New Threads Reading Series
New Threads is Golden Thread’s annual staged reading series that engages its audience in the process of playmaking and allows writers of Middle Eastern and non-Middle Eastern descent an authentic and supportive space to develop work about the Middle East. Since its launch in 2011, many New Threads plays and playwrights have continued on to receive mainstage productions.
Artists engaged with 35 presentations
51 writers (playwrights and translators)
30 directors
17 stage managers
227 actors
Our goals for this program are:
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Support the playwright in the development of the script towards production
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Build a working relationship with a new playwright or director and introduce them to our community
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Share a rarely told narrative, particularly one with current resonance
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Better understand the casting and production needs of a play
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Build support for a particular artist or play among our patrons
The readings are accompanied by talkbacks with the artists and experts that comment on the themes of the play. We invite you to join the creative process of a new play and discover brilliant gems never before seen in the Bay Area. We invite you to laugh, cry, and think alongside these beautiful stories from and about the Middle East. Each play is teeming with unexpected humor, surprising characters, and important questions about the world we live in today.
The staged readings are free and open to the public.
New Threads 2021
Arab Play Cycle (or A Triptych of Plays)
by Hassan Abdulrazzak, Hannah Khalil, and Mona Mansour; directed by Evren Odcikin
We’re All Here
by Leslie Kalarchian; directed by Sahar Assaf
I Want To Tell You About Beirut
A bilingual reading of survivors’ testimonies by actors based in San Francisco and in Beirut curated and directed by Sahar Assaf.
New Threads 2018
Drowning in Cairo
June 5, 2018
by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh; directed by Kal Naga
Fog
June 12, 2018
by Edessa Tailo; directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh
Field, Awakening
June 19, 2018
by Melis Aker; directed by Evren Odcikin
Migraaaants
June 26, 2018
by Matéi Vişniec; translated by Nick Awde; adapted and directed by Nima Dehghani; presented in association with Crowded Fire Theater Company
New Threads 2017
We Swim, We Talk, We Go To War
July 16 and 21, 2017
by Mona Mansour; directed by Evren Odcikin; presented in association with Bay Area Playwrights Festival
As Soon As Impossible
August 1, 2017
by Betty Shamieh; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
When Farah Cries
August 8, 2017
by Mudar Alhaggi; translated by Nashwa Gowanlock and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp; directed by Michael Malek Najjar
At The Periphery
August 15, 2017
by Sedef Ecer; translated and directed by Evren Odcikin
New Threads 2016
The One, Percy Ent
July 12, 2016
by Tariq Hamami; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
The Victims, or What Do You Want Me To Do About It?
July 19, 2016
by Ken Kaissar; directed by Evren Odcikin
Those Ills We Have
July 26, 2016
by Novid Parsi; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
Scenes From 68* Years
August 1, 2016
by Hannah Khalil; directed by Evren Odcikin
New Threads 2015
Oh My Sweet Land
November 4, 2015
by Amir Nizar Zuabi; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
Autobiography Of A Terrorist
November 11, 2015
by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh; directed by Evren Odcikin
Stuff
November 18, 2015
by Sevan K. Greene; directed by Erin Gilley
I Call My Brothers
December 2, 2015
by Jonas Hassen Khemiri; translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles; directed by Evren Odcikin
The King Is The King
December 9, 2015
by Saadallah Wannous; translated by Ghassan Maleh and Thomas G. Ezzy; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
New Threads 2014
A Selection of Short Plays from Reorient 2015
September 29, 2014
by Yussef El Guindi, Emma Goldman-Sherman, Ken Kaissar, Tala Manassah, Mona Mansour and Nahal Navidar; directed by Evren Odcikin
The Luxor Express
October 6, 2014
by Daria Polatin; directed by Sara Razavi
Sabra Falling
October 20, 2014
by Ismail Khalidi; directed by Octavio Solis
Baghdad Wedding
October 27, 2014
by Hassan Abdulrazzak; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
New Threads 2013
Holy Land
April 9, 2013
by Mohamed Kacimi; translated by Chantal Bilodeau; directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
The Admission
April 24, 2013
by Motti Lerner; translated by Johanna Gruenhut and Motti Lerner; directed by Amy Glazer
The Most Dangerous Highway In The World
May 6, 2013
by Kevin Artigue; directed by Evren Odcikin
Shot In Baghdad
May 14, 2013
by Jeanne Beckwith; directed by Sara Razavi
New Threads 2012
A Moment Of Silence
May 16, 2012
by Mohammad Yaghoubi; translated and directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
Another Man’s Son
July 18, 2012
by Silva Semerciyan; directed by Rebecca Novick
The Hour Of Feeling
October 1, 2012
by Mona Mansour; directed by Evren Odcikin
The Mummy And The Revolution
November 17, 2012
by Yussef El Guindi; directed by Desdemona Chiang
New Threads 2011
444 Days
March 29, 2011
by Torange Yeghiazarian; directed by Evren Odcikin
The Owl Girl
April 26, 2011
by Monica Raymond; directed by Naomi Newman
The Cry Of The Reed
May 23, 2011
by Sinan Unel; directed by Evren Odcikin
Urge For Going
June 28, 2011
by Mona Mansour; directed by Evren Odcikin