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, and Co-Artistic Director of AnomalousCo, with whom he co-created (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling. Jeremy directed the premier of Saviana Stanescu’s Zebra 2.0, which performed at NYC festivals (including ICEFACTORY) and toured Romania, winning the 2024 Rinocerul Award for Most Innovative Play. Jeremy’s devised work has been praised as “avant-garde yet deeply felt” (Flavorpill) and“Best of the Capital Fringe” (D.C. Metro Theater Arts). He teaches youth and adults, leading programs for Wistaria Project, Brooklyn College’s Project P.E.A.C.E., Target Margin, Centro Cultural Bertolt Brecht, and NYC public schools. Jeremy holds an M.F.A. in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College.

Giovanni Sandoval, actor, playwright, and director based out of New York City. A graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse, he has performed on stages throughout the city and regionally. Earlier this year, he appeared in the new play Little Pillows at the Hudson Guild Theater. Other theater credits include Ripcord (Hampton Theatre Company), Waiting for Lefty (SI Shakespearean Theatre Company), and Oedipus the King (Patchworks Theater). Giovanni has also worked on a growing slate of independent shorts and features that continue to make their way through the festival circuit. Recent screen projects include Pleasure Bye (Warworks Productions), Gap in Front (directed by Barret Shuler), and Crazy Pete (directed by Greg Prosser). As a writer, Giovanni is developing two full-length plays, both in the workshop phase, along with several short screenplays. His work focuses on character-driven stories and reflects the communities and people who have shaped him. Giovanni is grateful for the people and creative spaces that have supported his growth. He is an ensemble member of Primitive Grace Theater Company, which has played a major role in his artistic development. He is also thrilled to be collaborating and creating exciting new work with all the artists at AnomalousCo. Giovanni is represented by About Artists Agency.

Directed by Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva

A Fulbright and Mellon Fellow, Dr. Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva is a theatre director, teacher, and scholar whose work centers the actor as creator, drawing on a synthesis of physical and psychological performance traditions. She is the founding Artistic Director of AnomalousCo, New York's predominantly queer/women-led, nearly all immigrant, entirely feminist theatre ensemble, and has staged modern and contemporary drama as well as collaboratively devised, transdisciplinary performance across the U.S., in Poland and Russia, and internationally online. Syssoyeva teaches acting, directing, devising, physical theatre, and Meyerhold’s biomechanics, bringing over two decades of experience at institutions including Stanford University, the Yale School of Drama, Florida State University, Bowdoin College, and Colby College. Her practice emphasizes ensemble authorship, the creative agency of the actor, and theatre as a catalyst for cultural dialogue and social justice. She holds a joint PhD in Theatre and Humanities from Stanford University, and her publications include A History of Collective Creation, Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance, and Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan); she is editor of Grotowski’s Process, by Kris Salata and Dariusz Kosinski, forthcoming from Methuen.

Written by award-winning Kosovan playwright, Doruntina Basha

Doruntina Basha is a Prishtina based playwright and screenwriter. Her play The Finger (2011) won several awards, including the Golden Laurel as the Best Balkan Play at the International Theater Festival MESS in Sarajevo, and has been staged worldwide in over ten productions. Her play, Stiffler, premiered in Prishtina in 2022, and won Best National Play at Talia e Flakës (2025). She’s the author of the feature screenplay Vera Dreams of the Sea (2021, dir. Kaltrina Krasniqi), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and went on to win the Grand Prix in Tokyo, Silver Alexander in Thessaloniki, and the Ingmar Bergman Award in Göteborg. Her second feature screenplay, Bleach, is currently in pre-production.