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Suli Holum is an award-winning director, performer, choreographer and playwright based in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
She was a co-founder of Pig Iron Theatre Company, where she developed ten original works, including as playwright for Gentlemen Volunteers, awarded a ‘Spirit of the Fringe’ Award at Edinburgh Fringe and published in Pig Iron: 3 Plays (53rd Street Press). Holum founded Stein | Holum Projects (SHP) with playwright Deborah Stein, and co-created/performed SHP’s Drama Desk nominated solo show Chimera, developed at HERE through a HARP residency, premiered at Under The Radar, toured to The Gate, London and published by Oberon Modern Plays, and The Wholehearted, commissioned by ArtsEmerson, developed at FringeArts, supported by the New England Foundation of the Arts National Touring Project and Z Space in San Francisco, premiered at Center Theatre Group (LA) and toured to La Jolla Playhouse and Abrons Arts Center. She directed SHP's Movers + Shakers, recipient of the Loewe Award from New Dramatists and developed at UCSD. As a commissioned writer/creator of new performance her works include: Wandering Alice with Nichole Canuso Dance Company, which she also co-directed, and Oedipus at FDR: A Free Wheeling Adaptation with Emmanuelle Delpech, One Beach Road with RedCape Theatre, UK, and A Fierce Kind of Love with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. She has written two live theater projects for the National Constitution Center: Fighting for Democracy, and Fourteen, the latter of which she also directed, and has also has the pleasure of directing the original solo works of dancer Nichole Canuso of NCDC, and cabaret performer Jarbeaux of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Holum has received support from The Orchard Project, New Dramatists, NACL, The Playwright’s Center, Ground Floor, and Actor’s Theater of Louisville, a TCG/Fox Resident Acting Fellowship, an Independence Fellowship, and multiple grants from the Pew. She is currently a member of Wilma Theater's HotHouse Acting Company where she also serves as Head of HotHouse Professional Training. Holum has received accolades for her acting roles in New York and regionally, including a Drama Desk Award, Barrymore and Helen Hayes Award nominations. In 2019, Holum launched The Work , a laboratory for new performance. Her play LAYLI DOVE STANTON OUTRUNS THEM ALL was sparked by a residency at the University of North Dakota, Fargo, developed in collaboration with director Ty Defoe, and was a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival. Holum's THE WOMAN QUESTION will premiere in 2026. This multi-year research and performance project has been created in partnership with the Drexel University Legacy Archive and People’s Light Theater Company, with support from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. She is represented by Bonnie Davis at Bret Adams Ltd. Suli has been on faculty at the New School, Sarah Lawrence, Pace, and University of the Arts, and is currently on faculty at The Pig Iron School. She holds a BA in Theatre Studies from Swarthmore College, and an MFA in Playwriting from Goddard College, where she was the recipient of the 2020 Engaged Artist Award. She is profiled in Devised Theater’s Collaborative Performance: Making Masterpieces From Collective Concepts by Telory D. Arendell (Routledge). |