ReOrient 2019

November 9 & 10, 2019

MENA & Muslim Artists Affinity Work Sessions

Golden Thread Productions is thrilled to host a gathering of Middle Eastern, North African, and Muslim theatre artists during the ReOrient Festival. Building on years of community organizing, our partnership with Silk Road Rising (Chicago) and The Lark (New York), and new alliances with Art2Action (Tampa), Noor Theater (New York), and Boom Arts (Portland), we will show up to meet each other, network, and strategize on how to increase our community’s visibility, amplify our voices, and deepen the impact of our work.

Registration is free, but advanced registration is strongly encouraged to secure your space. Walk-up registration will be available on site, space permitting. Also, Golden Thread has secured a limited number of discounted hotel rooms during the Convening. Click here for more info and reservation links. This offer expires October 13.

For more information and a full schedule, click here.

For hotel discounts during the convening, click here.

→ Registration Info

Brass Knuckles

by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Torange Yeghiazarian

A Muslim woman must give herself a pep talk before leaving the house wearing her weapon. Egyptian-American playwright Yussef El Guindi paints a surprising portrait of the strength it takes to be yourself every day.

Yussef El Guindi’s recent productions include Hostages at Radial Theater Project; The Talented Ones at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland (Santa Barbara Independent Indy Award); Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat at Golden Thread Productions (American Theatre Critics Association’s M. Elizabeth Osborn Award); and Threesome at Portland Center Stage, ACT, and at 59E59 (Portland Drammy for Best Original Script). Bloomsbury will publish Selected Works by Yussef El Guindi in January 2019. He is a 2018 Core Company playwright member at ACT in Seattle and a Resident Artist at Golden Thread Productions.

The Grievance Club

by Rendah Heywood, directed by Lisa Marie Rollins

A successful banker joins a secret society to feed her most unconventional desires. Will the enterprise be more than she bargained for? Iraqi-British actor/playwright Rendah Heywood proposes a vision of female rage in our current times.

Rendah Heywood is an actor and a new playwright. In the U.S., she has performed in Refugia at The Guthrie Theater, King Lear at BAM, This Time at The Sheen Center, and in Cuddles for Brits Off-Broadway at 59E59. She has recently participated in workshops for The Atlantic Theater, Noor Theatre, and The Lark. On TV, Rendah has appeared in Doctors, EastEnders, and Holby City for the BBC. The Grievance Club is her first playwriting endeavor, and was selected to be part of last year’s Samuel French OOB Festival of Short Plays in New York City.

Noor and Hadi Go to Hogwarts

by Lameece Issaq, directed by Rebecca Novick

Two Syrian children are alone in the rubble of a war zone. Can Harry Potter save them? Noor Theatre Artistic Director Lameece Issaq’s touching new play finds unexpected hope in the darkest of situations.

Lameece Issaq is an actor and writer, and the Founding Artistic Director of the Obie Award-winning company Noor Theatre, dedicated to the work of theater artists of Middle Eastern descent. Writing credits include Noor & Hadi Go to Hogwarts (Theater Breaking Through Barriers); Nooha’s List (Hartford Stage, The Geffen, and Primary Stages); and Food and Fadwa (Noor Theatre and NYTW co-production, Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award); and the film Abe, co-written with Jacob Kader and starring Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp (post-production). Acting credits include Food and Fadwa and The Black Eyed (NYTW); The Fever Chart and Stuff Happens (Public Theater). Lameece is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. 2016 NYFA Finalist in Playwriting/Screenwriting.

The Basement

by Mustafa Kaymak, directed by Michael French

In a police station in southeastern Turkey, Kurdish journalist Ayca is interviewing a lieutenant about the disappearance of activists. Very quickly, tables turn and the interviewer becomes the interviewee. Turkish-Kurdish writer and filmmaker Mustafa Kaymak’s new film Green won the 2019 Sundance Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction.

Mustafa Kaymak was born in Ankara, Turkey. He is a producer, playwright, and screenwriter who received his B.A. in Journalism from Ankara University, Turkey. He holds two M.F.A. degrees from Columbia University — one in Playwriting and another in Creative Film Producing. His short movie Green has appeared in San Diego International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Galway International Film Festival, and NBC Universal Short Film Festival. Recently, he was awarded a Caucus Foundation Award and an Annenberg Foundation Award.

An Echo of Laughter

by Betty Shamieh, directed by Michael French

A Palestinian teacher is in trouble for teaching The Diary of Anne Frank to her pupils. You would never believe who’s laughing at her from the shadows. Bay Area-based Palestinian-American writer Betty Shamieh returns for her third ReOrient.

Betty Shamieh is the author of fifteen plays. Productions include The Strangest (The Semitic Root), Fit For the Queen (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Machine (Naked Angels) The Black Eyed (NYTW and Magic Theatre), Territories (Magic Theatre), and Roar (The New Group). Her works have been translated into seven languages, and her international productions include Again and Against (Playhouse Theater, Stockholm), The Black Eyed (Fournos Theatre, Athens), and Territories (Landes Theatre, Austria). 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art; Clifton Visiting Artist at Harvard College; Playwriting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies; 2011 UNESCO Young Artist for Intercultural Dialogue in 2011. B.A., Harvard College; M.F.A., Yale School of Drama. bettyshamieh.com

In Spenglic

by Niku Sharei, directed by Lisa Marie Rollins

In the not-so-distant future, new immigrant Meetoo must assimilate in her new home nation of Spenglia. What is she willing to give up to hold on to her healthcare? Bay Area’s own Iranian-American writer Niku Sharei’s absurd sci-fi fantasy hits very close to home.

Niku Sharei has intermittently interned and worked for Golden Thread since 2011. She is delighted to collaborate with Golden Thread as a playwright. She attended writing classes at College of Marin and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Niku was the script supervisor for Go On Then, second place winner of 48 Hour Film Project. She wrote and directed In Spenglic and Fury of Teuton for Short+Sweet Festival. She also performed as a stand-up comic in the UAE. Her poem Boxes Into Circles was published in Dubai Poetics. Niku is a UC Berkeley alumna and is pursuing her MSc in Sociology at The University of Manchester.

The Book of Mima

by Naomi Wallace, directed by Rebecca Novick

The view is exceptionally breathtaking up in the Yemeni sky as a “bird” approaches Mima reading her storybook. MacArthur Fellow Naomi Wallace returns to ReOrient with this poetic and incisive play.

Naomi Wallace’s plays include One Flea Spare, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Things of Dry Hours, The Fever Chart: Three Vision of the Middle East, And I and Silence, and Returning to Haifa (adapted with Ismail Khalidi). In 2009, One Flea Spare was incorporated in the permanent repertoire of the French National Theater, the Comédie- Francaise. Awards: An Obie Award, Kesselring Prize, the Horton Foote Award. She is also a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, the inaugural Windham Campbell prize for drama, and an Arts and Letters Award in Literature.