NO SUMMARY: Adam Ashraf Elsayigh

Golden Thread presented NO SUMMARY with Adam Ashraf Elsayigh livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 3 December 2021 at 11 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 2 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

In this last No Summary episode for 2021, our Executive Artistic Director Sahar Assaf will be in conversation with playwright Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, author of Drowning in Cairo, which will have its world premiere at Golden Thread in the spring of 2022. Growing up in Lebanon and Egypt respectively, Sahar and Adam, both advocates of documentary theatre, will engage in an intimate and open conversation about what made them interested in making theatre. The artists will talk about their theatrical journeys, their processes, and why Drowning in Cairo, a play centered on the lives of 3 Arab gay men, is particularly important now.

Panelists
Adam Ashraf Elsayigh is an Egyptian playwright, dramaturg, and theater maker living in New York. Through his writing and producing, Adam interrogates the intersections of queerness, immigration, and colonialism. Some of Adam's plays include Memorial, Jamestown/Williamsburg, The Marginalia, and Drowning in Cairo. Adam is a fellow at Georgetown University's Laboratory for Global Performance and a Co-Founder and former Co-Producer of The Criminal Queerness Festival. Adam's work has been seen at IRT Theater, Dixon Place, Golden Thread Productions, and The NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center. When he’s not frantically drafting a new play or producing a theater festival, you can probably find Adam running on the GWB, volunteering, or planning his next charcuterie brunch. Adam holds a BA in Theater with an emphasis in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from NYU Abu Dhabi and is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting at Brooklyn College.

Sahar Assaf is Golden Thread’s Executive Artistic Director. She is a Lebanese stage actor, director, translator, and producer. Before joining Golden Thread, Sahar taught theatre at the American University of Beirut where she co-founded the AUB Theater Initiative with playwright and English Professor Robert Myers. Her work at the Theater Initiative includes translating and directing Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding in a site-specific promenade performance, co-translating co-directing, and starring in Shakespeare’s King Lear at al-Madina Theater in Beirut, the first production of Shakespeare in Lebanese colloquial, The Rape and Rituals of Signs and Transformations by Sa’dallah Wannous, and Watch Your Step: Beirut Heritage Walking Tour which was a site-specific devised work on the Lebanese civil war. Sahar is a strong advocate of documentary theatre and recently conceived and directed Meen El Felten, an immersive documentary play on sexual assault and No Demand No Supply, a hybrid documentary play about sex trafficking and prostitution. She is a member of Lincoln Center Director’s Lab (2014), co-founder and artistic director of Directors Lab Mediterranean (2019), and a Fulbright alumnus with an MA in Theater Studies from Central Washington University (2011). Drowning in Cairo is Sahar’s directorial debut at Golden Thread Productions.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.