POLINA MIRZAD - Artistic Director
Polina Mirzad is an award-winning theater artist, producer, director, and performer whose work lives at the intersection of imagination and activism. With a lifelong passion for magic, storytelling, and social change, Polina creates original, emotionally resonant performances that invite audiences into wonder, reflection, and transformation.
Polina holds a BFA in Theater for Social Change from Concordia University and an MFA in Creative Inquiry from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She has trained and performed with The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, working closely with mentor Rhodessa Jones from 2008-2018. In 2016, she produced CounterPulse’s inaugural Blessed Unrest Festival, uniting over 30 artists at the intersection of art and social justice.
In addition to her work with Crescent Moon, Polina curates the arts and performance programming for the annual Bioneers Conference, and regularly performs as her absurdist alter ego Dr. Schmidt, a rogue scholar with 49 PhDs and a penchant for heartfelt mischief.
Polina is the recipient of numerous honors, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and Theater Bay Area, as well as the Tanette Goldberg Memorial Scholarship for her commitment to artistic excellence and social justice.