ACT Season Opens With HOTTER THAN EGYPT This Month

It's 2022 and ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is thrilled to officially announce casting for the first production of its return season, Hotter Than Egypt, written by acclaimed local playwright, Yussef El Guindi (Threesome and People of the Book).

Featuring performances from five world-class actors including Naseem Etemad (The Dairy Arts Center: Wisdom From Everything; The Pear Theatre: Veils), Ahmad Kamal (Adventure Theatre: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp), Wasim No'mani (ACT: People of the Book, Oslo; Yellowstone), Paul Morgan Stetler (ACT: The Crucible; Letters Aloud), and Jen Taylor (ACT: Dangerous Liaisons; Halo on Paramount+).

Hotter Than Egypt is presented in association with Marin Theatre Company and is directed by ACT Artistic Director, John Langs with dramaturgy by Associate Artistic Director of the Marin Theatre Company, Nakissa Etemad. Hotter Than Egypt will run January 28-February 20, 2022 (media invite night is February 3) and tickets may be purchased online now at acttheatre.org.

After 20 months of forced shutdown due to the worldwide pandemic, ACT boldly reopens for its 55th mainstage season with a World Premiere new play - its 50th World Premiere to date. This new dramedy from Seattle playwright and ACT Core Company artist Yussef El Guindi, follows Paul and Jean, an American couple, who travel to Cairo for their 24th wedding anniversary. Long-dormant troubles within the marriage start to percolate, and their two Egyptian tour guides, newly engaged Maha and Seif, become drawn into the crisis. The play, set in the heat of Cairo, explores the uneven power dynamics between these Western tourists and the locals. Dreams and relationships are put to the test when old connections lead to new temptations

Recently workshopped through the ACTLocal program, a partnership between ACT and Trial and Error Productions, Hotter Than Egypt marks El Guindi's fifth play to be produced on the ACT stage, and serves as a model example of ACT's commitment to nurturing local theatre industry game-changers and their work.

"One of the great benefits of having A Contemporary Theatre in our community is that we, the audience, have a chance to experience the new voices that will be shaping the culture and the theatre of tomorrow," ACT Artistic Director, John Langs said. "When we are at our best, ACT is supporting these voices as they sharpen and grow, and we believe that many of these groundbreaking artists are plying their craft right here in our corner of the world. We feel very lucky as an institution that local writer Yussef El Guindi has chosen ACT as his artistic home base. And, creating 50 world premiere plays is an enormous accomplishment for us and it feels right and befitting the new vision of ACT, that Yussef's intimate portrait of personal revolution should hold this very special place in the history of the theatre."

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