Faculty

AIPA’s faculty consists of highly-trained educators with diverse professional, and personal backgrounds, who are also accomplished performers in their own right.

Jana Zeineddine

Director of Drama

Jana Zeineddine is a Lebanese-American actress, writer, theatre director, creative producer, drama educator and facilitator. She is drawn to projects that challenge stereotypes of Arab women and culture, offering an insightful and comedic perspective. 

Jana was last seen on Rawabi School for Girls on Netflix as Laila, Mariam’s mom. Jana is also a kids books storyteller & rapper, and frequently visits schools in Amman where she performs to kids as her alter ego, ‘JZ’.

Leading the Acting Program at AIPA, Jana focuses on the actor’s consciousness and self-awareness as foundational elements. She believes in challenging actors through their discomfort to elevate their awareness and incorporate it into their performance. Her philosophy asserts that comfort zones have no place in acting; the true challenge for an actor is to confront and resolve their personal discomforts to fully embody their character. Through an integrated process of realism acting and physical theatre based techniques, Jana believes that the actor is able to develop a craft that helps them achieve this.

Jana is eager to teach, motivate and inspire aspiring adult actors in Jordan through the Amman Institute of Performing Arts (AIPA) to achieve their goals of becoming professional actors for theatre, stage and film.

Education

Jana trained as a method actress from the Studio Theatre Conservatory in Washington, DC (2003). In 2008, she completed her Masters degree in Social Theatre & Drama Education from The Central School of Speech and Drama in London.