Middle Eastern American Theatre

Michael Malek Najjar is an associate professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon, USA with a specialization/ concentration in Arab American and Middle Eastern American Theatre forms. He is the author of Middle Eastern American Theatre: Communities, Cultures and Artists and Arab American Drama, Film and Performance, 1908 to the Present. He is the editor of Heather Raffo's Iraq Plays: The Things That Can't Be Said, The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi, Four Arab American Plays: Works by Leila Buck, Jamil Khoury, Yussef El Guindi, and Lameece Issaq & Jacob Kader and co-editor of Six Plays of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. He is on the advisory board of Arab Stages and the steering committee of MENA Theatre Makers Alliance.

Professor Najjar’s comprehensive examination is an inspiring reminder of how far the Middle Eastern Theatre community has advanced, and is a call to all theatre artists who identify as Middle Eastern American to make their voices heard. His book is a much-needed illumination of the diversity of the US American theatre—and of the Middle Eastern American theatre community itself, composed as it is of writers, directors, actors, designers, educators and producers of many national origins and religions, whose stories are an essential part of the American landscape. It will hopefully serve as a point of departure for many such writings and conversations and expand the perception of people of Middle Eastern origin and our relationship to our heritage.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction: Polyculturalism, Transnationalism, and Diaspora1 Major Middle Eastern American Companies 2 Return to the Homeland Plays3 Persecution PlaysGovernmental Persecution: Back of the Throat; Truth Serum Blues; Zafira and the ResistanceSocietal Persecution: Autobiography of a Terrorist; Me No Terrorist; Roar; Mosque Alert; Lubbock or Leave It!4 Diaspora PlaysMiddle Easterners in the Entertainment Industry: It’s Not About Pomegranates! and BrowntownLiving Between “Here” and “There”: 444 Days; This Time; Twice, Thrice, Frice…; Reading Hebron; Noura; Dragonflies; Suitcase; Living in the Hyphen-NationKeeping Tradition Alive: TRAF; A People: A Mosaic Play; Detour GuideSearching for Roots: Baba and (dis)Place[d]Diaspora and Its Discontents: Stunning, Deep Cut, and The Man in the Sukkah5 Plays Set in the HomelandPlays Exploring the Refugee Crisis: Urge for Going, Not My RevolutionHolocaust Plays and Plays Set in Israel and Palestine: The Zionists, Abraham’s Daughters, and Food and FadwaPlays and Musicals About the Troubled Homeland: Pera Palas, The Band’s Visit, and We Live in Cairo6 Conflict PlaysThe Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: The River and the Sea; Abraham’s Daughters, Facts, Martyr’s Street, Wrestling JerusalemPlays of the Armenian Genocide: March!; Night Over ErzingaCivil War Plays: Scorched; Game of Patience; Smail7 The Current State of Middle Eastern American Theatre8 Critical Perspectives“Theatre that Disrupts Our Unconscious Bias with Humor and Joy”: An Interview with Maia Directors Kareem Fahmy, Evren Odcikin, Megan Sandberg-Zakian, and Pirronne Yousefzadeh “Be a Part of Changing the American Narrative About the Middle East”: An interview with Golden Thread Productions Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian and Silk Road Rising Artistic Director Jamil Khoury.References and Further ReadingNotes on ContributorsIndex