Noor Theatre's Highlight Reading Series Is Back For Its 10th Installment

Noor Theatre will present the return of the Highlight Reading Series for its 10th installment this winter, showcasing new work by artists of MENA/SWANA (Middle Eastern/Southwest Asian/North African) descent. The readings will take place February 22nd, 23rd, 28th, 29th & March 1st and will be held at TheaterLab. 

Artistic Producer Kate Moore Heaney shares: “Since Noor Theatre's founding in 2010, the Highlight Reading Series has provided a space to develop and support the work of artists in our community. After a hiatus, we are proud to bring back the Series for its 10th installment to share the work of these phenomenal artists.”

The evenings will feature Hend Ayoub's Home? Or A Palestinian Woman's Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness, directed by Carey Perloff; Fouad Dakwar's Fouad of Nazareth, music directed by Ben Covello, and Nikki Massoud's He Who Has Ten Thousand Horses, both directed by Sivan Battat; and Ella Boureau's Quand Tu Sors Du Feu, directed by Leyla Levi, and music directed by Laura Elkeslassy. The Series will be line-produced by George Strus.

Three of the full-length pieces of this line-up were selected through a robust open submission process, and the fourth full-length slot features Noor-commissioned writer Nikki Massoud. Each full-length play will receive a reading rehearsal process followed by a presentation for Noor audiences and industry members.

From Sivan Battat, Noor's Director of New Work Development: “Nikki is an extraordinary writer and Noor is thrilled we can support the ongoing development of her piece. Our commissioning program offers MENA/SWANA writers financial support and readings to advance the development of their work, contributing to the rich, rigorous canon of plays and musicals by writers from our community.” 

The series will also include Spotlight on SWANA Writers' Co-Op, an evening of 10-minute excerpts from plays written by Gregory Jafari Van Acker, Dalia Ashurina, Gamal ElSawah, Chloé Hayat, Olivia Khoshatefeh, Thalia Ranjbar and Monna Sabouri, and directed by SB Tennent and Kareem Fahmy. All of these artists are members of the SWANA Writers' Co-op, a group for SWANA dialogue-based writers that regularly gathers with the support of Playwrights Horizons to share pages, receive feedback, offer and receive peer-mentorship, and support each other's writing processes. The group was originally created by Kareem Fahmy and May Treuhaft-Ali and is horizontally led, collectively operated, and contingent on writers' willingness to volunteer their time toward each other's artistic growth.

“We are very proud to celebrate these new works by our incredible MENA/SWANA artists, who still remain underrepresented in other spaces across the theatrical landscape.  We are deeply grateful to Salman Al-Rashid and Moudhy Al-Rashid for their generous support of Noor, without whom our first Highlight Reading Series since 2020 would not be possible,” shares Ariana Sarfarzi, Noor's Executive Director.

Learn more at www.noortheatre.org.

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