Ten Acrobats In An Amazing Leap Of Faith


Book Description

"What if Neil Simon wrote a lovable comedy about a Muslim-American family trying to hold itself together amidst the misunderstandings that run amuck and the comedy that ensues when the generations collide? It would probably resemble something like the surprisingly enjoyable, charming and oftentimes hilarious TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH." Fabrizio O Almeida, New City Chicago "With TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH, playwright Yussef El Guindi takes the genre (of the immigrant experience) to a new place--the Arab-American experience post September 11, 2001. With humor, passion and a lovely touch of whimsy, he's created a theatrical experience that's not to be missed." Louis Weisberg, CFP "El Guindi's engrossing play...finds a workable balance between sharp humor and head-banging angst, which shapes his story effectively." Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times "Woven into this complicated family drama are scenes of delightful humor. Humanity is the substance that ties not only all of the characters together but also binds the audience to them. This play beautifully serves the purposes of drama, comedy, the artistic theatrical process and, perhaps most importantly, demystifying the hate that comes from fear of unknown cultures." Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago Magazine "The drama comes from an emotionally vivid story that captures a world of anger, joy, love and frustration as it plays out in a Muslim-American family. The appeal lies in Guindi's ability to transcend ethnicity while still writing a rich depiction of a Muslim family... The emotional difficulties could belong to any family of any (or no) religion... Smart, challenging, poignant, whimsical and at times, delightfully silly." Catey Sullivan, Pioneer Press




Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men


Book Description

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men aims to provide new and exciting audition and showcase material for actors of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, the collection is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway. Categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actors in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists including Lemn Sissay, Katori Hall, Rajiv Joseph, Philip Ridley and Naomi Wallace. Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men is the go-to resource for contemporary monologues and speeches for auditions. Ideal for aspiring and professional actors, it allows performers to enhance their particular strengths and prepare for roles featuring characters of specific ethnic backgrounds.




Audition Arsenal for Men in Their 30s


Book Description

Prepare your audition repertoire with the most innovative monologue series to date-Audition Arsenal! Are you tired of buying monologue books only to discard half of the pieces because they are outside of your age range? Not anymore! The first four books in this breakthrough series are for: Women in their 20s, Men in their 20s, Women in their 30s, and Men in their 30s. That means 101 monologues per book, 2 minutes and under, that are all usable by you! And it gets even better. The Audition Arsenal books are organized by type so you will have dynamic, memorable, contemporary monologues that demonstrate your ability to handle any role. Each type is defined by a specific personality trait, allowing you to showcase the qualities crucial to a particular character or role. In addition, choosing contrasting types is a great way to show your range in general auditions. The types are broken down by tone-comedic, dramatic, or seriocomic. Searching is easy, accurate, and fun! Here are the types you will find in this book: Wacky/Quirky/Odd, Awkward/Nervous/Uneasy, High-strung/Neurotic/Stressed-out, Romantic/In love, Angry/Fed Up, Melodramatic, Vulnerable/Hurt/Exposed, Joyful/Enthusiastic/Excited, Persuasive/Inspirational, Troubled/Pained. The Audition Arsenal series is a priceless resource for acting teachers and coaches, and the perfect tool to prepare you to land your next role-no matter what it calls for. Monologues for your gender, in your age range, by type and tone-getting cast has never been this easy! Praise for Milstein's book, The Ultimate Audition Book for Teens, Vol. 1: 111 One-Minute Monologues: "Young actors who have searched for audition material written in the voice of teenage characters will welcome this resource." -Booklist "A valuable resource for teachers and students alike." -School Library Journal "Janet Milstein's Ultimate Audition Book for Teens Volume I is our all-time best seller." -Smith and Kraus




The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi


Book Description

A prolific playwright in the US, Egyptian-American playwright Yussef El Guindi explores, through his dramatic work, the immigrant experience. Addressing the personal, political and social encounters of those trying to adapt to new western countries and cultures, his plays are conceived and shaped with intelligence, sensibility and humour. This collection brings together works that span his career, from his first major play, Back of the Throat, to his boldly topical Threesome, throughout which he delves into the complex issues commonly felt by Arab immigrants in the US: Arabophobia, Islamophobia, media orientalism and bi-cultural issues. The plays featured in the anthology are: Back of the Throat Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat Language Rooms Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World Threesome Packed with supplementary information that expands upon and contextualises El Guindi's work, this collection is both an excellent compendium and a resource for study. Additional material includes: an annotated timeline of the playwright's life and work; an introduction by Professor Michael Malek Najjar (University of Oregon) that draws out themes within the plays and examines El Guindi's place in American theatre in the post-9/11 era; production stills of some productions of El Guindi's work; and El Guindi's essay Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet Abdallah and Ahmed: Musings about Arabs and Muslims in American Theatre.




Rewriting Narratives in Egyptian Theatre


Book Description

This study of Egyptian theatre and its narrative construction explores the ways representations of Egypt are created of and within theatrical means, from the 19th century to the present day. Essays address the narratives that structure theatrical, textual, and performative representations and the ways the rewriting process has varied in different contexts and at different times. Drawing on concepts from Theatre and Performance Studies, Translation Studies, Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Diaspora Studies, scholars and practitioners from Egypt and the West enter into dialogue with one another, expanding understanding of the different fields. The articles focus on the ways theatre texts and performances change (are rewritten) when crossing borders between different worlds. The concept of rewriting is seen to include translation, transformation, and reconstruction, and the different borders may be cultural and national, between languages and dramaturgies, or borders that are present in people’s everyday lives. Essays consider how rewritings and performances cross borders from one culture, nation, country, and language to another. They also study the process of rewriting, the resulting representations of foreign plays on stage, and representations of the Egyptian revolution on stage and in Tahrir Square. This assessment of the relationship between theatre practices, exchanges, and rewritings in Egyptian theatre brings vital coverage to an undervisited area and will be of interest to developments in theatre translation and beyond.




Dinarzad's Children


Book Description

The first edition of Dinarzad’s Children was a groundbreaking and popular anthology that brought to light the growing body of short fiction being written by Arab Americans. This expanded edition includes sixteen new stories —thirty in all—and new voices and is now organized into sections that invite readers to enter the stories from a variety of directions. Here are stories that reveal the initial adjustments of immigrants, the challenges of forming relationships, the political nuances of being Arab American, the vision directed towards homeland, and the ongoing search for balance and identity. The contributors are D. H. Melhem, Mohja Khaf, Rabih Alameddine, Rawi Hage, Laila Halaby, Patricia Sarrafian Ward, Alia Yunis, Diana Abu Jaber, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Samia Serageldin, Alia Yunis, Joseph Geha, May Monsoor Munn, Frances Khirallah Nobel, Nabeel Abraham, Yussef El Guindi, Hedy Habra, Randa Jarrar, Zahie El Kouri, Amal Masri, Sahar Mustafah, Evelyn Shakir, David Williams, Pauline Kaldas, and Khaled Mattawa.




Rock the Casbah


Book Description

"With a new epilogue, The Morning After"--Cover.




Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Women


Book Description

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Women aims to provide new and exciting audition and showcase material for actresses of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, the collection is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway. Categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actresses in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists including Sudha Bhuchar, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour and Naomi Wallace. Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Women is the go-to resource for contemporary monologues and speeches for auditions. Ideal for aspiring and professional actresses, it allows performers to enhance their particular strengths and prepare for roles featuring characters of specific ethnic backgrounds.




American Political Plays after 9/11


Book Description

American Political Plays after 9/11 is a diverse collection of bold, urgent, and provocative plays that respond to the highly charged, post 9/11 political landscape. Sparked by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and subsequently fueled by a series of controversial events—the Iraq war, the passing and enforcement of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, and the revelation of torture and other scandals at the Abu Ghraib prison—American political theater is currently experiencing a surge in activity. The plays in this collection include The Guys by Anne Nelson, At the Vanishing Point by Naomi Iizuka, The Venus de Milo Is Armed by Kia Corthron, Back of the Throat by Yusseff El Guindi, Three Nights in Prague by Allan Havis, and Question 27, Question 28 by Chay Yew. The characters range from a New York City fire captain trying to respectfully memorialize eight of his lost comrades, to the citizens of a hog-killing Louisville neighborhood who poignantly exemplify the underside of the economic crisis, to an Arab American citizen being harshly (and possibly unfairly) interrogated by two officers as a “person of interest.” Though not all of the plays deal explicitly with the Al Qaeda attacks, they collectively reveal themes of sorrow and anxiety, moral indignation, alarmist self-preservation, and economic and social insecurity stemming from the United States’ fairly sudden shift from cold war superpower to vulnerable target. The lively introduction by Allan Havis includes a brief history of political theater in the United States, an extensive discussion about how theater communities responded to 9/11, and an informative analysis of the six plays in the book. A collection of dramatic material framed by this significant historical event, AmericanPolitical Plays after 9/11 will be indispensable for theater and cultural studies scholars and students.




The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance


Book Description

The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance explores ground-breaking new directions and critical discourse in the field of intercultural theatre and performance while surveying key debates concerning interculturalism as an aesthetic and ethical series of encounters in theatre and performance from the 1960s onwards. The handbook's global coverage challenges understandings of intercultural theatre and performance that continue to prioritise case studies emerging primarily from the West and executed by elite artists. By building on a growing field of scholarship on intercultural theatre and performance that examines minoritarian and grassroots work, the volume offers an alternative and multi-vocal view of what interculturalism might offer as a theoretical keyword to the future of theatre and performance studies, while also contributing an energized reassessment of the vociferous debates that have long accompanied its critical and practical usage in a performance context. By exploring anew what happens when interculturalism and performance intersect as embodied practice, The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance offers new perspectives on a seminal theoretical concept still as useful as it is controversial. Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including a fully annotated bibliography, this is the essential scholarly handbook for anyone working in intercultural theatre and performance, and performance studies.