Val Nayak (she/her) is a dramaturg and director from Northern Virginia who’s constantly curious and loves a good story.

She recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in May 2024 and moved to San Francisco. As Carnegie Mellon’s first Dramaturgy and Computer Science graduate, Val brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to her work. She’s a constant questioner, seeking the “why” and hidden connections in every project.

Val most recently served as a dramaturg for a new adaptation of A Doll’s House (written and directed by MFA director Jasmine Roth). She provided research and dramaturgical notes on each draft, exploring the impact of shifting time and place on themes and storytelling. During rehearsals, she maintained a blog for ongoing research based on discussions and to document dramaturgy activities for the entire production team.

She spent her senior year working on her capstone project studying works of contemporary theater created by global majority artists, researching plays that aim to reach the large audiences of major regional theater companies while tackling content and experiences not typically represented in traditional Western theater. She also interviewed theater professionals ranging from playwrights to arts administrators to theater journalists of color to explore challenges and opportunities for global majority artists in the American theater landscape and how the theater community can move towards a future in which diverse voices and perspectives are uplifted on and off the stage.

Val has also been involved in Scotch’n’Soda, CMU’s student theater organization, and has directed productions of The Little Mermaid, Something Rotten!, and Eurydice. As a director, she strives to create a collaborative rehearsal process that emphasizes collective ensemble exploration and play.

Outside of the theater, Val enjoys long walks through nature, discovering new science podcasts, and getting lost in a good book.