The Middle Eastern American Writers Lab Launch!
With new work by Melis Aker, Leila Buck, Gamze Ceylan, Kareem Fahmy, Mona Mansour, Stav Palti-Negev, Hadi Tabbal, and Sanaz Toossi
Co-hosted by Maia Directors*
SCHEDULE:
Monday, October 7
7:00 – 7:45pm: A panel conversation on the state of Middle Eastern American theater, hosted by Maia Directors
8:00 pm – 9:30pm: Excerpt Readings
by Gamze Ceylan
directed by Shadi Ghaheri
Present day. A mother, a daughter. A public bathroom in southern Turkey, Konya. Not that far from once upon a land of ISIS.
TENDERNESS
by Sanaz Toossi
directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
It’s 1984, and two men in a Tehran rug shop are doing their own choreography to Freddie Mercury as the Iran-Iraq War— and the beauty and terror of men— rages around them.
A DISTINCT SOCIETY
by Kareem Fahmy
directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
A quiet library that straddles the border of the U.S. and Canada becomes an unlikely crucible for five people from around the world. When an Iranian family, separated from one another by the "Muslim ban," use the library as a meeting place, the head librarian, a U.S. border patrol officer, and a local teenager have to choose between breaking the law and saving themselves.
DREAM STATE
by Leila Buck
directed by Kareem Fahmy
Sheherezade Brown returns from the West Bank to her Lebanese American family, pregnant by a Palestinian man. As she struggles to convince her government and her family to let her love in, her grandmother’s dementia worsens, and boundaries blur between Sherry’s dreams and her grandmother's memories, time and place, now and then, truth and fiction. An intimate, playful exploration of who we let in to our stories, families, and hearts, and how those choices shape who we are as people, communities, and nations.
Tuesday, October 8
7:00 pm – 8:30pm: Excerpt Readings
8:30 – 9:30pm: Food, music, and conversation
STAY SAFE
FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS
by Tala Manassah and Mona Mansour
directed by Kareem Fahmy
Baghdad, 1975. Invited to teach in a city steeped in the history of great scientific discoveries, hotshot physicist Kamal leaves the Ivy League and finds himself in a surreal landscape colored by revolution, intrigue, deception, and of course, great potential. Caught between the desire to contribute to a burgeoning scientific community and a firm commitment to science as a tool of non-violent liberation, he is entangled between the world as it is, and the world as he wishes it to be.
*Maia Directors is a consulting group supporting organizations and artists engaging with stories from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Founded by Kareem Fahmy, Evren Odcikin, Megan Sandberg-Zakian, and Pirronne Yousefzadeh, Maia Directors advocates for the inclusion of MENASA artists and stories as a vital part of the American cultural conversation.
maiadirectors.com
