Poetry & Performance
What Do the Women Say?
Friday March 14, 2008
$8 adv. $10 dr. - 8pm
Golden Thread Productions
in partnership with La Pena Cultural Center Present
What Do the Women Say?
An International Women’s Day Performance n the Middle East.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Golden Thread Productions presents an evening of poetry and performance by/about women from the Middle East. Golden Thread’s artistic director, Torange Yeghiazarian will direct the award-winning short play, The Body Washer, set in Iraq. Sara Razavi will dissect Palestinian identity politics stand up comedy-style in The Monologist Suffers her Monologue. Bay Area’s beloved poet, Elmaz Abinader will perform accompanied by Tony Khalife.
“We are gifted with an amazing array of prolific women artists in the Bay Area” relates Torange Yeghiazarian, “each one has a unique story to tell and theirs are the stories of our time.” Showcasing such diverse voices in one evening is a thrilling opportunity for Bay Area audiences to experience the plurality of the Middle East.
The program includes:
The Torture Quartet, poetry performance by Elmaz Abinader, accompanied by Tony Khalife, Kamal Ghammache-Mansour, and Timothy Kelly
Elmaz Abinader is an Arab-American writer from Oakland who has won the Goldies Award in Literature, the PEN Award for poetry and a Silicon Valley Arts Grant for Fiction. Her publications include In the Country of my Dreams…a collection of poetry and Children of the Roojme a memoir. Her performance plays have toured 11 countries and Country of Origin --a 3 act work, won 2 Drammies from the Oregon Drama Circle. Her band is directed by Tony Khalife. She is a co-founder of VONA, a foundation that holds summer writing workshops for writers of color. Her upcoming works include a new memoir, Country of Origin, a book of poems, The Torture Quartet and a novel, When Silence Gets Frightening.
The Monologist Suffers Her Monologue, written by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Arlene Hood, performed by Sara Razavi.
An encore presentation of the ReOrient 2007/08 wry comedy and audience favorite where the Monologist riffs “In the drama of nations…Palestine would be a monologue.”
The Body Washer, by Rosemary Frisino Toohey, directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
A staged reading of an award-winning short play about a young Iraqi killed at a checkpoint. Her death is seen through the eyes of the woman who washes her body for burial, the female soldier who fired the fatal shot, and a journalist who reports on the war for the people back home.
Rosemary Frisino Toohey’s first play opened off-off-Broadway and her work has been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Memphis and several spots in between. Her full-length drama, SCHOOL SHOOTER, has had a reading in London's West End and won the playwright an Artist grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. IN THE TANK, her award-winning comedy about two philosophical lobsters, has been produced many times, is published by DRAMATIC PUBLISHING, and is now included in the collections of a dozen university libraries. A longtime radio news anchor, Frisino Toohey is heard on WTOP in Washington. She also works frequently in film and on TV and plays opposite Marcia Gaye Harden in the upcoming film, HOME. There's more at www.frisinotoohey.com
Arab Woman Talking, A collection of short stories told in prose, dance, and singing by Lana Nasser.
Lana Nasser is a performing artist (dancer/poet) and ethnographer. Her research includes the study of Dreams and Middle Eastern mythology. She holds a Master’s degree in Consciousness Studies from JFK University and a BA in Psychology/Fine Arts from George Washington University. She has performed, lectured and led workshops in the United States and Jordan. She most recently presented ‘The Dance of Isis’ at the De Young Museum, SF. www.ArabWomanTalking.com
Getting There, a collaboration in text and image by Haleh Hatami and Bijan Mottahedeh, on "homesickness" as the longing for our physical beginnings and longing for our deeper origins in time.
Haleh Hatami lives in Oakland, CA. Her poems have appeared in ZZYZYVA, Phoebe, and Fourteen Hills. Upcoming work will appear in Indiana Review, Chain and International Poetry Review. Her translations will appear in 26 and are under consideration for the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian Literature. She is the recipient of the CPIC Life Poetry Award at San Francisco State University and of the Ann Fields Poetry Award.
Started in 1909 in the U.S., International Women’s Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
Golden Thread Productions is a San Francisco Bay Area theater company dedicated to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities as represented throughout the globe. In addition to producing ReOrient, an annual festival of short plays, now in its ninth season, we our season comprises two full-length plays, staged readings, workshops and the Fairytale Players, a troupe touring performances for families and youth. Made up of artists from around the world, the company exemplifies theatre’s ability to transcend cultural and political boundaries and to encourage an active dialogue. Next on Golden Thread’s calendar is the world premiere of Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes by Yuusef El Guindi, June 6-29, Thick House in San Francisco.
For more information on this event click here.
For more information on Rosemary Toohey click here.
For advance tickets click here.
