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SHIRIN DEVRIM TRAINER
Country: United States of America
Profession: Actress, Writer
A recipient of Daughters of Ataturk's Women of Distinction Award in 2001.
Shirin Devrim was born in Istanbul, Turkey and was educated in Berlin, Baghdad, Istanbul and New York.
She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Her first professional appearance was in 1950 at the Court Theatre in Wisconsin as Bella Manningham in
Gas Light. In 1953, she made her off Broadway debut as Rosa Gonzales in Tennessee Williams' Summer and
Smoke. In the mid 1950's she returned to her native land and overnight became one of the leading actresses
and directors of the Turkish theatre. Among the many parts she played are Mrs. Harrington in Peter
Schaeffers' Five Finger Exercise, Mrs. Levy in The Matchmaker, Mrs. Rosepettle in Oh Dad, Poor Dad…, Mrs.
Gant in Look Homeward Angel and Mary in The Women, and Serafina in the The Rose Tattoo, as well as
Katherina in Taming of the Shrew, Lady Macbeth, and Queen Gertrude in two different productions of
Hamlet.
During this period, she was awarded a four month Rockefeller grant which enabled her to observe theater
in ten different countries, and in 1964 she was invited by the Greek government to attend the Epidaurus
and Athens festivals.
In 1967-68 Ms. Devrim was visiting actress and director at the Stanford Repertory Theatre, where she
directed a highly acclaimed production of Jean Anouil's The Cavern, and performed Anna Andreyevna in The
Inspector General . While she was professor of drama at Carnegie-Mellon she played Brecht's Mother
Courage at the University's theatre. At the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Ms. Devrim portrayed Euripides'
Medea, and Lady Politic in Volpone. Other U.S. roles include: Illona in The Play's the Thing at the
Cincinnati Playhouse. Grand Duchess Olga in You can't take with you at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in
Minneapolis, Madame Soupeau in Brecht's Visions of Simone Machard, and Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe at the
McCarter Theatre in Princeton. Of her performance of Lidya Vasileyevna in Old World at Syracuse Stage,
the Syracuse Herald said, "Much of the charm emanates from Shirin Devrim, an actress of extraordinary
gifts." When she played Mrs. Rosengarten in Hans Sahl's House Music at the American Jewish Theater in
New York, Richard Shepard of the New York Times wrote, "Shirin Devrim is marvelously bubbly as the strong
minded, culturally oriented mother."
In 1989, after an absence of twenty years, Ms. Devrim returned to the Turkish state to portray Sarah
Bernhardt in Memoir. "The warm electricity Shirin Devrim exudes immediately envelopes the audience.
The persona she creates as Sarah Bernhardt is fascinating, for the actress has an interesting and
uniquely personal style of acting that we have not encountered before," wrote the leading Istanbul paper.
She has lectured on Turkey and the Turkish theatre, as well as the Middle Eastern situation, across the
United States in colleges, universities and private clubs and also at the Woodrow Wilson School in
Princeton, New Jersey. She was Vice President of the Milwaukee Ballet and a Trustee of the Chelsea
Theater in New York City.
She is a Regent of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and a member of the Cosmopolitan Club.
Ms. Devrim has recently completed a book about her family called Turkish Tapestry, which was published by
Quartet books in London.
Shirin Devrim lives in Princeton and Manhattan with her husband, Robert Trainer.
Sema Karaoglu |
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