Scenes From 71* Years

Hannah Khalil

Winner of the Arab British Centre’s Cultural Award in 2017, Palestinian-Irish writer, HANNAH KHALIL’s (Resident Artist / Playwright) stage plays include The Scar Test opened at Soho Theatre, London (“Political Theatre at its best” —Exeunt), Scenes from 68* Years at Arcola Theatre, London (2017 James Tait Black Award nomination; “confirms Khalil as a dramatist of compelling potential” —Daily Telegraph), The Worst Cook in the West Bank at Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, Bitterenders at Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco (winner Sandpit Arts’ Bulbul 2013), Plan D at Tristan Bates Theatre, London (nominated for the Meyer Whitworth Award), and Ring at (Soho Theatre’s Westminster Prize). Hannah’s work for radio includes The Deportation Room and Last of the Pearl Fishers, both for BBC Radio 4. She is currently working on Channel 4 drama Hollyoaks. Her first short film The Record took the Tommy Vine Award at the Underwire Festival 2015 and is in post-production. She is under commission for Shakespeare’s Globe, The RSC and the National Theatre of Scotland. She was the Bush Theatre’s writer on attachment as part of Project 2036 in 2017. hannahkhalil.com

Michael Malek Najjar

MICHAEL MALEK NAJJAR (Ph.D., UCLA; M.F.A., York University; B.A., University of New Mexico) is an associate professor of Theatre Arts with the University of Oregon. He is the author of Arab American Drama, Film and Performance, 1908 to the Present: A Critical Study and the editor of Four Arab American Plays: Works by Leila Buck, Jamil Khoury, Yussef El Guindi, and Lameece Issaq & Jacob Kader (McFarland) and The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi (Bloomsbury). He founded Riverside Repertory Theatre (now Tricklock Company) in Albuquerque, NM and is an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Directors Lab West, The Rawi Screenwriters Lab (Jordan), and British/American Drama Academy. He directed the world premiere of Precious Stones by Jamil Khoury, and has also directed many other Middle Eastern American plays including Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad, 9 Parts of Desire by Heather Raffo, Ecstasy: A Water Fable by Denmo Ibrahim, and When Farah Cries with Golden Thread Productions. He is currently serving on the editorial board of Arab Stages. He co-curated, and was lead director for, Semitic Commonwealth: A Staged Reading Series Comprised of Six Plays by Arab and Jewish Playwrights Exploring the Human Toll of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at Silk Road Rising, and he is currently co-editing a volume of the plays from that series for McFarland. He is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and has been recognized for meritorious achievement for directing by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.