Torange Yeghiazarian founded Golden Thread Productions in October 1996 with the help of most excellent friends and family members: Maria Zamroud, Termeh Yeghiazarian, Gen Hayashida, and Kamshad Kooshan. Our name is inspired by the myth of Ariadne who offered Theseus a ball of golden thread to guide him out of the labyrinth.
Since then, Golden Thread Productions has worked diligently to probe and celebrate the Middle Eastern culture and identity in all its complexity. Made up of artists from all over the world, the company exemplifies Theatre’s ability to transcend cultural and political boundaries and to encourage an active dialogue. Golden Thread Productions’ commitment to in depth exploration and understanding is imminently important. This is true now more than ever given the volatility of our relationship with the Middle East and the global ramifications of our decisions influenced by our understanding of the region.
Golden Thread Productions’ debut production was Operation No Penetration, Lysistrata 97! The classic Greek antiwar comedy was adapted to a Middle Eastern setting where Palestinian and Israeli women unite to force men into signing a peace treaty. Since then the company has continued to creatively present challenging social issues on stage: Karim Alrawi’s Deep Cut, exploring the universality of human rights (2001), Nine Armenians by award-winning playwright Leslie Ayvazian (2002), Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat (2005), examining the loss of civil liberties in the aftermath of the PATRIOT Act. Golden Thread’s first internally developed production, The Love Missile was an original anti-war musical collaboratively created by Hal Gelb, Janaki Ranpura, and Torange Yeghiazarian, with original music by Johannes Mager, which explored the dilemma facing a Middle Eastern immigrant scientist who is asked to develop the weapons that will be used against her own nation. Among our early collaborating artists were Laura Hope, Ali Dadgar, Carol Ellis, and Manijeh Mohamedi.