Guenet Sebsibe is a longtime Golden Thread audience member. Her smiling face at performances and inquisitive questions at talkbacks are always a favorite of our staff. We are thankful that audience members like Guenet are eager and willing to hear these stories, and share our work with their friends and family. We couldn’t be prouder to have Guenet as one of our 20 Champions.
What was your first experience with Golden Thread and when? I first experienced Golden Thread when I attended a performance of 22 Minutes Remaining by Oakland playwright Ignacio Zulueta during ReOrient 2007-08. It was such a powerful story that I still think about it to this day.
Why do you need Golden Thread? I return to Golden Thread time and time again to keep myself updated on real issues happening in the Middle East, of everyday lives, struggles, joys, and creativity. I need Golden Thread because it reminds me of the amazing resilience of the human spirit!
What was your strangest, oddest, funniest Golden Thread experience? I have seen more than a dozen plays on the Golden Thread stage and my strangest and most meaningful experience came out of Yussef El Guindi’s The Monologist Suffers Her Monologue in ReOrient 2009: I invited a very pro-Israeli friend to the play because I didn’t know how to honestly express my sentiments of the unfair balance of power regarding Palestine to her. Luckily she was open to learning about the ‘Palestinian state of mind’ through the monologue beautifully performed by Golden Thread’s Sara Razavi.
**Describe Golden Thread in 20 words (no cheating). ** Truly enjoyable storytelling concepts, pace, and angles of morality reflected, that resonate with many of us from old world cultures.
Read the rest of our “20 Champions for 20 Years” blog series!