ALAA: A FAMILY TRILOGY Closes Out Golden Thread's 2024 Season

Golden Thread Productions, the country's first theater company devoted to the Middle East, will present a script-in-hand workshop production with extensive tech elements of Adam Ashraf Elsayigh's ALAA: A Family Trilogy, with generative dramaturgy by Salma S. Zohdi and directed by Evren Odcikin.  In 2011, blogger Alaa Abd El-Fattah became a leading voice of the Egyptian Revolution by fusing his activism and tech acumen, inadvertently following in his famous family's activist legacy. Since then, he has spent much of the last decade in prison, unlawfully held by a military regime seeking to silence him and his family. Weaving writings and personal testimonials from Alaa and his family's matriarchs, this epic and ambitious script-in-hand presentation will feature the second play in the Trilogy focusing on 2011 to 2014. The workshop production will perform for two performances only: Saturday, November 16 at 7pm and Sunday, November 17 at 3pm at Z Space (450 Florida St, San Francisco). Tickets start at $25, and can be purchased at goldenthread.org.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arguably the most high-profile political prisoner in Egypt, rising to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, Alaa's voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade. He has been in prison for almost 10 years. Follow #FreeAlaa movement to find out more.

The Egyptian Revolution brought together folks from all walks of life, and nine exceptional performers will take on more than 30 characters, including members of Alaa Abd El-Fattah's family: Nemma Adeni, Sofia Ahmad, Tierra Allen, James Asher, Nora el Samahy, Diyar Banna, Wiley Naman Strasser, Lawrence Radecker, and Nima Rakhshanifar. ALAA Creative team includes many Golden Thread favorites: Wesley Apfel (stage manager), Adam Ashraf Elsayigh (playwright), James Ard (sound designer), Max Bowman (projection and video designer), Kate Boyd (lighting designer), Michelle Mulholland (costume stylist), Evren Odcikin (director), and Salma S. Zohdi (dramaturg).

ALAA: A Family Trilogy is commissioned by Golden Thread Productions with support from the Gerbode Foundation. Elsayigh's work and this project in particular falls within Golden Thread's new leadership strategy to expand the company's artistic scope through experimentation with styles, techniques, and genres, and to emphasize our commitment to theater as a vehicle for social change. This presentation is part of the Z Space Technical Residency Program, supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Golden Thread Productions, founded in 1996, is the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East. We produce passionate and provocative plays from or about the Middle East that celebrate the multiplicity of its perspectives and identities. We are a developmental catalyst and vibrant artistic home to artists at various stages of their career. We bring the Middle East to the American stage, creating treasured cultural experiences for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. goldenthread.org

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