Golden Thread Sets 20th Anniversary Season

Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company to focus on the Middle East, celebrates its 20th anniversary, and has announced a season of new plays and special events that celebrates its legacy and showcases the company's groundbreaking vision for the future. The season includes the West Coast premiere of Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat by award-winning playwright Yussef El Guindi, the most produced writer in Golden Thread history (directed by Founding Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian, October 28-November 20, 2016), and the world premiere of The Most Dangerous Highway in the World by Kevin Artigue, the first playwright of non-Middle Eastern descent produced on the company's mainstage (directed by Director of Marketing and New Plays Evren Odcikin, May 5-29, 2016). Both plays will be presented at the Thick House in San Francisco. New Threads staged reading series returns in June and July of 2016, introducing four singular voices to the Bay Area: Tariq Hamami, Ken Kaissar, Hannah Khalil, and Novid Parsi. Golden Thread's annual celebration of International Women's Day, What Do the Women Say?, returns on March 12, 2016 to the La Peña Cultural Center. This year's program features four Bay Area women artists who have built a stronger Middle Eastern community through their art: Taraneh Hemami, Nabila Mango, Sharlyn Sawyer, and Betty Shamieh, and will include a musical performance by Aswat Women's Choir. Golden Thread Fairytale Players continues to tour Bay Area schools and libraries throughout the year, presenting dynamic and colorful plays for all ages inspired by Middle Eastern folktales. The year will culminate in a 20th Anniversary Celebration Event to be announced. Find out more about Golden Thread and its 20th Anniversary season at goldenthread.org.

"I created Golden Thread because I needed an artistic home for my own work," said Torange Yeghiazarian, founding artistic director of Golden Thread Productions. "It is deeply gratifying to see that over the last 20 years, the company has served so many other Middle Eastern artists like me, and by amplifying these voices, established the Middle Eastern American theatre as an integral element of the American theatre cannon."

Yeghiazarian added about the 2016 season: "Our 20th Anniversary season reflects our commitment to building the careers of the artists we work with: Our Enemies is one of Yussef's best plays yet it has not been produced since its premiere in 2008. We are such a world-premiere-focused new plays community; the playwright never gets a chance to incorporate the lessons of the premiere in subsequent productions. Golden Thread is Yussef's artistic home. This is where he gets to experiment and test his ideas. Kevin is an amazing new talent and I'm beyond excited that we have been able to provide him with both excellent artistic support and cultural specificity to develop this beautiful story of a boy named Traffic."

Diversity of representation and perspectives has always been a signature of Golden Thread's programming, and 2016 mainstage offerings are great examples. Award-winning Egyptian-American playwright Yussef El Guindi, whose Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat is a juicy denunciation of the media machine in relation to Middle Eastern-American writers, holds the honor of being the most produced playwright at Golden Thread. El Guindi has won the the Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association's New Play Award in 2012, and was the recipient of the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. His previous premieres with the company include Language Rooms, Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, Back of the Throat, Scenic Routes, and many shorts in ReOrient Festivals. Golden Thread performed El Guindi's Karima's City at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre in 2004.

Inspired by a New York Times article about the real-life "Pepsi bottle boys" of Afghanistan, emerging writer Kevin Artigue's The Most Dangerous Highway in the World is an Afghan boy's heartwarming and poetic tale of resilience. Artigue is a graduate of Public Theater's prestigious Emerging Writers Group and the first playwright of non-Middle Eastern descent to be produced on the Golden Thread mainstage. He has been developing this play with Golden Thread for three years, including as part of the 2014 National New Play Network's showcase.

The four plays featured in the 2016 New Threads staged reading series challenge dominant stereotypes and showcase the stylistic diversity of Middle Eastern theatre: Palestinian-Irish playwright Hannah Khalil experiments with non-linear theatrical structure to personalize 60 years of history in Scenes from 68 Years; Iranian-American writer Novid Parsi depicts an artist's marital relationship breaking under pressure in Those Ills We Have; Ken Kaissar, who is Israeli-American, digs into the parallel victim narratives of Israeli and Palestinian histories with The Victims; and Algerian-American writer Tariq Hamami's The One, Percy Ent is a gothic vampire story with Biblical overtones set in a small dessert town in America.

As a woman-founded and woman-led theatre company, Golden Thread has always highlighted the work of Bay Area female artists. This year's International Women's Day celebration, What Do the Women Say?, features four artist leaders who have built community through art. They will showcase their work and take part in a conversation with Yeghiazarian: visual artist and curator Taraneh Hemami, Aswat founder and executive director Nabila Mango, award-winning playwright Betty Shamieh, and Sharlyn Sawyer, founding artistic director of the dance troupe Ballet Afsaneh. Golden Thread proudly highlights the unparalleled accomplishments of these Bay Area treasures.

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Founded in 1996 by playwright and director Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread Productions is the first American theatre company focused on the Middle East. For 20 years, Golden Thread has produced plays and events that represent excellence, defy stereotypes, and celebrate the multiplicity of its perspectives and identities from the Middle East. The company has become an essential hub for artistic activism, supported challenging conversations, and championed representation and inclusion. Over the last two decades, Golden Thread has built a family of artists and audiences to support this important work.

Golden Thread is a developmental catalyst and vibrant artistic home to artists at various stages of their career. It has premiered more than 100 new plays from and about the Middle East, including seven original plays for children based on Middle Eastern folktales, and has employed more than 1,000 artists, many from underrepresented communities. Along with its productions, Golden Thread's programs include the biennial ReOrient Festival of Short Plays, the company's most recognized offering; New Threads staged reading series, which supports the development of plays from and about the Middle East; Islam 101, a multi-year initiative to produce dynamic and colorful plays for all ages inspired by Islamic art and philosophy; Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award, in association with Silk Road Rising (Chicago) and the Lark Play Development Center (NYC); and Golden Thread Fairytale Players, a company that tours Bay Area libraries and schools, introducing young audiences to positive representations of the Middle East. Over the past two decades, the company has built a growing audience for this work: Golden Thread has served nearly 50,000 audience members, with more than 40% self-identifying as Middle Eastern.

Golden Thread is committed to presenting alternative perspectives from and about the Middle East, in all its rich complexity. As such, every play it produces is a radical act. Maybe the most outstanding example of Golden Thread's activist spirit is ReOrient Festival 2001, which presented a multitude of voices and narratives on one stage only one month after September 11, 2001.

Through partnerships with organizations locally (African-American Shakespeare Company, Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Brava Theater Center), nationally (Theatre Communications Group, National New Plays Network), and internationally (Theatre Without Borders), Golden Thread has succeeded in accomplishing much more than may be suggested by its budget size. The company's global reach can be proven by the fact that it has received submissions from 20 countries over the last 20 years.

Golden Thread has been recognized by American Theatre Wing, the producers of the Tony Awards, for its important work in the national theatre scene, and was featured in the Bay Area in ABC 7's Profiles of Excellence for its pioneering work in the local community.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Evren Odcikin, Director of Marketing and New Plays
evren@goldenthread.org | 510.295.7545

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GOLDEN THREAD 2016 SEASON

World Premiere

The Most Dangerous Highway in the World

by Kevin Artigue, directed by Evren Odcikin
May 5-29, 2016 | Thick House, San Francisco

An Afghan boy's heartwarming tale of resilience

A fearless eight-year old businessman makes his living directing traffic on the highway connecting Jalalabad to Kabul. Soldiers, accidents, and ghosts are no match for this little fighter with a knack for surviving the toughest challenges. Inspired by a New York Times article about the real-life "Pepsi bottle boys" of Afghanistan, this poetic play introduces an up-and-coming writer of great promise.

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West Coast Premiere

Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love & Combat

by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
October 28-November 20, 2016 | Thick House, San Francisco

A juicy denunciation of the media machine

Struggling writer Gamal hates the way his fellow Arab-Americans represent their culture on American media. It's easy enough to take out his frustration on literature superstar Mohsen and local mosque leader, Sheikh Alfani. But when his own girlfriend and novelist Noor gets an offer from a major publisher backed with a national media campaign, how will Gamal manage his frustration?

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A Celebration of International Women's Day

What Do the Women Say?

Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 8pm | La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley

Building Community through Art

Join us in celebrating pioneering Bay Area women artists who have built community through their art: Visual artist and curator Taraneh Hemami, Zawaya executive director Nabila Mango, award-winning playwright Betty Shamieh, and founding artistic director of Ballet Asfaneh Sharlyn Sawyer. Each artist will take part in a conversation and showcase their work, including a musical performance by Aswat Women's Choir. A SWAN Day event sponsored by WomenArts.

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New Threads Staged Reading Series 2016

with plays by Tariq Hamami, Ken Kaissar, Hannah Khalil, and Novid Parsi
June-July, 2016 | Free

Four New Plays. Four Singular Voices.

Join the creative process of a new play and discover brilliant gems never before seen in the Bay Area. Golden Thread's popular staged reading series returns with four new exciting voices. We invite you to laugh, cry, and think alongside these beautiful stories from and about the Middle East. Each play is teeming with unexpected humor, surprising characters, and important questions about the world we live in today.

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