Northern California: New Beginnings and New Voices

Jul 01, 2022

(L to R) Wiley Naman Strasser, Amin El Gamal, and Martin Zebari in Drowning in Cairo by Adam Eshraf Elsayigh at Golden Thread Productions. Photo by DavidAllenStudio.com.

by Torange Yeghiazarian

It was a thrilling April when Bay Area audiences had the pleasure of experiencing not one but two world premieres of plays by Middle Eastern American playwrights. By some strange twist of fate, both plays were set in Cairo, which inexplicably brought a smile to my face every time I looked at both postcards on my refrigerator door.

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Torange Yeghiazarian

is a playwright, director, and translator. She is the Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East. Her writing is featured in New Iranian Plays and Performing Iran. Website: TorangeYeghiazarian.com

Cleavon Smith

is an Oakland-based playwright whose recent work includes The Last Sermon of Sister Imani, The Flats (co-written with Lauren Gunderson and Jonathan Spector), and The Incrementalist, which premiered at Aurora Theatre Company in April 2022.

Jewelle Gomez

(Cabo Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway; she/her) premiered her plays Waiting for Giovanni, about James Baldwin, and Leaving the Blues, about Alberta Hunter, at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center where her new piece, Unpacking in P’Town, will premiere in 2023.

Related Dramatist(s)

Torange Yeghiazarian,

Cleavon Smith,

Jewelle Gomez,

Adam Ashraf Elsayigh,

Harrison David Rivers

Related Organization(s)

Marin Theatre Company,

A Contemporary Theatre (ACT),

Golden Thread Productions,

California Shakespeare Theater,

Magic Theatre,