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Ege Maltepe (1983)

Actor, Director, Writer,

Producer, Educator

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Ege Maltepe was born in Istanbul. Her journey of theater started when she was 14 years old after she got accepted to Nobetci Theater School of Turkish Theater legend Ferhan Sensoy. Later her love for theater brought her to New York, where she became the student of Oscar-winning celebrated director Mike Nichols. During her early years in New York she got interested in improvisation, writing, directing and producing. Her first stage project "Variations After Joe" combined improvisation, movement and classical music and attracted the attention of New York audiences. Her plays include, Tea for 3 (LPAC, New York), Women of New York (4thU Artivists, New York), Tits by Prof G (WiredArts Fest, New York). After deciding to bring the Spolin Improvisation method to Turkey, she began translating Viola Spolin’s seminal book "Improvisation for the Theater" into Turkish and founded Spolin-ist in 2009. Since then, she has trained and continues to train actors, writers and teachers in Turkey and the US. Together with Emir Gamsız, they created interdisciplinary projects like "Drama in Beethoven," "Talking to Schubert," "Genius: Chopin". From 2010-15 the duo became the resident artists in the West Village’s cultural institution, Caffe Vivaldi. They performed and produced classical music and theatrical events there, which soon made the venue the number one classical cafe in New York City. Chatty Pianist concerts, begun in Caffe Vivaldi,  were later produced in Lincoln Center. In 2018 Maltepe and Gamsız returned to their home country and started Bach Cafe, and the two-year Spolin Theater Games School in Istanbul. In the 2019-20 season, they created a stage show for children "Chatty Pianist and Story Theater: Beethoven and Shakespeare’s Tempest" at İş Sanat Concert Hall. The show became a huge success, however the performances ceased due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Maltepe and Gamsız are also independent filmmakers. Their films "Chekhov in New York," "Transformis," "Greatest Classic," and "Chatty Pianist" (animation film) are all in progress.