Hend Ayoub’s HOME? to Have Off-Broadway Production at 59E59 Theaters

San Francisco Playhouse's production of Hend Ayoub’s Home? A Palestinian Woman’s Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness will transfer to New York for a limited Off-Broadway engagement this fall. Starting performances this week in San Francisco, Ayoub’s autobiographical one woman show chronicles her life journey as a Palestinian woman searching for a place to belong. Commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse, Home? A Palestinian Woman’s Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness will make its World Premiere at San Francisco’s Z Below July 26 - August 16, 2025 before transferring to New York’s 59E59 Theaters September 12 - October 11, 2025. 
 
“We are thrilled to announce the transfer of this highly-anticipated World Premiere production to the New York stage,” said San Francisco Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English. “Our San Francisco Playhouse productions of Bauer and Ideation have previously transferred to 59E59, and it’s a pleasure to present our work there again. Hend Ayoub’s moving and hilarious journey will resonate especially well in New York, a city of immigrants, at a time when we need to be reminded that the United States is a nation founded and made great by settlers from every country. We hope that this tale, told in Hebrew, Arabic and English, can serve as a healing balm to our troubled world.”
 
Home? A Palestinian Woman’s Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness traces Ayoub’s journey from her childhood in Israel to her pursuit of an acting career in Israel, Egypt, and New York, seeking acceptance and contending with discrimination. This magnetic, moving, and unexpectedly humorous play explores whether a world divided by nationality and ethnicity can offer a home for those caught in between. American Conservatory Theater Artistic Director Emerita Carey Perloff directs this premiere, which marks the return of San Francisco Playhouse’s Sandbox Series, an award-winning program of premieres produced on local stages.
 
Commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse and developed in a workshop reading with the Playhouse, Golden Thread Productions, and Z Space, Home? was also developed by Noor Theatre as part of its Highlight Reading Series. It was also seen in a workshop production at D.C.’s Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival, where The Washington Post said the show “puts wit and warmth on the map” and called Ayoub “a radiant presence.” DC Theater Arts hailed it as “entertaining and essential.” The San Francisco Playhouse Sandbox Series production is presented in partnership with Z Space and Voices Festival Productions. The production is supported by Z Space’s Subspace program, which provides subsidized or free space to the artistic community.
 

Hend Ayoub

(writer/ performer) is a New York-based actor and writer. As an actor, her theatre credits include Broadway’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, as well as its previous run at Los Angeles’s Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum; A Thousand Splendid Suns (Arena Stage); Kiss (Yale Repertory Theatre); First Down (59E59 Theater), American Fast (InterAct Theater) and Veils (Portland Stage and Barrington Stage). Television credits include Fox TV’s “Homeland,” Netflix’s “Orange Is The New Black,” Hulu’s “The Looming Tower,” CBS’ “Madam Secretary,” USA’s “Royal Pains,” and recurring roles on Amazon Studios’ “Transparent” and Sony Pictures’ “Damages.” In film, she co-starred in Death of a President, Private, and If You See Something.