Painting in Public at Open Book Performance Hall

Painting in Public, written by Novid Parsi, is part of the first Midwestern Festival of New SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) Plays, hosted by New Arab American Theater Works at Open Book Performance Hall in Minneapolis. The play follows Ali, an Iranian American data worker, and Betty, a Black American visual artist, who find each other amid personal loss and fall in love—until Betty discovers that Ali's ethnicity sometimes mysteriously changes. The festival showcases six new works by Midwestern SWANA playwrights, including Alexander Attea, Kayla Karnesky, Zeyy Fawaz, Zainab Hussein, and Sana Wazwaz, directed by Lebanese American theater artist Sherrine Azab. Each reading is followed by a 20-minute talkback facilitated by members of the SWANA community.