A Country Made of Salt

Denmo Ibrahim

Denmo Ibrahim (she/her) is an American playwright, actor, and theatre maker of Egyptian descent. She is the recipient of the Legacy Playwright Award from Advance Gender Equity in the Arts and was shortlisted for the 2025 Princess Grace Award. Her plays include Arab Spring (Finalist: O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Rainin Fellowship), BABA (Winner: Theatre Bay Area “Best Original Script”; SFBATCC “Best New Play” & “Best Solo Show”), The Weight of an Orange (The Playwrights’ Revolution, Capital Stage) and Naguib Mahfuz Was Stabbed in the Neck and Almost Died (Finalist: Sundance Theatre Lab). Her children’s book Zaynab’s Night of Destiny, an audio immersive experience for young audiences, toured throughout Kentucky public schools and was supported by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts.

Denmo’s creative work has been produced and developed by Audible, Round House Theatre, Williamston Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Noor Theatre, The Civilians R&D Series, Amphibian Stage, Alter Theatre, Shotgun Players, Golden Thread, and Crowded Fire.

As an educator, she has led workshops in storytelling and ensemble devised theatre at Harvard University, University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and LOYAC in Kuwait. She currently serves as Chair of the MENA Theatre Makers Alliance (MENATMA), a national coalition advancing visibility and equity for SWANA artists. Denmo holds an MFA from Naropa University and a BFA from Boston University. denmoibrahim.com

Nabra Nelson

Nabra Nelson (she/her) is the Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions. She is a multi-disciplinary theater maker from Nubia, Egypt, and California, with over a decade of experience as a director, administrator, writer, consultant, dramaturg, and teaching artist. She leads the Nubian Foundation for Preserving a Cultural Heritage, is a founding company member of Dunya Productions, a founding company member of Heard Space Arts Collective, Board Member of the MENA Theater Makers Alliance, co-founder of HERitage emBODYment, company member of Dancing Earth, and is the co-host of the Kunafa & Shay Theater Podcast. Awards and recognitions include the New England Foundation for the Arts National Theatre Project, Dramatists Guild Foundation National Playwriting Fellowship, New Arab American Theater Works’ Inaugural Playwriting Cohort, 4Culture Project Grant, Map Fund Artist Award, Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit Partner of the Year, and Agenda Communicating the Arts 30 Under 30. Her scholarship has been published by Routledge, Bloomsbury, Johns Hopkins University Press, The Gemsbok, and the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal. Her plays have been produced and developed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Milwaukee, Santa Barbara, Portland, and Minneapolis.