HBMG Foundation National Winter Playwrights Retreat

I’m looking forward to joining playwright Andrew Rosendorf next week in Creede, CO (Pop. +/- 300, El. 8,799 ft.) to continue working together on his new play, Refuge, thanks to an opportunity from the HBMG Foundation.

“A playwright-based retreat, the National Winter Playwrights Retreat prioritizes the playwright, not the work being produced. Playwrights have an opportunity to have work read or sung, conversation over dinners and coffees, sightseeing in the San Juan Mountains, and an introduction to local theaters. The retreat provides respite and renewal for playwrights. Inevitably, the artist's rejuvenation finds its way into her work. In enabling the playwright freedom from expectations, we enable the art.”

Updates (and photos) to come!

Art House's Inkubator playwrights group

Thanks to Aiden Walker and Alex Tobey for inviting me to be a guest artist for tonight’s Inkubator meeting at Art House Productions in Jersey City. The diversity and range of the writers in this group was really exciting, and ArtHouse is a fantastic new facility. These folks are making Jersey proud!

Noor Theatre's DEAD ARE MY PEOPLE at New York Theatre Workshop Next Door

I’ve spent the past several weeks working as Associate Director with Leah C. Gardiner on a unique and exciting new musical with book and lyrics by Ismail Khalidi, co-lyricist Patrick Lazour and music by Hadi Eldebek.

Dead Are My People follows Nicola, a young Syrian man who flees to the U.S. from famine-stricken Mount Lebanon during World War I. Once there, he hopes to track down his uncle Tanios, who emigrated West years before. Finding few traces of his kin, Nicola must ultimately navigate the treacherous terrain of the Jim Crow South. Grappling with the legacies of white supremacy, immigration, and assimilation, Dead Are My People is an unexpected and timely journey to the core of the American experience. Dead Are My People is Noor Theatre’s first full-length play commission.

To our knowledge, this is the first American musical with a book and score balanced between English and Arabic. The short run is already sold out (!!) but fingers crossed you’ll be hearing more about this timely project in the future!

Check out NYTW Next Door’s website for more details!

The Honorable Herbert Peabody

I hope you’ll come check out the premier of a very funny new one-man show, by and starring Kirk McGee, that I’ve had the pleasure of directing.

This One Night Only, One-man, One Act satire, The Honorable Herbert Peabody follows, Joe, a well-meaning tour guide at the Honorable Herbert Peabody Library and Legacy Center, as he tries to decide if he's going to ignore history, change history, or make history to ensure that his (former) hero's "#MeToo" moment doesn't become "Me, Three."

It’s been rainy and cold in NYC, so why not spend some time laughing as you’re warmed by the flames of our crumbling national conscience—and one flustered tour guide’s good-hearted attempt to salvage some piece of it—all in under 30 minutes!.

For tickets and more info click HERE!

Roe Green Visiting Director at Kent Sate University

I'm honored to have been invited to be the 15th Roe Green Visiting Director at Kent State University, directing HEDDA GABLER--which opens tomorrow! It's been a pleasure to work with the wonderful students, faculty and staff to create a HEDDA that. explores Ibsen's themes of class and gender in exciting ways for a 21st century audiences and I'm excited to share this fantastic group's work with the world starting tomorrow! I'm told the production is selling extremely well, so get your tickets now!