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Aswat:
Voices of Palestine Presented by New York Theatre Workshop and Nibras in partnership with the Drama Department of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Saturday, May
5, beginning at 12:00pm New
York University's Loewe Theatre Order
tickets: Facility
address: Description: Full
Program Schedule: 12:30pm Break (coffee/tea/light snacks provided) 1pm
Reading and Discussion: Last Train to Jerusalem by Fuad Abboud,
directed by Will Frears 3:30pm Break 4pm Session
2 6:30pm
Break Sunday, May 6 2pm
Session 4 4:30pm Closing Reception (wine/cheese provided) (all programs and participants subject to change) About
Nibras: Founded in June 2001, Nibras is an Arab-American theatre collective built upon a shared passion and united by a common heritage. Its mission is to create a network for Arab-American theatre artists to share their talent, experience and passion by staging imaginative and articulate productions that increase the positive visibility and creative expression of Arabs and Arab-Americans. It is Nibras's belief that by fostering an understanding of the Arab experience in America, we can begin to create a greater understanding between all the communities that form the rich and intricate web of American culture. Nibras
producing committee for Aswat: Nibras
includes Founding Members Leila Buck, Maha Chehlaoui, Rana Kazkaz, Omar
Koury, Najla Said, and Afaf Shawwa, and
Nathalie Handal, Abigail Marateck, Sami Metwasi, Samir Younis, and Waleed
F. Zuaiter. Razanne Carmey is a London-born Palestinian who started writing for British theatre in 1998. Her first two plays, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and 'Til Love Us Do Part were both social dramas. She also conceived and organized the UK Best Short Play of the Year Award. Razanne turned to political theatre in 2001 with two short plays about the Nakba commissioned for the Peacock Theatre in London’s West End. Since then, she has researched and written extensively about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and six of her plays have been produced in London, including: When Time Must Have a Stop (2002), Shooting with Parsley (2004), It Happened in a Time of Curfew (2005), and, most recently, How Palestine Became Israel (2006). As co-founder of Palestine Theatre in Motion (PTIM), she recently delivered a series of seminars and training workshops to theatre groups in Palestine, and organized the writing competition “Plan Dalet to Deir Yassin.” As director/producer, Razanne Carmey has directed 7 plays and co-produced 12 shows. Yussef El Guindi is a playwright living in Seattle. His most recent production, Back of the Throat, won the 2004 Northwest Playwright’s Competition, was nominated for the 2006 American Theater Critics Association’s Steinberg/New Play Award, was voted “Best New Play of 2005” by the Seattle Times, and has been published by Dramatists Play Service. It first was staged by San Francisco’s Thick Description and Golden Thread Productions, then later presented by Theater Schmeater in Seattle, Manbites Dog Theater in Durham, the Cyrano Theater Company in Anchorage, the Flea Theater in New York, the Furious Theatre Company in Pasadena, and Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago. In 2005, Silk Road Theatre Project produced his Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith, which recently won Chicago’s After Dark Award for “Best New Play.” His two related one-acts, originally titled Acts of Desire and now known as Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda’s and Karima’s City, were staged by the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles and published by Dramatists Play Service. Other recent productions include: Karima’s City (San Francisco and Cairo International Experimental Theater Festival 2004, both presented by Golden Thread Productions); Murder in the Mirror (a radio play presented by Stage Shadows at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York); and, Men on Mars (a radio play aired in 2004 by Shoestring Radio Theater in San Francisco). His adaptation of Chekhov’s A Marriage Proposal into an Arab-American setting was staged by the Arab Theatrical Arts Guild in Dearborn, MI, and was nominated for several PAGE awards including “Outstanding Achievement in Original Play or Adaptation.” His short film Love Stalks won an award for “Best Short Narrative Film” at the Seattle Underground Film Festival, and was aired on KTEH. His short stories Habibi and Ohio recently were published in Seattle Review and Mizna, respectively, and another short story, Stage Directions for an Extended Conversation, was published in Dinarzad’s Children, an anthology of Arab-American Fiction. Yussef holds an M.F.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence at Duke University. Nathalie Handal is a poet, writer, playwright, director, and producer. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Arab world, and has been involved either as a writer, director, or producer in over twenty productions worldwide. Two of her plays, La Cosa Dei Sogni and Between Our Lips, were produced at the Blue Heron Theatre in 2005 and showcased at the Public Theater’s “New Work Now! - Arab/Israeli Festival” in 2006 (in collaboration with Nibras and New York Theatre Workshop). Some of her other productions include: The Details of Silence (Writer; Symphony Space and Claudia Cassidy Theatre, produced by Silk Road and the City of Chicago), Hi Joan! by Maysoon Zayid (Director), Grenade by Yussef El Guindi (Director), Before We Start by Yussef El Guindi (Director), and Living It Up on Long Island (Assistant Director). She is the author of two poetry CDs and two books of poetry, editor of three anthologies, recipient of the Menada Literary Award, and winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, and has been shortlisted for The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. She is a member of Nibras, co-founder of Palestinian Theatre in Motion (PTIM), and Associate Artist and Development Executive for The Kazbah Project, a production company with which she currently is working on the feature film Gibran. Lameece
Issaq is an actor and writer whose performance work includes
Girl Blog From Iraq: Baghdad Burning (Barrow Street Theater/Edinburgh
Fringe Festival - Stage Theater Award Nomination, Outstanding Ensemble);
Stuff Happens (Public Theater - Drama Desk Award, Outstanding
Ensemble); Details of Silence (Symphony Space); “A”
Date, (Writer/Actor; New York Arab-American Comedy Festival); The
Rebirth of Beautiful (New York Playwright’s Festival); Layla’s
Sahra (New York Fringe Festival/Arab American Comedy Festival);
Chronicles of Elenor (Pan Asian Repertory); Cymbeline
(The Vineyard Playhouse); Adventures of Perseus (McCarter Theatre);
Seven Deadly Sins (Hyde Park Theater - Austin Circle of Critics
Award, “Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy”); The Dinosaur
Within (State Theater - Austin Circle of Critics Nomination, “Best
Actress in a Drama”). She holds an M.F.A. from the University
of Texas, Austin. Afaf Shawwa is a Palestinian-Canadian actress who has appeared on stage and in independent films in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. She is a founding member of Nibras and co-creator of the award-winning show Sajjil (Record). Afaf decided to create a stage adaptation of Suad Amiry’s hit book Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which has been translated into 16 languages, because of its witty, absurd, and tragically funny approach to life under occupation. She looks forward to eventually playing the role of Dr. Amiry, whom she got to know in 1996 while living in the West Bank. Naomi Wallace is a playwright whose work has been produced in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. Her plays include One Flea Spare, In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, The Inland Sea, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, and The Fever Chart: Three Short Visions of the Middle East. Her work has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Kesselring Prize, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, and an Obie. She is also a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. Her award-winning film Lawn Dogs is available on DVD. She is presently working on a commission for Actors Theatre of Louisville and Clean Break of London. Her new play Things of Dry Hours received its world premiere at the Pittsburgh Public in 2004, and at the Manchester Royal Exchange and the Gate Theatre of London in 2007. It will receive its New York premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in 2008.
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