About

About ICT
Artistic Director/Producer, Shashin Desai
General Manager, caryn desai
Board of Directors

About ICT

International City Theatre is a professional, award-winning, non-profit theatre committed to bringing the Southern California community affordable, quality, professional theatre that will be entertaining, intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying, and to continuing our growth as a major regional theatre in the United States.

Now in our 25th year, ICT performs a five-play season, a holiday show and seven community and educational outreach programs. ICT has received over 200 prestigious awards for excellence in professional theatre. The City Council of Long Beach officially and unanimously recognized ICT as the resident professional theatre company of this City. The New York Times cited ICT as an innovative theatre in 1992. The Los Angeles Times named ICT one of the top 10 theatres in Southern California in 1997 and in 2000 ICT received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Award for Sustained Excellence in the Theatre. Most recently ICT received the Workforce Diversity Best Practices Award from the Chamber of Commerce.

Community support for ICT is exemplified by the strength of our Board of Directors, comprised of business and community leaders. ICT relies on ticket sales and donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and the government for support. One of our goals has been to increase earned income and the past few years have shown continuing increases in single ticket sales. ICT has a history of fiscal responsibility and continues to run in the black.

Our productions and programs reach more than 75,000 people a year. We also work closely with groups such as the City’s Black Manager’s Association, Latino and Asian organizations and the NAACP, collaborating to assist them in raising money for scholarships while introducing new faces to the theatre. LA County Supervisor Don Knabe has said that ICT “is a cultural treasure.”

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Shashin Desai

Shashin Desai is the founding artistic director/producer of International City Theatre. He is the winner of over 35 professional awards and nominations from Drama-Logue, L.A. Weekly, Back Stage West, NAACP, Robby, Ovations and LADCC. He received his training in India at the Gujarat University, in England at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and at the University of Southern California. Shashin holds two graduate degrees in film and theater. As a theatre director, he has directed more than 170 productions covering a wide range of dramas from international classics to modern plays and musicals. Most recently, he directed the Los Angeles Premiere of Facing East, the West Coast Premiere of Mark Twain's newly discovered comedy Is He Dead?, the World Premiere of Calling Aphrodite, Having Our Say, To Kill A Mockingbird, Judgment at Nuremberg, the American Premiere of My Boy Jack, The Crucible, LADCC Award winner Raisin, and the multi award-winning productions of The Price, The Destiny Of Me, Mud People and Noises Off. As an artistic director/producer, he initiated and presided over the highly acclaimed Long Beach Summer Repertory Theater for 24 years creating more than 72 productions. From 1976 to 1991, Shashin held the position of Chairman of Performing Arts (Theater, Film and Dance) at Long Beach City College. As the founding Artistic Director/Producer of ICT, Shashin has produced over 100 productions. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Artist Award from Public Corporation for the Arts as well as a commendation from the County of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach. On behalf of International City Theatre, for the year 2000, he accepted the L.A. Drama Critics Circle’s prestigious Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in theatre.

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caryn desai

caryn desai (General Manager) has a diverse background in business and the arts and has served in her present capacity with ICT since 1990. She has an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, a certificate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and two certificates from California State University, Long Beach in Arts Administration and another in Marketing and Fundraising. caryn completed the first Arts Leadership Initiative with the LA County Arts Commission, and received a full Fellowship to complete an Executive Program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business as one of fifty arts leaders in the United States chosen for the initial program. Her most recent training was as one of ten in the county to complete an Executive Coaching Initiative. Previously she served as an administrator for the Walt Disney Entertainment Arts Program. She is an award-winning director with awards and nominations from LADCC, Ovations, NAACP, LA Weekly, Robby, and Drama-Logue for her productions. Recent directing credits include: ICT's The Sweepers, El Camino's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, ICT's Five Course Love, A 'Circus' Christmas Carol, The Story, Once on This Island (6 NAACP nominations including direction), Raisin (LADCC Best Production), Dinah Was (the show with the most Ovation nominations), Visiting Mr. Green and Master Harold … and the boys. caryn is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and a member of the Board of Governors for L. A. Stage Alliance chairing the Membership Committee.

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Board of Directors

Executive Committee

William H. Collier, Jr., Esq.
    President
Stephen Goodling
    Vice President
James P. Preusch
    Vice President
Dr. Mike Walter
    Vice President
Mort Stuhlbarg
    Past Board President
Douglas Charchenko
    Treasurer
Julie Mendell
    Secretary

Members

Kristi Allen	Hon. Don Knabe
Louis H. Altman, Esq.	Amy Lipeles
Larry Black	Hon. Bonnie Adler Lowenthal
Bruce Bunin	Hon. Suja Lowenthal
Diana Ceseñas	George Medak
Ronald Chatman	John Mendell
Wayne Cheng	Geoffrey Payne
Alex Cherin	Curtis Pedersen
Peter Cossavella	Lyn Pohlmann
Steve Dodge	Eileen Rivera
Kims Estes	Renee B. Simon
Stephen Faichney	Susan Stuhlbarg
Nancy Foster	John Thomas
Nancy Ackerman Gaines	David Zanatta