Ed Sylvanus Iskandar

Impact on Asia Scholarship
President of the Executive Leadership Committee

• This specialized MBA applies foundational business principles to people-first innovation design, strategic execution & human capital management
• As a culminating thesis, I developed and validated a business model for 'immercion,' the home of my experiential transformations design and consulting practice
  

John Wells Directing Scholarship
* completed coursework for secondary 'major' in Dramatic Writing

• As the highest distinction in theatre practice, this program combines classical technique with innovative approaches to multi-platform narrative design
• My thesis production was an original verse adaptation of Schiller's "Don Carlos," earning a Critic's Pick from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at its premiere 

• This MA-adjacent filmmaking program provides rigorous practice-based training in end-to-end digital storytelling
• Acquired mastery in visual composition, dramatic writing, editing technique and production management

Alumni Executive Leadership Committee (current)
Robert M. Golden Medal for Performing Arts
Sherifa Omade Edoga Prize for Social Issues Work

• Ranked #1 in the US for uniquely blending theatre pedagogy and practical application, this program applies theatre skills as a foundation for real world processes
• Graduation honors for my body of work cite 30+ student productions, writing / directing an original thesis, and founding the Stanford Shakespeare Society

Eugene Cremetti Scholarship for Literature
Max Meyer Scholarship for Music
Duke of Edinburgh's Award

• Ranked in the UK's top 3 and renown for its tradition of global leadership, I gained admission through merit-based scholarships
• Graduating in the top 1% of my class, I additionally earned the Duke of Edinburgh's Award for exceptional leadership and community service

• Founder and product design lead of Singapore-based startup developing a tool that gamifies classics for 9-12 year-olds to develop transformative life skills
• Over the course of 600+ hours of initial market validation working with a curated group, we've quantified upto 10% higher performance in competencies such as decision-making, creativity and moral judgment in as little as 2 hours of engaging a prototype in areas traditionally ignored by educational assessments 
• Established boutique consultancy arm to incubate transformations products and execute organizational transitions for prominent Singapore businesses, such as:
  • Atlas Bar (#1 in Asia) - Designer of experiential brand activations such as a 2021 audio menu narrative journey enhancing immersive impact of the brand culture for customers seeking to elevate 'premium' engagement
  • Restaurant Nouri (Michelin star) - Developer of new experiential products such as Gelinaz!, a multidisciplinary performance embedding food into an artistic narrative, beginning a transition into a subscription hospitality business
  • The Hustle Fund (venture capital firm) - Director of community building initiatives including experiential workshops (most recently, with Hooked's Nir Eyal) to build social capital potential across 77+ portfolio companies
  • Waypoints Asia (Singapore's top education consultancy) - Director of expansion from high school admissions focus through building transformations programs focused on leadership training to initiate longer-term relationships
  • Articipation (theatre startup) - Creative director collaborating with Broadway actress Jennifer Lim on bringing world class theatre into Singaporean living rooms, co-creating transformative hybrid theatre-hospitality events

• Commissioned to expand organizational capability building in delivering custom transformations journeys for large-scale audiences
• Conceived original site-specific setting in a real art gallery in order to enhance the author's intention to convincingly blur the boundaries between truth and fiction 
• Initiated strategic cross-sector partnerships to turn a 3-floor art gallery into a theatre-speakeasy-experiential retail venue for SRT's longest run of a play 
• Hired external specialists and directed all internal support teams to execute best-in-class experiential design, positively reviewed in The Straits Times (and others)
• Innovated online-to-offline (O2O) strategies amplifying immersive impact

• Recruited as Senior Expert to co-create and execute the artistic direction for Lincoln Center Global Exchange, a pioneering thought leadership conference 
• Developed and implemented a story bible governing all copy and communications narrative, ensuring a unified brand voice across contributing departments
• Led speaker curation and integration into a modular narrative that urged global visionaries to adopt arts-first solutions in new cross-sector collaborations spanning technology, educational, philanthropic and social impact organizations
• Activating the umbrella narrative "art is a necessity, not just a frill," real-time collaborations between artists like Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Amani Yahya (Yemen's first female rapper) highlighted diverse issues such as gender inequality
• Directly coached and facilitated all aspects of content creation and delivery, working closely with global leaders like Michael Bloomberg and their teams
• Oversaw and executed centerpiece performances, directing renowned creatives such as Gustavo Dudamel, Andrea Bocelli, Akram Khan and Brian Stokes Mitchell
• Directed digital marketing efforts, establishing a strategic partnership with Facebook Live to broaden the event's reach and audience engagement

• Hired to develop organizational competencies in producing the first repertory productions in the theatre's distinguished history (Rent, Once, and others)
• Led a year-long development process for both plays, resulting in awards from the Edgerton Foundation recognizing exceptional dramaturgical achievement
• Hired and led full design team and cast through a joint rehearsal process to successfully world premiere both productions on the same day 
• Simultaneously directed two "stunningly acted" and "excitingly staged" Critics' Picks, additionally cited as the New York Times' Best of 2017 
• Initiated a strategic partnership with refugee catering company to create transformative empathy-enhancing encounters for 16,000+ audience members that connected them to the Nigerian diaspora (the topic of the plays)

• Awarded the National Endowment of the Arts Grant for DEI advocacy to transform "toxic culture" into an inclusive organization attracting diversity in top talent  
• Conceived and executed organizational framework for co-creator residencies as primary culture change initiative, embedding diverse and queer artists such as Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock) and Tony winner Andre de Shields (Hadestown)  in active producing roles that ensured empathetic relationship building throughout the company
• Received the inaugural Clarice Smith Award supporting innovative approaches to the classics, funding an original adaptation of Shakespeare's text with Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winning collaborator Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) 
• Trained award-winning professional company in original immersive theatre techniques to build appeal to non-traditional audiences and enhancing social impact
• Turned a 900-seat theatre into an audience transformation space, enabling direct encounters with artists and fostering grassroots culture dissemination that "firmly restores the place of Shrew to the canon" (Michael Kahn, Artistic Director Emeritus)
• Presented ongoing case study during national theatre conference (hosted on-site), leading stakeholder discussions on a new policy for DEI best practices

• Commissioned by Sigourney Weaver and husband Jim Simpson to transform The Flea's unpaid company of emerging actors into credible professionals
• Modeled top team culture change, shifting from didactic to servant leadership, installing a more supportive environment for creative collaborators
• Innovated organizational and production structure for 6-hour marathon of new works by 50+ leading American playwrights, furthering the theatre's mission to create value for unpaid participants by maximizing avenues for professional relationships
• Auditioned 1,500+ emerging actors to recruit 70 new company members, executing a modular process for all 50+ new short plays simultaneously  
• Oversaw design and technical briefs, managed deliverables, and trained top team and 130+ experiential theatremakers in professional best practices
• Profiled as lead artist, receiving a Critics' Pick designation and special citation as one of the 'most memorable event of 2014' in the New York Times 
• Awarded Doris Duke Foundation Grant to curate customized transformation journeys for 5000+ audience members, initiating durational engagement practices to activate large group and repeat buying habits 
• Managed multiply-extended run for quality control, replacing cast members and refining design to accommodate length of production commitment
• Grew theatre's audience base from 1,000 - 5,000+ subscriptions through the impact of the production, building on two previous successes

James Bundy, Dean of Yale School of Drama:

"Ed's work is magical and hospitable and sexy and deep.  I put his work in the pantheon of unforgettably big theatre experiences."

• MULTI-AWARD WINNING PRINCIPAL ARTIST on 200+ plays, fostering active relationships with 500+ leading playwrights and composers, award-winning designers, and 100+ acclaimed actors such as Al Pacino and Sigourney Weaver  
• END-TO-END DESIGN LEADERSHIP, integrating O2O marketing, digital storytelling, brand amplification, visual identity, experiential retail, and social media within unified narratives through successful management of briefs, budgets, and deliverables 
• EXEMPLARY FOCUS ON QUALITY CONTROL, ensuring exceptional outcomes across diverse styles, genres, and venues worldwide

• SENIOR EXPERT recognized for multidisciplinary experiential innovation and 'creativity-as-a-practice,' delivering keynote addresses at prestigious events worldwide  
• INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGY connecting teaching experience at Ivy League schools and elite conservatories to industry presentations at leading events like IndieCade, BroadwayCon and American Theatre Live  
• APPLYING THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF CREATIVITY across diverse industries and disciplines is the central message delivered as a noted speaker, panelist, and facilitator

• Multiple honors, including national citations as NYT and LAT Best of '17 
• 90% positive review track record across body of work in culture co-creation innovation
• Proof-of-concept for impact of experiential works that expands lifetime value through community building  

• Nominated for world premiere immersive production of Caught, recognizing site-specific immersive design of pop-up space to amplify narrative impact
• Received additional citations from 3 Los Angeles awards organizations for Best Play, Best Production, and Best Production Design

• Awarded by Evan Yionoulis, Director of Juilliard's Drama Division
• Recognition of "the 'rising star' moment of a director's" career for creative innovation and DEI leadership across 2015-16 season, including world premiere productions of: 
  • Lloyd Suh's Charlie Chan's Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery
  • Mfoniso Udofia's Sojourners
  • Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (original musical adaptation)

• Recognized for achievement at "the highest calibre of off-Broadway theatre to recognize brave work, champion new material, and advance careers in theatre"
• Honored as principal / originating artist of Pulitzer finalist Lloyd Suh's Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery
• Cited for leading innovative new play development for National Asian American Theatre Company culminating in a NYT Critics' Pick world premiere production

• Inaugural recipient of award supporting innovative approaches to classics
• Garnered residencies for Tony winner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and Pulitzer finalist Amy Freed (The Beard of Avon) for new version of The Taming of the Shrew  
• Co-created original immersive musical adaptation to develop the narrative of "the other," amplifying female, queer and non-binary voices in Shakespeare's original
• Collaborated with 30+ local DC vendors to install a pre-show marketplace foregrounding the central theme "Love as Commerce" 
• Implemented interactive intermezzo, inviting audiences onto a rotating stage to share cake and champagne while deepening engagement with characters from the play

• Recipient of award from largest national grants program for organizations, providing $100,000 for works with quantifiable community impact
• Recognized as principal artist for experiential activations to engage non-traditional audiences through Shakespeare Theatre Company's run of The Taming of the Shrew 
• Co-created innovative culture-building tools to embed DEI-forward best practices through delivering artist - audience transformation journeys at scale
• Earned support for co-creator residencies integrating leading queer and non-binary artists at the heart of the organization to implement value creating DEI policies

• Presented by Charles Wright, Board President of Drama Desk Awards, as voted by 130+ leading NY critics, reporters, writers and arts editors from the entire season's Broadway and off-Broadway productions
• Cited for "bold visionary direction" of Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Golden Dragon (TONY Critics' Pick) & Ed Sylvanus Iskandar's The Mysteries (NYT Critics' Pick)
• Honored for innovative narrative construction through best-in-class experiential conceptualization, direction and design embodied through:
  • Pre-show "sound walk" grounding audiences in the immigrant experience
  • Incorporating "smell design" to immerse audiences in kitchen world
  • Innovating art installation of migrant fabrics to evoke outsider perspective
  • Serving a full meal and dessert to innovate theatre as a hospitality form
  • Principal authorship stitching 50+ new short plays into cohesive whole

• Recipient of national grant, as Principal Artist-in-Residence at The Flea Theatre, recognized for architecting new audience engagement solutions during The Mysteries
• Developed ground-breaking research and metrics to evaluate the likelihood of long-term participation and giving resulting from experiential community initiatives 
• Award culminated a three production residency focused on executing custom experiential transformation journeys for audiences through new durational engagement practices
• Achieved significant growth in subscriptions, increasing from 1,000 - 5,000+ over the course of the three productions

• Presented by Bill Rauch, Artistic Director Emeritus of Oregon Shakespeare Festival
• Recognized as "the most dynamic and imaginative theatre leader in the US" for body of work as Founder of NY collective Exit Pursued By a Bear, known for modelling a "radically inclusive" culture of creative collaboration  
• Honored for innovating an "artist gym" model, featuring actors performing unproduced works by leading playwrights, sharing the works-in-progress as fully staged "Labs"
• Implemented unique producing model offering audiences a domestic experience with a home-made meal and continuous socially immersive engagement 
• Achieved social impact leadership initiatives including free admission and meals for 12,000+ attendees, with productions supported solely by grants and donations

• 2013 nominee for immersive NY premiere of Pulitzer finalist Amy Freed's Restoration Comedy (TONY Critics' Pick)
  • Innovated "dance-ical" form in collaboration with pop group The Scissor Sisters
  • Featured 2023 Tony winner Bonnie Milligan (Kimberly Akimbo) in first leading role
  • Trained 35 actors for their first professional classical production
• 2012 nominee for NY premiere of Sean Graney's These Seven Sicknesses (NYT Critics' Pick)
  • Created new marathon production of all of Sophocles' surviving plays
  • Integrated 20 songs in collaboration with Emmy nominee David Dabbon
  • Transferred production concept originally incubated at Exit, Pursued By a Bear
• Nominated as one of 5 directors across all Broadway and off-Broadway productions for both seasons, honored alongside Tony and Oscar winners Sam Mendes, Mike Nichols, Kathleen Marshall, John Tiffany, Tim Carroll and Darko Tresnjak