Segal Theatre Center Spring 2012 Season to Include EGYPT IN TRANSITION, MELODRAMA RECLAIMED, More

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (Frank Hentschker, Executive Director) has announced the rest of its Spring 2012 season, featuring 11 free events at the Graduate Center, including rarely-seen performances, premiere readings of international playwrights, and day-long symposia on everything from ecologically inspired performance (for Earth Day!) to The Group Theatre to innovative American women producers. 

This year our MESTC season will run until June 25, 2012 at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (365 Fifth Avenue, at 34^th Street), with events occurring on April 2, April 5, April 16, April 23, April 26, May 1, May 14, May 21, June 4, June 7 and June 25.  While some events are all day (see complete listing below), all evening discussions start at 6:30pm, and every event is completely free and open to the public.

All programs are subject to change. For updates, visit www.theSegalCenter.org.

All events take place at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue/34th St., New York, NY 10016.

If you wish to receive our brochure in the mail or to join our email list, please contact us at

Additional information is available by visiting the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center website at http://web.gc.cuny.edu/mestc.                                                                        

SPRING 2012 SCHEDULE  

Monday, April 2, 2012

6:30pm

Egypt in Transition: Playwright Ibrahim El-Husseini’s Commedia Al-Ahzaan (Comedy of Sorrows)

With Marvin Carlson and Rebekah Maggor.

Award-winning Egyptian playwright Ibrahim El-Husseini visits the Segal Center to present a reading of his Commedia Al-Ahzaan (Comedy of Sorrows) in its English translation by Mohammed Albakry and Rebekah Maggor. Both formally and historically of-the-moment, Comedy of Sorrows was one of the first theatrical responses to Egypt’s January revolution. Its heroine, a young, college-educated Cairene woman, travels through her city, gradually growing aware of the misery that surrounds her. First performed at Cairo’s Al-Ghad Theatre, it won accolades: critic Nehad Selaiha called it an “emotionally poignant and aesthetically cathartic theatrical experience.” Maggor directs an hour-long condensed reading of the (condensed) play starring Najla Said, Arthur French, Mikeah Ernest Jennings and Steve Mellor.  Join us for this look at excellence in the Egyptian theatre and for a discussion about how art informs a society convulsed by change. (Presented in collaboration with the Radcliffe Institute.)

Thursday, April 5, 2012

6:30pm