Highlight Reading Series
Highlight is a reading series designed to showcase the work of playwrights of Middle Eastern, Southwest Asian, and North African descent. Highlight has featured the work of such award-winning playwrights as Lameece Issaq, Mona Mansour, Yussef El Guindi, Heather Raffo, Sylvia Khoury, Adam Elsayigh, SEVAN, Haleh Roshen, Diana Fathi, Dina Matta, and many more. Several plays included in this popular series have gone on to have productions at the Humana Festival, Portland Center Stage, Here, The Public, Playwrights Horizons, The Play Company, and Waterwell.
Noor Theatre is deeply grateful to Salman and Vienn Al-Rashid and Moudhy Al-Rashid for their generous support, without which this year’s Highlight Reading Series would not be possible.
Thursday, February 22 @7pm
HOME? Or a Palestinian Woman's Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness
written and performed by Hend Ayoub
directed by Carey Perloff
In Israel, she’s Palestinian. In the Arab world, she's Israeli. In America, she's an “Other.” An autobiographical one-person show about a young woman's journey to retrieve and imagine a new sense of home. On the way she learns: Why would you need to complete military service just to wait tables? Can you pass as an Israeli if you delete your Arab accent? And can you simply move to America and leave the whole Middle East behind? Through a panoply of vivid characters – from a five-year-old who just wants to join the neighborhood Purim party, to an Egyptian casting director who won't accept where she comes from, to her dying mother who longs for her daughter to find a place in the world – Hend shares a deeply personal, true story about a search for the place that many of us take for granted: Home.
Friday, February 23 @7pm
Fouad of Nazareth
book, music & lyrics by Fouad Dakwar
directed by Sivan Battat
music directed by Ben Covello
Based on a true story, FOUAD OF NAZARETH follows a Palestinian New Yorker at the awkward-crux-of-adolescence as he revisits his birthplace for the first time. Little does he know, the new-old home that awaits him in Nazareth is an Americanized summer camp. Literally campy, this new darkly comedic musical about finding home features an Arabic infused pop-punk score as its title character learns to become Fouad of Nazareth.
Wednesday, February 28 @7pm
Spotlight on SWANA Writers' Co-Op
An evening of 10-minute excerpts from plays written by Gregory Jafari Van Acker, Dalia Ashurina, Gamal ElSawah, Chloé Hayat, Olivia Khoshatefeh, Thalia Ranjbar and Monna Sabouri, and directed by SB Tennent and Kareem Fahmy. All of these artists are members of the SWANA Writers’ Co-op, a group for SWANA dialogue-based writers that regularly gathers with the support of Playwrights Horizons to share pages, receive feedback, offer and receive peer-mentorship, and support each other’s writing processes. The group was originally created by Kareem Fahmy and May Treuhaft-Ali and is horizontally led, collectively operated, and contingent on writers’ willingness to volunteer their time toward each other’s artistic growth.
Thursday, February 29 @7pm
He Who Has 10,000 Horses
by Nikki Massoud
directed by Sivan Battat
commissioned by Noor Theatre
A newly divorced, newly-arrived billionaire is drawn into the tantalizing world of reverse-aging technology by a charismatic younger man. Will he choose to invest in saving the world for the next generation or sacrifice everything in his pursuit of immortality? A science-based thriller inspired by the legend of Zahak e Mardoush, from Ferdowsi's epic 11th century masterpiece "Shahnameh" (The Book of Kings)....
friday, March 1 @7pm
Quand Tu Sors Du Feu
by Ella Boureau
directed by Leyla Levi
music directed by Laura Elkeslassy
QUAND TU SORS DU FEU is a "three-hander" that is equal parts 1930s cabaret, andalusi music, and téléphone arabe. Ella and her ghosts-- the Tunisian Jewish vocalist Habiba Msika, and her grandfather André-- move through time in many combinations, exploring the violence and pleasure of their close relationships, each shedding light on the dark corners of the other, whether they want that light shed or not. For some, intimacy is less a pure pleasure and more a midnight haunting.
By: Alex Leyva
George wears a floral button-up shirt and has on a pair of rose pink glasses. They have spiked up short dark brown hair and sit facing the camera, smiling.
This HIGHLIGHT READING SERIES is Line-Produced by George Strus
GEORGE STRUS (they/them) is an Obie Award-winning trans non-binary Latiné artist. They founded Breaking the Binary Theatre: a new work development and community building hub for transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ theatermakers. They were also a proud co-producer of the off-Broadway world premiere production of Stephen Sondheim's final musical, HERE WE ARE. In addition to their role as Founding Artistic Director of Breaking the Binary Theatre and their freelance producorial and dramaturgical work, they also currently serve as Seasonal Producing Manager at The Public Theater, Producers Cohort Program Facilitator at The Tank, Sigspace Curator + Producer at Signature Theatre, and Theatre Scout at Curate Management. www.georgestrus.com @GeorgeStrus
9th Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2020
October 20, 2020
A Good Day to Me Not to You
By Lameece Issaq
Directed By Noelle Ghoussaini
Featuring: Lameece Issaq & Caitlin Nasema Cassidy
A 40-whatever dental lab technician’s assistant gets fired and moves into St. Agnes Residence, a woman’s rooming house run by nuns. There, she must finally come to terms with the untimely passing of her younger sister, who died while giving birth, and face the consequences of her own untaken path to motherhood. All while fending off the verbal assaults of her unpredictable and sometimes deranged cohabitants. A fictional solo show based on many true things.
November 11, 2020
THIS IS NOT A MEMORIZED SCRIPT, THIS IS A WELL-REHEARSED STORY
By Dima Mikhayel Matta
Directed By Yara Bou Nassar
Featuring: Dima Mikhayel Matta
Queerness is a construct. So is language, and so is this play. Nothing about this performance is reliable, the performer questions gender, memory, sex, identity, and her relationship with Beirut but gives no answers to comfort you or herself. A refusal to romanticize, a resistance against orientalization, she is left with deconstructions that she cannot put back together. This is the story of a failed relationship, with a partner, with a city, and an attempt to carry this knowledge without breaking.
November 18, 2020
MEMORIAL
By Arianna Stucki And Adam Ashraf Elsayigh
Directed By Noelle Ghoussaini
Featuring: Barzin Akhavan, Abubakr Ali, Samrat Chakrabarti, Brian Dykstra, Christina Farah, Salma Shaw, and Rasha Zamamiri
Memorial is a verbatim play that tells the story of the Christchurch Muslim community during and following the two mosque shootings that occurred on March 15th in Christchurch, New Zealand. The play chronicles the impact of the shootings, and systems of violence, through the words and experiences of seven citizens of Christchurch, focusing on the friends and families of those who were lost in the attacks and telling the story exclusively through their own words. Memorial deeply engages with the traumas of the friends and family left behind after the shooting centering around the themes of migration, diaspora, and the experience of otherness and xenophobia both within and outside communities.
December 3, 2020
THIRD PERSON SINGULAR
By Diana Fathi
Directed By Noelle Ghoussaini
Featuring: Anisa Rose Threlkeld, and Austin Tooley
Third Person Singular explores the gulf between the past and the present, between Tehran and New York, between one heartbeat and the next. Art, love, violence, and loneliness intermingle to paint a portrait of the space between ‘he’ and ‘she’. This is the Third Person Singular.
December 14, 2020
OUR MOTHERS, THE GHOST STORY
By Haleh Roshan
Directed By Kathleen Capdesuñer
Featuring: Anita Abdinezhad, Keivon Akbari, Lanna Joffrey, Michael León, Pooya Mohseni, Cristina Pitter, Mari Vial-Golden, and Lilia Houshmand
Ali and Farzaneh are half Iranian, and as American, as it gets. Mari, their mother, who immigrated after the revolution, hates the Islamic Republic and has raised her children to succeed in white, capitalist America—which doesn't include speaking Farsi, or very many other traditional "Iranian" elements. Instead, Ali and Farz grew up in Miami, much more familiar with Cuban culture than their own, and each has indeed "succeeded" in life thus far. So why does it always feel like some critical part of themselves is missing? When their aloof, mysterious grandmother, Layla, passes away in late 2016, they return to Miami for her funeral... But Layla has some final, ulterior agendas for her estranged daughter and very American grandchildren. Our Mothers, The Ghost Story is a haunting of places and times, and joyous mourning for how global revolutions unmake and remake generations.
8th Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2017
September 26, 2017
WOODEN BOXES
By Houssein Almoreey
Directed By Kate Moore Heaney
Featuring: Rendah Heywood and Osh Ghanimah
A story with many starts and one ending. The story of the first protests that took place in Syria against a brutal regime. Wooden boxes that open on possibilities of hope and or violent crackdown. Tombs, prisons, and terrified states of minds, the boxes are arranged throughout the Syrian uprising and the lives of its rebels. Wooden Boxes is dedicated to the Syrian revolution and its revolutionaries Razan Zaitouneh, Samera Al Khalil, Fadwa Suliman, and many other noble icons of the Syrian revolution.
October 10, 2017
330 PEGASUS
By Melis Aker
Directed By Kim Kerfoot
Featuring: Sade Namei, James Parenti, Nicole Aiken, Daniel Pearce, and Leonie Bell
Avery and his Iranian partner Parastoo struggle with the looming figure of their sperm donor Reza, who is somehow mysteriously connected to two pilots in flight. 330 Pegasus explores what it means to have cultural and genetic ownership over one's heritage, identity, and body in a world defined by subtle mythology, uncanny mishaps, love letters, silent landlords, and other such bad omens.
November 14, 2017
SELLING KABUL
By Sylvia Khoury
Directed By Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Featuring: Marjan Neshat, Babak Tafti, Rasha Zamamiri, Shahar Isaac, and Jamal Thomas
Taroon once served as an interpreter for the United States military in Afghanistan. Now the Americans – and their promises of safety – are gone, and Taroon spends his days in his sister Afiya’s apartment, hiding from the increasingly powerful Taliban. Desperate to escape with his wife and newborn son, Taroon must navigate a country left in upheaval, in which everyone must fend for themselves and few can be trusted.
December 12, 2017
YOU, THE FIRE, AND ME
By Sevan K. Greene
Directed By Ed Sylvanus Iskandar
Featuring: Lilli Kay, Joe Essig, Justin Ahdoot, and Ali Andre Ali
Tommy, Jules, and Omer are tired of their worlds, their countries, their governments, and their families. They're tired of being invisible. They're tired of being disenfranchised. They're tired of being no one. And as they've found a supportive family with one another they've found the solution to their problems: Joining ISIS. A coming-of-age story for a new generation, You, the Fire, and Me asks how far you would go to have your voice heard and to finally be seen as someone rather than just anyone.
7th Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2016
September 26, 2016
DEAD ARE MY PEOPLE
By Ismail Khalidi
Directed By Charlotte Brathwaite
With Music By Hadi Eldebek
Featuring: Doug Chapman, Peter Ganim, Nadine Malouf, Rocco Sisto, Hadi Tabbal, and Chinaza Uche
November 15, 2016
Fireworks
By Dalia Taha
Translated by Clem Naylor
Directed by Katie Pearl
Featuring Amr El-Bayoumi, Francis Benhamou, Caitlin Cassidy, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Marjan Neshat and Debargo Sanyal
December 13, 2016
Noura
By Heather Raffo
Directed By Joanna Settle
Featuring Dahlia Azama, Caitlin Cassidy, Peter Ganim, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Heather Raffo, and Logan Settle Rishard
6th Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2015
September 29, 2015
TAHA
By Amer Hlehel
Directed By Jessica Blank
With Dariush Kashani & Rasha Zamamiri
October 12, 2015
NAHDA: FIVE VISIONS OF AN ARAB AWAKENING
By Sevan K. Greene
Directed By Johanna McKeon
With Fajer Al-Kaisi, Caleb Bark, Rendah Heywood, Lameece Issaq & Rasha Zamamiri
November 17, 2015
BROTHER GARY
By Ramiz Monsef
Directed By Pirronne Yousefzadeh
With Josh Bonzie, Michael Crane, RJ Foster, Peter Ganim, Megan Hill, Aaron Lynn and Larry Powell
December 8, 2015
OH MY SWEET LAND
By Amir Nizar Zuabi
Directed By Shana Gold
With Jacqueline Antaramian
5th Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2014
September 15, 2014
Threesome
By Yussef El Guindi
Directed by Johanna McKeon
With Amir Arison, Erik Jensen and Lameece Issaq
October 7, 2014
WHAT HAPPENED TO NOURA?
By Nine Courageous Women At Queens College
Edited By Heather Raffo
Directed By Maha Chehlaoui
With Tala Ashe, Dahlia Azama, Veracity Butcher, Caitlin Cassidy, Amr El-Bayoumi, Sade Namei, Jamie Rezanour, Sarah Sakaan, Dina Shihabi, Pascale Seigneurie and Heather Raffo
November 18, 2014
The Vagrant
By Mona Mansour
Directed by Mark Wing-Davey
With Aaron Costa Ganis, Ramsey Faragallah, Marianna McLellan, Daniel Pearce, Jamie Rezanour, Cara Seymour, Hadi Tabbal and Rasha Zamamiri
December 9, 2014
Behfarmaheen (If You Please)
Written and Performed by Barzin Akhavan
Directed by Shana Gold
With Fajer Al Kaisi
4th Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2013
September 23, 2013
Sabra Falling
By Ismail Khalidi
Directed by Noelle Ghoussaini
With Leila Buck, Demosthenes Chrysan, Gamze Ceylan, Laith Nakli, Ariel Shafir, Hadi Tabbal and Sheila Vand
October 7, 2013
THE SHADOW SPIRIT
Ibn Daniyal Trilogy
Translation By Dr. Safi Mahfouz And Dr. Marvin Carlson
Directed By Lisa Peterson
With Fajer Al-Kaisi, Maha Chehlaoui, Demosthenes Chrysan, Michael Crane, Kathryn Grody, Heather Raffo
November 18, 2013
HOUSE OF STRENGTH
By Rahaleh Nassri
Directed By Sarna Lapine
With Barzin Akhavan, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Tala Ashe, Yair Ben-Dor, Demosthenes Chrysan, Ariya Ghahramani, Sarah Nina Hayon, Kathryn Kates, Leyla Modirzadeh, Alex Morf, Al Nazemian, Matt Saldivar, Babak Tafti and Alok Tewari
3rd annual highlight reading series
Fall 2012
November 12, 2012
The Prophet
By Hassan Abdul Razzak
Directed by Kareem Fahmy
With Barzin Akhavan, Leila Buck, Ramsey Faragallah, Adi Hanash, and Laura Piquado
Co-presented with The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
2nd Annual Highlight Reading series
Fall 2011
September 19, 2011
I Am Yusef and This is My Brother
By Amir Nizar Zuabi
Directed by Erin Mee
With Sevan Greene, Kathryn Kates, Marjan Neshat, Jesse Presler, Ryan Shams, Ted Sod, Babek Tafti and Sona Tatoyan
November 14, 2011
The Strangest
By Betty Shamieh
Directed by May Adrales
With Barzin Akhavan, Jacqueline Antaramian, Amir Arison, Ruba Audeh, Ramsey Faragallah, Andrew Guilarte, Lana Joffrey, and Daniel Pierce.
December 5, 2011
Baba
Written and performed by
Denmo Ibrahim
Directed by Isis Saratial Misdary
1st Annual Highlight Reading Series
Fall 2010
September 13, 2010
Forgotten Bread
Written by Sevan Greene
Directed by Johanna McKeon
With Noel Allain, Jacqueline Antaramian, Kim Morgan Dean, Ramsey Faragallah, Sevan Kaloustian Greene, Piter Marek, Michele Rafic, Peter Sabri, Sona Tatoyan, Tamar Vezirian, and Audra Wahhab
October 18, 2010
Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes
Written by Yussef El Guindi
Directed by Pippin Parker
With David Wilson Barnes, Peter Ganim, Daoud Heidami, Jenny Seastone Stern, Emily Swallow & Michelle Vanegas
November 15, 2010
The Hour of Feeling
Written by Mona Mansour
Directed by Sharon Lennon
With Maria Cellario, Dan Coleman, Ramsey Faragallah, Peter Ganim, Polly Lee, Piter Marek, and Rasha Zammamiri
December 13, 2010
Fit for the Queen: A Tragicomedy
Written by Betty Shamieh
Directed by Lisa Peterson
With Kathleen Chalfant, Demosthenes Chrysan, Lanna Joffrey, Laith Nakli, Michele Rafic, Ariel Shafir, Ted Sod, and Rasha Zamamiri