About MIFA


brings audiences the finest examples of contemporary practice in
opera, theatre, dance, music, film, visual arts and literature.

MIFA's cultural programming adheres to its founding vision as a showcase for worldwide innovative and directional arts. MIFA also functions as a vehicle for community reclamation and historic and architectural preservation in the Connecticut River Valley Region.

MIFA presents an annual festival of the performing, visual and literary arts and spearheads community development projects, focusing recently on Holyoke, specifically the restoration and reopening of the historic Victory Theatre in downtown Holyoke. A key feature of MIFA is its Education Program (MIFA EP) that introduces elementary, secondary and higher education students to the arts.

History
Over the past 19 years, MIFA festival programming has presented 162 events with 1,313 artists from 47 international and national companies including 28 company debuts in America and 12 world premieres.
For Complete List Click Here


Opera

Alcina by George Frederick Handel in productions by the Onafhankelijk Toneel
The Nationale Reisopera of The Netherlands
The Coronation of Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi
American debut of Moscow's Helikon Opera in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades


Theatre
Shakespeare’s London Globe Theatre performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost
Mira and Paul Sorvino in Stella in
the Bois de Boulogne
France’s Comedie Francaise; Vanessa Redgrave in Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town
Sojourner's Truth "I will shake every place I go to" Performance by Enchanted Circle Theater

Dance
The debut of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s 2004 World Tour
The debut of three contemporary Irish dance companies in Irish Cream
French Dance BATTERIE, Solo Performance by Dancer/Choreographer David Wampach with live percussion by Anders Griffen
Wire Monkey Dance

Music
Tito Puente and his Latin Jazz Orchestra
Eddie Palmieri Seven-time Grammy Award winning Latin Jazz great in concert.
Holyoke Civic Symphony
Cuban-born composer/pianist Omar Sosa in Concert with Cuban vocalist Marta Galarraga, rapper Brutha Los, percussionist Gustavo Ovalles

Film
Silent Film Night Double Feature: Cops & Wings with Organ Accompaniment By Peter Krasinski
Emil Zola's 'La Terre' The French Silent Film
The First Annual Project-13 Student Short Film Festival
Film Screenings TEN Director Abbas Kiarostami &
Iran sous le voile des apparences Director Thierry Michel

Visual Arts
'Parings and Gleanings Art Works' by Peter Dellert
Mary Frank Exhibit
Spring Scatter Summation Exhibition of paintings by Robert Kushner
Canal Gallery Exhibitions One of a Kind New England Monoprint Guild, Exhibition of award-winning mono-prints; Like or Not Like, Me: sculpture by Lisa Yetz; Photography by Saralyn Fosnight

Literature
How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry" by Edward Hirsch
PassportHolyoke Book Fair








MIFA Victory Theatre Board of Directors
President
Teresita Alicea, Esq.
Springfield, MA
Criminal Lawyer (retired)


Vice President
Mary Richie Smith
New York, NY.
Asia Society Board Member


Clerk
Edisa Weeks
Brooklyn, NY.
Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher


Treasurer
Ralph Levy
Northampton, MA.
Aid to Massachusetts Speaker if the House of Representatives (retired)


Honorary Chair
Vanessa Redgrave
London, UK.
Actress


Co-Chair
William F. Weld
New York, NY.
Law Partner and Investment Advisor


Board Members
Mirjana Blokar
Riverdale, NY.
Psychotherapist


Barbara Gillian Lazarus
Pelham, MA.
Director-East Street Dance Studios, Hadley, MA.


Donald T. Sanders, MIFA Executive Artistic Director
Belchertown, MA.
Producer and Director


Sybil Shainwald
New York, NY.
Attorney


Dr. Alfred Hutt
South Hadley, MA.
Ophthalmologist, Founder Hutt Eye Associates


John Hellweg
Holyoke, MA.
Theatre Professor Smith College, Emeritus


Lynn Pasquerella
South Hadley, MA.
President, Mount Holyoke College


Jason Rivera
Holyoke, MA
First Niagara Bank Branch Manager, Holyoke


James Sutter
Holyoke, MA.
Jeweler & Owner Sutters Jewelry


Elizabeth Dobrska
Boston, MA.
Production, Music Programming Advisor


Honorary Member
Paul Sorvino
New York, NY.
Actor, Producer, Director


Emeritus
Mary Maples Dunn
Philadelphia, PA.
Former President, Smith College


Grace Glueck
New York, NY.
Art Critic, New York Times


Sarah S. Montgomery
South Hadley, MA
Professor Emeritus & Dean of the College Emeritus, Mount Holyoke College


Gregory Prince
Norwich, VT.
Former President, Hampshire College


Hiltrud Schulz
Amherst, MA.
Managing Director, Icestorm International


In Memorium
T. Mark Futter
Northampton, MA.
Retired Owner & CEO of Kellogg Brush Manufacturing company
Mass. Cultural Council Board of Directors
Arcadia Players, Board of Directors, Northampton, Ma.
Springfield Symphony Board of Directors
Length of service- 1998-2011









MIFA Staff



Donald T. Sanders, Executive Artistic Director
Mr. Sanders is a founder of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA) and has been its executive artistic director since 1993. As executive artistic director Sanders has brought distinguished artists and companies to Massachusetts including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Vanessa and Corin Redgrave, Prunella Scales, Tito Puente, Hilton Ruiz, Eddie Palmieri, Dublin’s Gate Theatre, England's Out of Joint, Complicite and Shakespeare’s Globe companies, the Netherland’s OT Rotterdam and National Reisopera, Cuba’s Ballet National de Cuba and France's Olivier Py, Joel Pommerat and the Comedie Francaise. In 2002 Sanders was made a Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Republic of France. Under his leadership MIFA is spearheading the restoration and reopening of the historic Victory Theatre in downtown Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Mr. Sanders graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. and was awarded a Thouron Fellowship. He received a Certificate in Drama (C.I.D.) from the University of Bristol, England, and an M.F.A. in Directing from the Yale School of Drama where he was assistant to Nikos Psacharapoulos and drama master of Stiles College. As a director Sanders is known for his stage adaptations from novels, direction of new plays and classics. His professional career began at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival/ Public Theater, which presented his Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and Old New York by Edith Wharton. New Jazz at the Public presented his 33 Scenes on the Possibility of Human Happiness and Thomas Cole, A Waking Dream, two music theater works both with scores by Henry Threadgill and Dubrovsky the opera by William Russo with a libretto by Sanders. Other New York Shakespeare Festival/Joseph Papp Public Theater credits include The America Pig, an Anti-Imperialist Vaudeville and The Owl's Story by Ted Hughes. Off-Broadway directing and producing credits include Aesop’s Fables, a rock opera by William Russo, book by Jon Swan, and The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill, libretto by Berthold Brecht and new plays From the Memoirs of Pontius Pilate by Eric Bentley, The Party by Arnold Weinstein and The Red Robins by Kenneth Koch with sets by Roy Lichtenstein, Red Grooms and Alex Katz. In 2009 Sanders directed Stella in the Bois De Boulogne by Tara Prem and Jane Wood with Paul Sorvino and Mira Sorvino.

In New York City Sanders is director of theatrical productions for Ensemble for the Romantic Century (ERC). For ERC Sanders directed Seduction, Smoke and Music by James Mello, starring Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack at the Tuscan Sun Festival, Cortona Italy. Mr. Sanders has received awards from the NEA, New York Sate Council of the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Kathy McKean, Managing Director
Ms. McKean Ms. McKean has been the Managing Director of MIFA Victory Theatre for 3 years. She has thirty years of administrative experience in not for profits throughout the Commonwealth and New Hampshire. She has a B.A. in Sociology and Education from Hampshire College and an MEd in Human Service Administration from Antioch University. A resident of Holyoke, her involvement with community development began in the 1970’s as Founding President of Girls Inc. of Holyoke overseeing the redevelopment of the former Tommy Taxi horse barn into a new home for the organization. Subsequently, she was the director of Human Services and Community Participation Coordinator for the City of Holyoke Office for Community Development. Ms. McKean was the Vice President of Agency Relations for the United Way of the Pioneer Valley and Executive Director of the United Way of Franklin County. She also served as an educator in the Holyoke and Chicopee Public School System.

Olivia Mausel, Festival Manager
Ms. Mausel has been with MIFA since 2006. She received a B.A. from Oklahoma State University, an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. from Westfield State University. Ms. Mausel has been heavily involved in the Holyoke Community for a number of years through her work as a Holyoke High School Special Education teacher and participant in Community Development. She was a piper in the Springfield Kiltie Band, member of the Council for Human Understanding, a commissioner and present chair of the Holyoke Historical Commission and a full citizen of the Muscogee Nation.

Emily Mann, Communications Officer
Ms. Mann is a ‘08 graduate of Simmons College, Boston with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Arts Administration. She began volunteering with MIFA in October 2009, assisting in office and festival operations and the design and distribution of promotional materials. Ms. Mann served two terms as MIFA’s AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer from 2010 – 2012 and continues at MIFA as the Communications Officer.