'Our Enemies' in Free Out Loud Reading 10/29 at Ars Nova

Ars Nova presents, as part of the OUT LOUD series, a free reading of Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Joanna Settle. Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat will be read by Tina Benko, Sanjit DeSilva, Ed Hajj, Mozhan Marno, Tim McGeever and Waleed Zuaiter on Monday, October 29 at 7 PM at Ars Nova (511 West 54th Street).

In Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat "Two Arab-American novelists struggle to balance artistic integrity and commercial success as artists in a post-September 11th world.  A third puts art aside when his political passions surge. In a country where they are forever being ostracized as outsiders, celebrated as exotic, or accused of selling out to the mainstream, the lines between art and politics begin to blur. A fierce and funny story of shifting loyalties in love and combat," explain press notes.

Yussef El Guindi's most recent production was Back of the Throat, winner of the 2004 Northwest Playwright's Competition held by Theater Schmeater. It won LA Weekly's Excellence in Playwriting Award for 2006. It was also nominated for the 2006 American Theater Critics Association's Steinberg/New Play Award, and was voted Best New Play of 2005 by the Seattle Times.   It was first staged by San Francisco's Thick Description and Golden Thread Productions; then later presented in various theaters around the country including The Flea Theater in New York. Another play of his, Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith, staged by Silk Road Theatre Project, won the 'After Dark Award' for Best New Play in Chicago in 2006.   His two related one-acts, Acts of Desire, were staged by the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. Back of the Throat and those two related one-acts, now titled Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda's and Karima's City, have been published by Dramatists Play Service. Yussef holds an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence at Duke University.

Joanne Settle most recently directed In Darfur at The Public Theater, both downtown and for one night at the Delacourt Theater. She also directed Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire at Manhattan Ensemble Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep and Arena Stage. From 1997 to 2005, Settle was artistic director of Division 13 productions, where she directed and/or adapted 15 of D13's 17 projects (most notably Blood Line: The Oedipus/Antigone Story, two plays by Sophocles, Ionesco's Macbett and several Beckett shorts including Cascando and Play). Other credits include Slither by Carson Kreitzer and the South American tour of Grease. She has directed and/or taught at Juilliard, Bard College, Cornell, and Williams College. Settle is a NYTW Usual Suspect.

OUT LOUD has attracted a variety of the industry's top artists, including writers Stephen Belber, Jorge Cortinas, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Rinne Groff, Jordan Harrison, Rolin Jones, Adam Rapp, Sarah Ruhl and Christopher Shinn; directors Peter Askin, Jo Bonney, Trip Cullman, David Esbjornson, Moises Kaufman, James Lapine, Lisa Peterson and Leigh Silverman; and actors Jason Biggs, Robert Sean Leonard, Marsha Mason, Denis O'Hare, Rosie Perez, Paul Rudd, Mercedes Reuhl, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Swoosie Kurtz, David Strathairn and Fred Weller.

Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat will be read on Monday, October 29 at 7 PM.  The Out Loud Series is free and open to the public.  Reservations are required.  Please call 212-977-1700 or email rsvp@arsnovanyc.com.  Ars Nova is located at 511 West 54 th Street.  For more information, check out www.arsnovanyc.com