Yussef El Guindi News

UCSB's Launch Pad Zooms Into Action With ALONE, TOGETHER

LAUNCH PAD alumni playwrights have rallied to provide new material for UCSB's Department of Theater and Dance students. In an overwhelming response to an invitation from LAUNCH PAD Artistic Director Risa Brainin and Professor Annie Torsiglieri, 24 playwrights have written monologues and short plays inspired by the prompt a?oeAlone, Togethera?? and tailored specifically for the Zoom platform. 

Radial Theater Project and 18th & Union will present a live stage production of George Orwell's 1984, opening February 21, 2020 at 18th & Union in Seattle's Central District.

An emphasis on immigrants and how well they integrate (or not) in this country is nothing new. If anything, the issue has become more heated in the past few years.

Oh my! What a year! We've seen bad-ass gospel singers, lost Jewish plays, mythical towns of excretion and even an octopus wrestler or two. No, those aren't allusions to the crazy theater going on in Washington D.C. but the crazy wonderful theater going on right here in the Seattle area. It was tough coming up with just one winner (or even just a few Honorable Mentions) but I managed to do it a?? for the most part. Plus, some shows that more of you should have seen. (Yes, that's me nagging you all, Dear Readers, to check out more of the smaller or obscure theaters around here.) But what it all comes down to is, we're blessed here in the Northwest with an over-abundance of theatrical riches and I'm so fortunate to be able to share some of my favorites of the year with you with the BWW 2019 Seattle Critic's Choice Awards (Jay's Picks). So, let's get started, shall we?

Washington Ensemble Theatre has announced the cast for the Seattle premiere of Dance Nation, the Pulitzer-nominated play by Clare Barron about a group of young people discovering the power inside of them and deciding what they're going to do with their potential. Will they squash it, embrace it, sexualize it, share it, or hoard it?

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Theatre Company is proud to announce playwrights, dates and details for the 2020 Colorado New Play Summit. The 15th annual festival will take place over two weekends, February 15-16, and February 21-23, and feature readings of new plays by Benjamin Benne, L M Feldman, Yussef El Guindi, Jessica Kahkoska, and co-writers Suzan Shown Harjo and Mary Kathryn Nagle. The festival will also feature world premiere productions from the 2019 Colorado New Play Summit by Tony Meneses and Bonnie Metzgar.

If you're an aficionado of theater here in Seattle, then you've probably heard of Yussef El Guindi or at least seen one of his plays. An ACT 2018 core member, this prolific writer has had numerous plays around Seattle and beyond. And when reading the synopsis of his current piece making its World Premiere at ACT, a?oePeople of the Booka??, you may think you know what to expect and what hot button topics he'll hit upon. And he does. But he also manages some literary acrobatics bringing in surprise after surprise making this a deliciously complicated show with an ending that may leave you with more questions than when you came in.

Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its prestigious ReOrient 2019 Festival of Short Plays with seven fully produced short plays, two panel discussions, and a national convening of Middle Eastern theatre artists.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC launches its 5th season this month with the DC premiere of Lynn Nottage's Fabulation, Or The Re-Education of Undine, previewing August 21 (see our August 1 Fabulation press release for opening night information, and our March 29 a?oe#Wokeseason5a?? release for full season line-up), exactly one month after the close of the most successful show in Mosaic's history, the co-production of Kelvin Roston Jr.'s Twisted Melodies, which sold out its last week of performances, playing to record crowds and box office, providing the capstone to a season of transformative artistic and fundraising achievements. 

A Contemporary Theatre People of the Book, a world premiere play by award-winning playwright and ACT 2018 Core Member, Yussef El Guindi,takes its audience on an emotional thrill ride of secrets, hidden truths, jealousy, and the lies we tella?"to ourselves, to the ones closest to us, and about our country.

The ongoing alternate-history podcast BRASS premieres its third season this month. Recorded in Seattle, Washington and featuring a veteran cast of Pacific Northwest talent, the series follows the adventures of a quartet of Victorian science geniuses and their ongoing battle against a criminal mastermind known only as the Crime Minister.

Broken Nose Theatre is pleased to continue its seventh season with the Midwest premiere of Yussef El Guindi's dark comedy LANGUAGE ROOMS, directed by Kaiser Zaki Ahmed, playing April 19 - May 18, 2019 at BNT's resident home,The Den Theatre (2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.

From Founding Artistic Director, Ari Roth: 'The eight amazing plays in Mosaic's 5th Anniversary Season offer up Stages of Awakening-urgent, exhilarating and humble-that hurtle our characters, and by extension, us, forward to new levels of awareness, puncturing bubbles of pretension along the way. To be 'woke' is to be no longer in the dark about what's happening around us; about the systems of oppression and persistence of racism that permeate daily life. But it can be tricky terrain, these states of 'wokeness,' leading to pats-on-the-back of self- congratulations and new forms of denial. Our extraordinary playwrights are hip to our follies and foibles, just as they're poised to wake us up to the realities of our moment and the relevance of history still knocking on our door.

Broken Nose Theatre will continue its seventh season with the Midwest premiere of Yussef El Guindi's dark comedy LANGUAGE ROOMS, directed by Kaiser Zaki Ahmed, playing April 19 - May 18, 2019 at BNT's resident home, The Den Theatre (2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.

Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, presents What Do the Women Say?: Roots & Reflections, its annual celebration of International Women's Day. Rarely do audiences have access to such a rich collection of creative expression by Middle Eastern women, whose portrayal in mainstream media remains one of victimhood and silence. This year's program showcases the work of leading Middle Eastern women artists at the crossroads of tradition and experimentation. With a lineup of acclaimed artists surveying their Middle Eastern cultures, the singular evening celebrates women who reject narrowly-defined stereotypes to take ownership of their creative processes and carve out their own innovative identities.

As part of our 10th anniversary year, Pony World Theatre is excited to announce our spring 2019 mainstage production: Language Rooms by Yussef El Guindi. Recipient of the 2009 Edgerton Foundation's New American Play Award and heralded by critics and audiences in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Language Rooms will be presented for the first time in Seattle this spring from April 12 through May 4.

Broken Nose Theatre announces casting for its Midwest premiere of Yussef El-Guindi's dark comedy LANGUAGE ROOMS, directed by Kaiser Zaki Ahmed.

Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, presents a season of new work highlighting rarely seen perspectives. The 2019 mainstage season begins with the U.S. premiere of Palestinian-Irish playwright Hannah's Khalil's critically acclaimed Scenes from 71* Years (April 5 May 5, 2019). An epic snapshot of Palestinian life since 1948, Scenes is directed by celebrated Arab-American scholar Michael Malek Najjar and features Bay Area Palestinian actors in the nine-member cast.

In January, New Conservatory Theatre Center presents Late Company, written by "the hottest name in Canadian theatre" (The Montreal Gazette), Jordan Tannahill and directed by fearless local sensation, Evren Odcikin. This gripping, fast-paced drama centers around a family grappling to find meaning and redemption after the suicide of their son, who was frequently bullied about his sexuality. In keeping with NCTC's foundation of anti-bullying activism and prevention, Late Company is proud to partner with No Bully, Queer Life Space, and San Francisco Suicide Prevention to increase awareness of the effects of cyberbullying on LGBT youth.