Studio Theatre's ENGLISH Is A Funny & Profound Look At Life In Iran

Beginning on January 11, and running through February 12, Studio Theater brings Sanaz Toossi's English to the stage. The play will be directed by Knud Adams and take place in Studio's Milton Theatre.

Called a "rich new play, both contemplative and comic" by The New York Times, who also selected it as a "Critics Pick," for 2021, English tells the story of four adult students in Karaj, Iran in 2008. The students are studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the key to their green card, medical school, and family reunification. Playing out in awkward lessons of word games and mistranslation, English is both a comedy of miscommunication and a look at the ways speaking a new language can expand your world and change your voice.  A hit in its 2021 New York premiere, Studio presents playwright Sanaz Toossi in her Washington, DC debut.

Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays, both of which came out in the same season as hits with critics and audiences alike, include English and Wish You Were Here. She is currently under commission at multiple theaters across the country and writes on television shows including Invitation to a Bonfire (AMC), A League of Their Own (Amazon), and the upcoming 5 Women (a limited series about a serial sexual harasser and his female employees). Most recently, she sold an original idea, The Persians, to FX with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields (The Americans) attached as Executive Producers.

"I wrote English in 2017, infuriated by the Trump administration's enactment of the Muslim Ban and the years of xenophobic rhetoric leading up to it," says Toossi. "So many people refuse to understand what it takes to emigrate to this country. And giving up your mother tongue is a part of that. That can be an immensely painful experience for so many people, and I wanted to capture that, but I also wanted to honor how funny, textured, and sometimes contradictory Iranians (and all of us) can be."

"English was Sanaz Toossi's first professionally produced play, and it is an extraordinarily assured debut," says Studio Theatre Artistic Director, David Muse. "It has all the hallmarks of a great Studio work: Writing that invites excellent acting, a setting that makes the most of our intimate spaces, a story that is submerged in the cultural and political context of its time-Iran in 2008-while keeping its focus on the lives of its characters. It is also genuinely funny and more than a little heartbreaking. In a moment when many people around the world are focused on Iran, and in the city with the second largest Persian diaspora in the US, it feels like the right play to begin 2023 with."

New York-based director, Knud Adams, was nominated for The Drama League and Drama Desk awards for directing the world premiere of English in a co-production with Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company. His direction of the play, Paris at Atlantic Theater Company was named one of New York Magazine's "10 Best Theater Moments of 2020". He also directed a radio play, Vapor Trail, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. His work was recently seen in DC with Private at Mosaic Theater Company.

The ensemble cast for English includes Nina Ameri as Roya, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as Omid, Tara Grammy as Elham, Narges Kalogli as Goli, and Nazanin Nour as Marjan.