Noor Theatre to Take on the Headlines with 48 HOUR FORUM, 5/18

Noor Theatre is New York's only theatre representing voices of the Middle Eastern diaspora. They are often asked to respond to the barrage of news coming out of the Middle East and beyond. Often, news breaks and it is several years before we see something on stage about it. Such is the nature of theatre making.

News is Fast. Theatre is Slow. Not this Time!

For 48 Hour Forum, Noor invited five playwrights and directors and about 20 actors to create five short plays based on the headlines of the day. And they have 48 hours to do it!

Participants include playwrights Keith Josef Adkins (Artistic Director of The New Black Fest) and Mona Mansour (The Way West, Steppenwolf, and Whiting Award winner, 2012); director Shana Gold (Food and Fadwa Noor/New York Theatre Workshop); actors Russell G. Jones (Obie winner for Ruined, Manhattan Theater Club) and Nadine Malouf (The Who and The What, Lincoln Center)

This unique event takes place on Monday, May 18th at 8pm at The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre - 416 W. 42nd Street. Tickets, $50, can be purchased from www.noortheatre.org.

The playwrights are Keith Josef Adkins, Ismail Khalidi, Mona Mansour, Pia Wilson and John Walch. Directors are Peter Ganim, Noelle Ghoussaini, Shana Gold, Victor Malana Maog, and Erin Mee. Actors include Michael Braun, LaChrisha Brown, Caitlin Cassidy, Demosthenes Chrysan, Gamze Ceylan, Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Ramsey Faragallah, Aaron Costa Ganis, Connie Hall, Ethan Hova, Russell G. Jones, Layla Khoshnoudi, Nadine Malouf, Lori Parquet, Jesse Perez, Christina Pumariega and Steven Rattazzi.

All profits benefit Noor Theatre and their work to develop, support and produce the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern descent.

The creation of this work was made possible in part by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.