US Premiere of SCENES FROM 71* YEARS Portrays Palestinians' Daily Realities
Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to plays from or about the Middle East, stages the U.S. premiere of Scenes From 71* Years, a James Tait Black Award-nominated play by Hannah Khalil documenting Palestinian life since 1948. Based on interviews with friends and family who have lived in the occupied territories, Khalil's groundbreaking work renders a 71-year history of Palestinian lives with disarming humor and resonant humanity. Highly theatrical vignettes of surprisingly familiar stories offer audiences of all backgrounds and vantage points a rarely-glimpsed window into the realities of life under occupation a perspective sorely lacking on American stages.
'We Swim' Asks: How Do You Talk To Someone You Love Who Disagrees With You? Next Month
Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, responds to our current political divide with We Swim, We Talk, We Go to War, a play that takes the form of a literal conversation on stage. While trying to navigate the currents of the Pacific, an Arab-American woman and her nephew, who has enlisted in the U.S. military, dive into the murky waters of family, identity, and politics. Stylistically adventurous and playful, We Swim expands into a nuanced dialogue about what it means to be American, Arab, and Arab-American at our current moment in time.
Photo Flash: First Look at DISGRACED at Capital Stage
Capital Stage continues its 2015/16 Season with a Pulitzer Prize winner, Obie Award winner, Tony Award nominee and Sacramento premiere. DISGRACED by Ayad Akhtar will be directed by Capital Stage Producing Artistic Director Michael Stevenson. DISGRACED will run from May 4 through June 5, 2016 with a Press Opening on Saturday, May 7 at 8pm. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
BWW Reviews: South Coast Rep Presents World Premiere of ZEALOT
In the world premiere production of playwright (and creator of NBC's Smash) Theresa Rebeck's ZEALOT---now performing at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through November 16---Mecca, Saudi Arabia serves as the setting for a volatile tug-of-war that erupts at the start of the 'Hajj,' the holy city's annual Islamic pilgrimage. Here a young woman's act of civil disobedience incites riots, prompting a carefully-considered, if endlessly circling debate on the merits of whether to comply and honor a host country's 'traditional' rules, or to allow Western ideologies to triumph in order to best serve the needs of a fellow human---a fellow global citizen---in dire need of care and protection. While Rebeck's play, helmed by SCR's own artistic director Marc Masterson, is generally insightful, the play feels pretty unfinished, as if there's plenty more to unearth in the narrative that didn't quite make it to the page (and, consequently, the stage). Regrettably, it doesn't quite reach the point of heightened urgency you would come to expect in a drama with such a politically-charged storyline.