NEWS
September 5 – 22, 2019
New Jersey Premiere Production
YASMINA'S NECKLACE by Rohina Malik
Premiere Stages, 1000 Morris Avenue | Union, NJ MORE INFO TICKETS
ABOUT: Meet Abdul Samee: his father is Iraqi, his mother is Puerto Rican - but if you ask him, he'll say he's Italian. Longing to shed his cultural identity, he changes his name to Sam, marries an American and does everything in his power to turn away from his heritage. But when Sam meets Yasmina, a beautiful woman from his father's homeland, he begins to learn that a tree without roots cannot stand for long.
Featuring Layan Elwazani, Robert Manning, Jr., Eliud Kauffman, Soccorro Santiago, Cesar Rosada, Peter Romano, Haythem Noor
Scenic Design David Barber, Costume Design Dina El-Aziz, Lighting Design Cha See, Sound Design Fan Zhang
July, 2019
Workshop
ON THAT DAY IN AMSTERDAM by Clarence Coo
Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, UT MORE INFO
ABOUT: Two young men, an American backpacker and a Syrian refugee, meet in a gay club in Amsterdam and spend the next day together knowing their paths will never cross again. As they visit the former homes of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Anne Frank, they discover the meaning of love, art, and escape in the context of Europe’s current migrant crisis.
Featuring Abubakr Ali, Eston Fung, Keren Lugo, Russell G. Jones
April 20, 2019
Staged Reading
ON THAT DAY IN AMSTERDAM by Clarence Coo
Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway | Eugene, OR MORE INFO
ABOUT: Two young men, an American backpacker and a Syrian refugee, meet in a gay club in Amsterdam and spend the next day together knowing their paths will never cross again. As they visit the former homes of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Anne Frank, they discover the meaning of love, art, and escape in the context of Europe’s current migrant crisis.
Featuring Chris Arreola, Cole Haenggi, Jasper Howard, Brianna Soumokil, Jonathan Thompson
January 25 & 26, 2019
Staged Reading
THE FIFTH DOMAIN by Victor Lesniewski
Pioneer Theatre Company, 410 Campus Center Drive | Salt Lake City, UT MORE INFO
ABOUT: Recently removed from his position at the National Security Agency, cyber security expert Troy is approached about a new project requiring his special skills, but his eagerness to take on the work blinds him to the repercussions in the world of cyber war. A thriller that asks basic questions about patriotism, espionage, and accountability in the digital age.
Featuring Austin Archer, Laura Hall, Bijan Hosseini, Jessica Naimy
October 30 – November 18, 2018
World Premiere Production
REFUGE*MALJA*ملجأ by Bess Welden
Portland Stage, 25A Forest Ave | Portland, ME MORE INFO PHOTOS
ABOUT: When a Jewish-American war photographer feels compelled to assist a young refugee who steps in front her camera, she calls an old friend to translate but hesitates to reveal why she is so drawn to the boy. This poetic, decade-spanning drama explores how we each define and find our own malja (refuge).
Scenic Design Anita Stewart, Costume Design Anna Grywalski, Lighting Design Scott Bolman,
Sound Design Mark Van Hare
Featuring Shauna Bloom, Brooke Parks, Amro Salama, Anwer Ali, Mohammad Adam, Hussein Al-Mshakheel
November 11, 2018
Staged Reading
ON THAT DAY IN AMSTERDAM by Clarence Coo
Geva Theatre Center, 75 Woodbury Blvd | Rochester, NY MORE INFO
ABOUT: Two young men, an American backpacker and a Syrian refugee, meet in a gay club in Amsterdam and spend the next day together knowing their paths will never cross again. As they visit the former homes of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Anne Frank, they discover the meaning of love, art, and escape in the context of Europe’s current migrant crisis.
Featuring Owais Ahmed, Eston Fung, Babak Tafti, Rocky Vega, Charles E. Wallace
August 14, 2018
Staged Reading
THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING by Kareem Fahmy, based on the novel by Alaa Al Aswany
Atlantic Theatre Company Stage 2: 330 W. 16TH ST. | New York, NY MORE INFO
ABOUT: Based on the novel that became an international sensation, The Yacoubian Building is set in Cairo, chronicling the lives of Egyptians of different religions, sexual orientations, and class backgrounds. The titular apartment block becomes a microcosm of an Egypt infested with corruption, discrimination, and despair. A love letter to the Middle East, the play conjures an Egypt before the Arab Spring, still on the brink of change, deeply divided but full of hope.
Director Melissa Crespo
Featuring Jacqueline Antaramian, May Calamawy, James Cusati-Moyer, Ashkon Davaran, Ahmad Maksoud, Louis Sallan, Zenzi Williams, Eliud Kauffman, Justin Walker-White, Antoinette LaVecchia, Haythem Noor, Luis Moreno, Andrew Guilarte
August 9, 2018
Staged Reading
SALIM SALIM by Stav Palti-Negev
Atlantic Theatre Company Stage 2: 330 W. 16TH ST. | New York, NY MORE INFO
ABOUT: When Palestinian Salim Tarek is released from an Israeli prison, the Israeli authorities mistakenly bring him to the Gaza border crossing while his family awaits his return on the other side of the country, in the West Bank. Salim knows that if he enters Gaza, he might never see them again. Stranded on the border, Salim has to find a solution before the Israeli soldiers make a choice for him.
Featuring Yuval Boim, Caitlin Nasema Cassidy, Amel Khalil, O’mer Koren, Peter Romano, Louis Sallan, Babak Tafti
October, 2015 - January 2016
Research Project
X-ID REP
The New Museum: 235 Bowery | New York, NY MORE INFO
ABOUT: X-ID REP is an open studio research project organized in conjunction with the New Museum’s Fall 2015 R&D Season: PERSONA. Working within a pop-up repertory theater model, X-ID REP is a research-driven enterprise designed to examine the shifting ethical boundaries surrounding intercultural cross-play on contemporary American stages. The project brings together a group of directors and playwrights recognized for their diverse approaches to staging across various identifications of class, race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and ability, among others, to collaborate with a resident company of actors chosen by them for this project. Operating from various positions of agency and privilege, the members of X-ID REP will collectively examine the constructs of staging intercultural cross-identifications while directing our attention to the social conditions from which these constructs emerge and persist, perniciously or otherwise.
Participating Artists Lileana Blain-Cruz: Director, Kirk Wood Bromley: Playwright, Jackie Sibblies Drury: Playwright, Kareem Fahmy: Director, MJ Kaufman: Playwright, JJ Lind: Director, Aya Ogawa: Playwright, Niegel Smith: Director
May 7-21, 2016
World Premiere Production | New York Times Critic's Pick
THIS TIME by Sevan K. Greene
The Sheen Center, 18 Bleecker St | New York, NY MORE INFO PHOTOS
ABOUT: In the sultry heat of 1960s Cairo, a clandestine love affair blooms between a married Egyptian woman and a Canadian professor ten years her junior. In a wintry Toronto house in the 1990s, an aging mother’s memories encroach on her recently divorced daughter’s attempts to restart her life. The past closes in, threatening to overwhelm the present. But what is real and what is illusion? Inspired by the memoirs of a Muslim woman who fought for her independence at a turning point in Egypt’s modern history, This Time is a lush new play about regret, romance, and familial responsibility.
Scenic Design David Esler, Costume Design Sarafina Bush, Lighting Design Scott Bolman
Sound Design Mark Van Hare, Props Design Jess Adams
Featuring Delphi Harrington, Rendah Heywood, Ahmad Maksoud, Seth Moore, Salma Shaw
September 5-26, 2015
World Premiere Production
COURIERS AND CONTRABANDS by Victor Lesniewski
TBG Theatre | New York, NY MORE INFO PHOTOS
ABOUT: 1864. Petersburg, Virginia. As the Civil War rages on, Confederate operatives in control of a courier line work to gather information on the Union's efforts. Little do they know that they themselves are being watched by a contraband masquerading as a slave who acts in the interest of the North. Couriers and Contrabands explores the War from the point of view of those people who had the most impact on its outcome while being the least known: the spies.
Scenic Design David Esler, Costume Design Sarafina Bush, Lighting Design Nicholas Houfek, Sound Design & Original Music Mark Van Hare
Featuring Jeremy Beck, Helen Cespedes, Luke Forbes, Heather Hollingsworth, Krystel Lucas, Eric T. Miller, Michael Schantz