11Reflections: San Francisco

Andrea Assaf

Andrea Assaf is a writer, director, performer, and cultural organizer. She is the founding Artistic and Executive Director of Art2Action Inc., and Co-Director of the National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation in partnership with Pangea World Theater. Her seminal work, Eleven Reflections on September, was commissioned by Pangea and has been featured at The Carver Community Cultural Center, CAATA’s 2016 National Asian American Theatre Festival at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La MaMa ETC, The Apollo Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and internationally. She is currently re-creating the project as a multi-city, community-engaged series titled Eleven Reflections on the Nation. Awards include: 2021 Silk Road Film Awards Cannes (Director, Best Experimental Feature), 2020 Pushcart Prize Nomination, 2019 NEFA National Theatre Project for DRONE (currently in development), 2019 & 2011 NPN Creation Fund Commissions, 2017 Finalist for the Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism, 2010 Princess Grace Award/Gant Gaither Theater Award for Directing, and more. Andrea has a master’s degree in Performance Studies and a BFA in Acting, both from NYU. She serves on the Board of the Consortium of Asian American Theatres & Artists (CAATA), Alternate ROOTS, and is a founding Steering Committee member of the Middle Eastern/North African Theatre-Makers Alliance (MENATMA).
art2action.org/artists/Andrea-Assaf

Lubana al Quntar

LUBANA AL QUNTAR (VOCALIST) was born in Damascus, Syria, to a family of traditional singers. A descendant of famous Syrian singer, Amal Al Atrash, and renowned composer and singer, Farid Al Atrash, Lubana trained in classical international conservatories under the supervision of world-renowned opera singers such as Galina Khaldieva, Kenneth Woollam, and Maestra Mya Besselink. Lubana’s wide repertoire includes classical and popular Arab music, folk songs, including traditional Syriac and Aramaic languages, and classical opera. She has been awarded prestigious titles including First Arab Opera Singer of Syria, and fifth prize at The Queen Elizabeth Singing Competition in Brussels, Belgium. Lubana has toured internationally in over 10 countries, in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and North America. Between 2006 and 2012, she served at the Syrian National Conservatory as the Voice Chair for the Department of Opera Singing, where she also founded and launched the Department of Classical Arabic Singing. Lubana continues to share her craft to promote and preserve ancient Syrian cultural heritage.

Eylem Basaldi

Eylem Basaldi (MUSIC DIRECTOR / VIOLINIST) A Turkish-born violinist, Eylem was on the classical track at the New England Conservatory when she rediscovered her passion for Turkish folk music, and a wide array of musical traditions. She is now a member of several ensembles, including Dolunay, which plays the songs of the people of Turkish descent who lived across Rumeli, the southern region of the Balkans; and Sandaraa, a band that explores a vast repertoire of South & Central Asian material (from Balochistan, Afghanistan and beyond) while blending it with the sounds of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and more. She has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, on and off-Broadway in New York, at Symphony Hall in Boston, and has appeared on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Show with the Indie Rock band Afghan Whigs. She has played, collaborated, and recorded with groups such as Grammy winner Snarky Puppy, Dave Brubeck, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and more. Eylem is also a composer, a violin instructor, and tours widely in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.

Eylem serves as Music Director for Art2Action on multiple projects. She has been a lead musician in live touring production of Eleven Reflections on September since 2015, and is featured in the 2021 digital film. Performances with Art2Action have included the historic First Floor Theatre at La MaMa ETC, the 2016 National Asian American Theatre Festival at Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF, produced by CAATA), the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage as part of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theatre Festival, and more. Eylem also serves as the music director for DRONE, a new play by Andrea Assaf.

eylembasaldi.com

Clarissa Bitar

Clarissa Bitar is an award winning Palestinian oud musician and composer born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, California. They graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Music and an emphasis in Ethnomusicology. To further their studies, Clarissa sought out and learned from prominent Arab oudists including Simon Shaheen, Charbel Rouhana, and Bassam Saba. Clarissa has had the privilege of performing around the country and internationally. They have incorporated oud with a multitude of genres ranging from R&B to Pop to Hip Hop and Rap. Their latest album titled ‘Hassan Sabi’ is out now on all streaming platforms. Their music has been featured on Netflix, radio, film, and exhibits around the world. They released a joint poetry-oud EP with Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd in January of 2019 titled Bellydancing on Wounds as well as their solo EP Bayati. Clarissa has a passion for teaching and sharing knowledge on Arab music and Palestinian culture, as well as performing and hopes to continue to carve out spaces for oud share this tradition with others. clarissabitar.com

Sacred City | pearl ubungen

Pearl Ubungen is a highly-acclaimed choreographer/cultural activist. During the 1990’s, her investigations of place/site/memory re-invigorated the field of community-based arts, re-negotiated the critical space between social activism and art making and placed cross-cultural, intergenerational work at the center of the art-making process. Based in San Francisco and fourth generation Pilipina American, ubungen is an interdisciplinary artist who attributes much of her creative life force to the subtle energies and influences of San Francisco. pearlubungen.com

Sophia Alawi

Sophia Alawi is a first-generation Muslim Moroccan/Italian American actress, singer, songwriter & writer. She has a BFA in Musical Theater from Rider University. She also studied at T’Schreiber, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and The Barrow Group in New York. She won the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for Best Featured Actress – Musical in 2019 for Groundhog Day The Musical and was named one of “Five Standout Performances” in 2019 by the Houston Chronicle for the role of Wendla in Spring Awakening. Regional credits include Sound of Music (Hillbarn Theater) EVITA, As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Groundhog Day The Musical (San Francisco Playhouse), Spring Awakening (Theater Under the Stars), She Loves Me, Merrily We Roll Along & Fun Home (42nd St Moon), and In the Heights (Playhouse on Park). New York credits include Fat Kid Rules the World, and Emerson Loses Her Mind. TV credits include Law & Order SVU. She is so excited to be a part of this devised theater piece that uplifts Palestinian voices.

Sahar Assaf

Sahar Assaf (she/her) is Golden Thread’s Executive Artistic Director. She is a Lebanese stage actor, director, translator, and producer. Before joining Golden Thread, Sahar taught theatre at the American University of Beirut where she co-founded the AUB Theater Initiative with playwright and English Professor Robert Myers. Her work at the Theater Initiative includes translating and directing Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding in a site-specific promenade performance, co-translating co-directing, and starring in Shakespeare’s King Lear at al-Madina Theater in Beirut, the first production of Shakespeare in Lebanese colloquial, The Rape and Rituals of Signs and Transformations by Sa’dallah Wannous, and Watch Your Step: Beirut Heritage Walking Tour which was a site-specific devised work on the Lebanese civil war. Sahar is a strong advocate of documentary theatre and recently conceived and directed Meen El Felten, an immersive documentary play on sexual assault and No Demand No Supply, a hybrid documentary play about sex trafficking and prostitution. She is a member of Lincoln Center Director’s Lab (2014), co-founder and artistic director of Directors Lab Mediterranean (2019), and a Fulbright alumnus with an MA in Theater Studies from Central Washington University (2011).

Amal Bisharat

Amal Bisharat (she/her) is a Palestinian-American multidisciplinary artist- a theater director, producer, writer, lyricist, songwriter, actor and photographer. As 2023 Artist-in-Residence with Golden Thread Productions, she co-produced and directed for their signature program ReOrient Festival of Short Plays, as well as directed an online reading of The Gaza Monologues by Ashtar Theater. She is currently developing a musical, Mornings in Jenin Musical, a Palestinian refugee story adapted from the internationally best-selling novel by Susan Abulhawa. Bisharat is a grateful recipient of the Theater Bay Area Arts Leadership Residency Grant (2022-2023), Theater Bay Area CA$H Creates Grant (2022), and San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant (2023). She is a member of the board of the MENA Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA) and serves on the community council for Golden Thread’s 2024 Season for Palestine. Bisharat believes in the transformative power of art and storytelling whether on a stage, in a photograph, or in the stories we tell ourselves.

Deborah Eliezer

Debórah Eliezer (she/her), Ensemble Facilitator/Performer, is a mixed-identity Arab Jewish artist, activist, coach, and California fire survivor. Passionate about the power of human transformation, her work focuses on using ensemble skills to disrupt assumptions about art, human values and society. She is the Artistic Director of Aviva Arts, an Associate Artist with Golden Thread and proudly serves on the inaugural MENA Theatermakers Alliance board. Eliezer has devised numerous world premieres and toured internationally. Recent work includes The Tutor by Torange Yeghiazarian directed by Sahar Assaf at New Conservatory Theatre Center and touring her original play, (dis)Place[d], about Iraqi Jews. As the former foolsFURY Co-Artistic Director, she produced the FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble Theater in San Francisco for 13 years. Eliezer holds a B.A. Cum Laude in Drama Cum Laude from SFSU, and is a certified Sound, Voice Music Healing practitioner from CIIS and Kaula Tantra Yoga instructor. www.avivaarts.org

Shayna Ann Howlett

Shayna Ann Howlett (they/them) is thrilled to work with this incredible team building 11Reflections. Prior credits include Measure for Measure (The Duke) with the American Conservatory Theater; Hamlet (Laertes) with Vallejo Shakespeare in the Park; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania) with the Foodbank Players; The Comedy of Errors (Antipholus of Ephesus) with Prague Shakespeare Company; Hamle’ (Rosencrantz) with the University of California, Berkeley Theater Department; and Dog Sees God (Van’s Sister) and 1984 (The Loudspeaker) with Barestage Productions. See them onscreen in Deep Time directed by William Barrios and Last Dusk directed by Alex Wu.

Nida Liftawiya

Nida Liftawiya is a Palestinian Activist, Artist and Educator. Originally from Lifta, Palestine and now living on Ohlone Lands, in Oakland, CA. In addition, Nida is a self-taught mosaic artist, and has acted in several Brava Theatre and Golden Thread Productions. Nida is a social justice advocate, equity warrior, and lifelong learner.

Maya Nazzal

Maya Nazzal is a Palestinian-American actor and writer in the Bay Area and a voice on Golden Thread Production’s community council for the Season For Palestine. She received her BA in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University and trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. Her acting credits include the role of Baran in the world premier of The Tutor at New Conservatory Theatre Center, Maryam in Noura at Marin Theatre Company, and Asya in Vice Arabia’s short film selections. She participated as a writer and associate producer for CNN’s documentary series, Jerusalem, navigating the cultural sensitivity of the project from a Palestinian lens. In 2022, her original work was selected by the Red Sea Film Festival and Middle Eastern Media Initiative for writing development in Saudi Arabia. Her most recent piece, Because Resistance is Beautiful, is currently in the summer 2024 issue of American Theatre Magazine.

Aidaa Peerzada

Aidaa Peerzada (she/her) is a Black and Pakistani American theatremaker based in the Bay Area. Her plays have been developed with the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Prop Thtr, Catalyst: C3T, Meet Cute LA, Northern Sky Theatre, and SF Bay Area Theatre Co. where she is also part of the artistic staff. She is part of Crowded Fire Theatre’s 2024-2026 Resilience & Development Cohort. Some of her favorite local performance credits include Sign My Name to Freedom (SFBATCO) and The N Lovers* with Magic Theatre. Aidaa studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts and went on to receive her BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.

Zeta Sanchez Blardony

Zeta Sanchez Blardony is a Filipina immigrant with a passion for music. She is a singer-violinist, and plays with bands in the Bay Area. In the Philippines, she was part of music productions, singing competitions, and concerts. Now, she is excitedly exploring the depths of Arab culture in theatre, music and performance.

Megan Soledad

Megan Soledad (she/her) is a Cuban-American actor/singer/dancer currently based in the Bay Area. She is thrilled to be working with Golden Thread and Art2Action and grateful to be a part of 11Reflections: San Francisco. Recent credits include Julia in 1984 (Aurora Theatre Company), A Chorus Line (San Francisco Playhouse), The Woman in The Turn of the Screw (Town Hall Theatre Company), Serena in Legally Blonde (Foothill Music Theatre), and Minnie in Mourning Becomes Electra (Eugene O’Neill Foundation). Other Bay Area credits include Margaret Leavitt in Silent Sky (Summer Repertory Theatre), Head Over Heels (Berkeley Playhouse), Yolanda in In The Heights (Berkeley Playhouse), Dancing Home (San Francisco Youth Theatre), and The Sound of Music (Throckmorton Theatre). Megan recently earned her Masters in Opera from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Arielle Tonkin

Arielle Tonkin (they/them) is a mixed Moroccan and Ashkenazi artist and a Community Council Member for Golden Thread’s 2024 Season for Palestine. Arielle paints, cantillates and co-produces immersive art and ritual spaces across the U.S. Recent highlights include: Morocco to the Bay: A Diasporic Prayerformance (2023), Albany; A Fence Around the Torah (2021-2022), Jewish Museum of Maryland; Queering Jewish Diasporas (2019), Oakland; and solo exhibition Orienting Practice (2018), Boston. Arielle began as a youth activist involved in Muslim-Jewish student organizing in post-9/11 New York. Arielle weaves relationships and materializes conversations: the Muslim-Jewish Arts Fellowship, Arts Jam for Social Change, Tzedek Lab, and Inside Out Wisdom in Action are among their networks of accountability, collective power and care.

Torange Yeghiazarian

Torange Yeghiazarian (she/her) is the founding artistic director emeritus of Golden Thread Productions. She received a Gerbode- Hewlett Playwright Commission Award for Isfahan Blues and a commission from the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California to write and direct The Fifth String. Other plays include 444 Days, Waves, Behind Glass Windows, Dawn At Midnight, Abaga, Thanksgiving At Khodabakhshian’s, Publicly Resting, and Call Me Mehdi, included in the anthology Salaam. Peace – An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama (TCG, 2009).