MiraCosta Theatre Student wins National Kennedy Center Award for Playwrighting

.” The award is given to just four undergraduate students in the nation, as part of The Presidency of John F. Kennedy: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, which commemorates the anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.
A panel chosen by members of the Kennedy family made selection for this honor. Saffari will receive his award and scholarship at the Kennedy Center celebration in Washington D.C. on January 31, during which the winners’ works, including Saffari’s, will be presented in concert-reading format, performed by a Washington D.C.-based company of artists. The event will be held at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington DC. As a Millennium Stage event, the ceremony will be simulcast on the Web and archived on the Kennedy Center’s Web site.
Saffari will also receive a $1,000 scholarship and travel expenses so that he may attend the January 31 event.
“I'm very humbled and honored to receive this award. I moved from Massachusetts three years ago and will always have a strong connection to Boston,” says Saffari. “I feel a strong connection to JFK (he was born in Brookline and I in Dorchester) and felt like I had a responsibility to pay homage to his legacy.”
Saffari’s 20-minute play blends history with fiction. “Beacons of Hope” takes place in October of 2004, a time Saffari characterizes as one of national division, when the U.S economy was in shambles, and people were losing hope in our government and our country. At the same time, The Boston Red Sox were down three games in the American League Championship Series to the New York Yankees, but later came back to win four games and then to win the World Series. In the play, JFK and his father are immersed in conversation while attending a Boston Red Sox game. In the telling of the story, Saffari imagines the impact on history the conversation could have had, given the difficult relationship Kennedy had with his father.
Saffari has become a fixture in the Drama Department at MiraCosta College. He has performed in many of the college’s recent plays, including Electra, Proposals, Charlie's Aunt, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Distracted and 1940's Radio Hour. He was also an Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship nominee and a finalist in the KC/ACTF Directing competition last year. He is cast in MiraCosta’s spring production of She Loves Me and has just recently worked for Intrepid Shakespeare. He will also be in a production of Death of a Salesman at New Village Arts Theatre in the spring. His ultimate goal is to pursue film and television work.
As a student, Saffari is an Actor's Academy graduate and the recipient of several Spotlight Circle Merit Awards. He has shown a tremendous work ethic, dedication, professionalism, desire and burgeoning talent as a theatre artist. He recently has worked in area theatres including Carlsbad Playreaders and New Village Arts.