NO SUMMARY: Online Conversations with Artists that Don't Fit in a Box
We are thrilled to launch NO SUMMARY, our new Live-Stream Series of artists in conversation with our artistic director Torange Yeghiazarian. These curated digital discussions will invite artists of Middle Eastern and North African heritage to discuss the many layers of their identity and how it impacts their work and artistic choices. We invite you to take pause with us and immerse yourself in these compelling topics and histories that defy a snappy summation. See below for a preview schedule of our first three episodes!
Wednesday, October 7th, 11AM PDT
Featuring leading Iranian playwright, Naghmeh Samini!
NO SUMMARY launches with a conversation with Naghmeh Samini, playwright of The Language of Wild Berries, which will be released as a radio play on October 6th. One of Iran’s leading playwrights, Samini’s work has been presented across Europe and Asia but she has never been produced in the US in English. At a time when US-Iran relations are at an all-time low, hearing directly from artists that create in both countries has never been more vital. The cast and creative team from the radio play will join the conversation.
Click here to watch the livestream from October 7th.
Friday October 23rd, 11AM PDT
Featuring four singular playwrights of Arab heritage!
The series continues with a conversation with four playwrights of Arab heritage based in the US and the UK: Hassan Abdulrazzak, Tariq Hamami, Hannah Khalil, and Mona Mansour. We recently commissioned this extraordinary group to write new plays exploring vital themes and unique collaborations inspired by our current reality. Abdulrazzak, Khalil, and Mansour will develop a remote collaboration model to co-write a new play, and Hamami will write a play exploring the Black Panthers’ residency in Algeria in the 1960s and 70s.
Click here to watch the livestream from October 23rd.
Friday November 6th, 11AM PDT
Featuring Golden Thread Fairytale Players!
At Golden Thread we know that representation matters, especially for youth. Join Simon Bloch, Maya Nazzal, and Sarah Al-Kassab as they discuss their experience of creating and performing in Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players Production of Leila’s Quest for Flight which will be released as a radio play on November 10th. Drawn from Palestinian folktales, Leila’s Quest for Flight is written and directed by Torange Yeghiazarian.
Click here to watch the livestream on November 6th.
Friday December 4th, 3PM PDT
Featuring Evren Odcikin and Nora el Samahy!
Join us for a chat with Golden Thread Board President and beloved actor Nora el Samahy and longtime resident artist Evren Odcikin, now serving as the Associate Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They will discuss championing Middle Eastern stories and voices in mainstream American theater, how artists can be centered in this moment of transition for the field, and art-making during a pandemic! Nora and Evren will dive into their current collaboration with Mona Mansour, a Golden Thread resident artist and 2020 commissioned playwright who was featured in our second NO SUMMARY episode. Additionally, Evren will discuss his upcoming production of This is Who I Am by Amir Nizar Zuabi, known to Golden Thread audiences as the playwright of Oh My Sweet Land in which Nora performed, staged at home and community kitchens. This is Who I Am is a play written for Zoom and created with an international group of collaborators during the lockdown, running December 5, 2020-January 3, 2021.
Click here to watch the livestream on December 4th.