Table Of ContentMIDDLE EASTERN
AMERICAN THEATRE
Michael Malek Najjar is an associate professor of Theatre Arts at the
University of Oregon. He holds an MFA in Directing from York University
and a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from UCLA. His research
focuses on Arab American and Middle Eastern American theatre and
performance. He is the author of Arab American Drama, Film and
Performance: A Critical Study, 1908 to the Present (2015), and the editor of
Heather Raffo’s Iraq Plays: The Things That Can’t Be Said (2021), The Selected
Works of Yussef El Guindi (2018), and Four Arab American Plays: Works
by Leila Buck, Jamil Khoury, Yussef El Guindi, and Lameece Issaq & Jacob
Kader (2014). With Jamil Khoury and Corey Pond, he is the coeditor of
Four Plays of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2018). He is an alumnus of
the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Directors Lab West, and the
RAWI Screenwriters Lab-The Royal Film Commission Jordan. He has also
directed mainstage productions with Golden Thread Productions, New
Arab American Theatre Works, and Silk Road Rising.
Also available in the Critical Companions series from Methuen Drama:
CRITICAL COMPANION TO NATIVE AMERICAN AND FIRST
NATIONS THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE: INDIGENOUS SPACES
Jaye T. Darby, Courtney Elkin Mohler, and Christy Stanlake
THE DRAMA AND THEATRE OF SARAH RUHL
Amy Muse
THE THEATRE OF AUGUST WILSON
Alan Nadel
THE THEATRE OF EUGENE O’NEILL: AMERICAN MODERNISM ON
THE WORLD STAGE
Kurt Eisen
THE THEATRE AND FILMS OF CONNOR MCPHERSON:
CONSPICUOUS COMMUNITIES
Eamonn Jordan
IRISH DRAMA AND THEATRE SINCE 1950
Patrick Lonergan
PRISON THEATRE AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF INCARCERATION
Ashley Lucas
For a full listing, please visit www .b looms bury. com /s eries /crit icalc ompan
ions/
MIDDLE EASTERN
AMERICAN THEATRE
COMMUNITIES, CULTURES, AND ARTISTS
Michael Malek Najjar
Series Editors: Patrick Lonergan and Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.
METHUEN DRAMA
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, METHUEN DRAMA and the Methuen Drama logo are trademarks
of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2021
Copyright © Michael Malek Najjar, 2021
Michael Malek Najjar has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on pp. xi–xii constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
Cover design: Charlotte Daniels
Cover image: 444 Days by Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread Productions, 2013.
Harry (Michael Shipley) and Laleh (Jeri Lynn Cohen). Directed by
Torange Yeghiazarian. Photograph by David Allen Studio
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any
third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this
book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any
inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but
can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-1703-7
ePDF: 978-1-3501-1705-1
eBook: 978-1-3501-1704-4
Series: Critical Companions
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For Rana and Malak
vi
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations x
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
Introduction: Polyculturalism, Transnationalism, and Diaspora 1
Middle Eastern American Communities 3
Middle Eastern Americans and the Transnational Belonging 5
Middle Eastern Americans and the US Census 9
The Polycultural and Middle Eastern Americans 10
Middle Eastern American Literature 13
Middle Eastern American Diasporic Cultural Production 14
Middle Eastern American Theatre 19
Issues Facing Middle Eastern American Theatre 29
Major Themes of Middle Eastern American Theatre 34
1 Major Middle Eastern American Companies 41
AJYAL Theatrical Group 41
Alliance for Jewish Theatre (AJT) 44
Arab-American Comedy Festival 45
Art2Action Inc. 45
Darvag Theater Group 46
Golden Thread Productions 48
Jewish Plays Project 49
The Lark 50
Mosaic Theater 50
New Arab American Theatre Works 51
Nibras Theatre Ensemble 51
Noor Theatre 53
Pangea World Theatre 54
Silk Road Rising/Silk Road Theatre Project 54
Contents
TARTE: Turkish American Repertory Theater & Entertainment 55
Theater J 56
Tribute: Reza Abdoh 57
2 Return to the Homeland Plays 59
3 Persecution Plays 73
Governmental Persecution Plays: Back of the Throat, Truth
Serum Blues, and Zafira and the Resistance 75
Societal Persecution Plays: Autobiography of a Terrorist, Me
No Terrorist, Roar, Mosque Alert, and Lubbock or Leave It! 83
4 Diaspora Plays 95
Middle Eastern Americans and the Entertainment Industry:
It’s Not About Pomegranates! and Browntown 95
Living between “Here” and “There”: 444 Days; This
Time; Twice, Thrice, Frice . . .; Reading Hebron; Noura;
Dragonflies; Suitcase; and Living in the Hyphen-Nation 102
Keeping Tradition Alive: TRAYF, A People: A Mosaic Play,
and Detour Guide 116
Searching for Roots: Baba and (dis)Place[d] 122
Diaspora and Its Discontents: Stunning, Deep Cut, and The
Man in the Sukkah 125
5 Plays Set in the Homeland 131
Plays Exploring the Refugee Crisis: Urge for Going and Not
My Revolution 131
Plays of the Holocaust and Plays Set in Israel and Palestine:
The Zionists, Abraham’s Daughters, and Food and Fadwa 135
Plays and Musicals About the Troubled Homeland: Pera
Palas, The Band’s Visit, and We Live in Cairo 142
6 Conflict Plays 149
The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: The River and the Sea, Facts,
Martyr’s Street, and Wrestling Jerusalem 149
Plays of the Armenian Genocide: March! and Night Over
Erzinga 158
Civil War Plays: Scorched, Game of Patience, and Smail 162
viii
Contents
7 The Current State of Middle Eastern American Theatre 169
8 Critical Perspectives 173
“Theatre that Disrupts Our Unconscious Bias with Humor
and Joy”: An Interview with Maia Directors Kareem
Fahmy, Evren Odcikin, Megan Sandberg-Zakian, and
Pirronne Yousefzadeh 175
“Be a Part of Changing the American Narrative About
the Middle East”: An Interview with Golden Thread
Productions Executive Artistic Director Torange
Yeghiazarian and Silk Road Rising Co-Founder and
Co-Executive Artistic Director Jamil Khoury 183
References and Further Reading 209
Notes on Contributors 225
Index 227
ix
