Noor Theatre's Highlight Reading Series to Wrap 11/18 with HOUSE OF STRENGTH

Noor Theatre's Highlight Reading Series concludes Monday, November 18 at 7:30pm with House of Strength by Rahaleh Nassri and directed by Sarna Lapine.

Inspired by the 1953 Iranian democratic movement raging around her, 15-year-old Eteram courageously disrupts the sanctity of the Zoorkhaneh ("house of strength"), where her father practices an ancient Iranian martial art. A lifetime later in the midst of the 2009 uprisings, tensions mount between present-day Zoorkhaneh martial artists and Neda, an Iranian-American filmmaker who comes to make a documentary on the dying martial art her father practiced as a young man. Neda barrels ahead with her own agenda oblivious to internal and external turmoil brewing around her until she's forced to face her own cultural demons, both eastern and western, when the two stories converge and the two women meet.

Sarna Lapine (Associate Director, War Horse and South Pacific) directs a cast that includes Barzin Akhavan (Aftermath, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Company Member), Amir Arison ("The Black List," "Girls," "Homeland"), Tala Ashe ("Smash," Urge for Going), Yair Ben-Dor (Uncle Vanya, Waiting for Lefty), Demosthenes Chrysan (Golden Boy, "Boardwalk Empire"), Ariya Ghahramani (The Kite Runner, Rafta Rafta), Kathryn Kates ("Orange Is The New Black," Food and Fadwa), Al Nazemian ("Elementary," "Damages"), Sara Nina Hayon (A Bright New Boise, "Unforgettable"), Ryan Shams (Water by the Spoonful, Tale of the Allergists Wife), John Sharian ("Person of Interest," "CSI: Miami") and Babak Tafti (The North Pool, "Blue Bloods").

Rahaleh Nassri is an Iranian-born actress, director and playwright who was raised in Europe and the Carolinas. Her new translation and adaptation of Albert Camus' Les Justes was produced in Washington, DC in 2012. She has an MFA in Classical Acting and recently opened an acting school for kids in Brooklyn.

The Reading takes place this Monday, November 18th, at 7:30 PM in the 3rd Floor Rehearsal Studio of New York Theatre Workshop (83 East 4th Street), where Noor Theatre is a Company In Residence. To reserve a seat email RSVP@Noortheatre.org.

Noor Theatre is dedicated to supporting, developing and producing the work of theatre artists of Middle-Eastern descent. Created in 2010 by Lameece Issaq, Maha Chehlaoui and Nancy Vitale, Noor is a Company-in-Residence at New York Theatre Workshop.