Kholoud Sawaf (M.F.A.'16 Theatre Directing) has been awarded a prestigious directing fellowship by the Drama League in New York. She's one of two 2017-2018 recipients of the Classical Directing Fellowship for Artists of Color, and one of only 11 Drama League Directing Fellows nationwide.

Kholoud will serve as assistant director on an upcoming show with Shakespeare & Co., based in Massachusetts, as well as two shows with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in New York, where she will also be directing a reading.

This honor adds to Kholoud's recent string of successes. This past year, she received a Directing Fellowship at the Manhattan Theatre Club, an Artistic Assistantship in Directing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and served as resident assistant director at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville. Kholoud is also the recipient of a $250,000 grant through the Doris Duke Foundation's Building Bridges Program, supporting her collaboration with TheatreSquared to adapt and direct R&J Damascus. In 2018, she will be directing Vietgone at TheatreSquared.

Kholoud came to the University of Arkansas from Damascus, Syria. She received her B.A. in mass communication from the American University of Sharjah. Her thesis production at the U of A was Ionesco's The Chairs.