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The Call Is Places 2019–2020 SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER

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The Call Is Places 2019–2020 SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER The Call Is Places 2019–2020 SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER Noura Jan 11 – Feb 16 McGuire Proscenium Stage WELCOME From Artistic Director Joseph Haj SEASON 2019–2020 2019–2020 The Glass Menagerie Sept 14 – Oct 27, 2019 Dear Friends, Wurtele Thrust Stage No single play can represent the breadth of a cultural worldview, which Steel Magnolias is why we are sharing multiple stories that celebrate Arab artistry this Oct 26 – Dec 15, 2019 season. Observing how human experiences intersect and diverge across McGuire Proscenium Stage cultures is one of the great virtues of theater, and I’m thrilled for our audiences to engage with powerful narratives from an array of Arab and A Christmas Carol Arab American artists. Nov 12 – Dec 29, 2019 Wurtele Thrust Stage Our mainstage production of Noura, a beautifully complex tale of identity and belonging by Iraqi American playwright Heather Raffo, sits Noura in conversation with three Arab works in our Dowling Studio: Zafira and Jan 11 – Feb 16, 2020 McGuire Proscenium Stage the Resistance by Kathryn Haddad (U.S.), Grey Rock by Amir Nizar Zuabi (Palestine) and Jogging by Hanane Hajj Ali (Lebanon). Producing and Twelfth Night presenting these varied plays under one roof allows for an examination of Feb 8 – March 22, 2020 Arab artistry in an environment that can entertain, inform and challenge Wurtele Thrust Stage us in profound ways. The Bacchae I feel a great sense of urgency to share these works with our community, Feb 29 – April 5, 2020 as our exposure to the Arab world is often limited or reduced to politically McGuire Proscenium Stage charged tales of war and extremism. In contrast, Noura, which is a response to Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, introduces us to a loving family of Iraqi Emma immigrants who must navigate a maze of realities around citizenship, April 11 – May 31, 2020 marriage, parenthood, cultural expectations and being caught between the Wurtele Thrust Stage past and present — all hallmarks of our shared humanity. Destiny of Desire Heather Raffo wrote Noura as an attempt to bridge cultures and explore May 30 – July 11, 2020 the internal conflict that occurs when we find our identity in multiple McGuire Proscenium Stage places that feel worlds apart. I’m grateful for her stunning script, this gifted company and our brilliant director Taibi Magar for telling this story Cabaret with such poetry and poignancy while inspiring us to continue building June 20 – Aug 23, 2020 Wurtele Thrust Stage bridges between one another. Sweat Yours, July 25 – Aug 29, 2020 McGuire Proscenium Stage Visit guthrietheater.org for additional productions and play descriptions. 2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: T CHARLES ERICKSON Noura by Heather Raffo Sponsored by Cast in alphabetical order YAZEN Aarya Batchu+ Akshay Krishna+ The Guthrie gratefully recognizes John & Kathy Junek as Leading Producers. NOURA Gamze Ceylan* MARYAM Layan Elwazani* Setting New York City. Christmas Eve, 2016. TAREQ Fajer Kaisi* RAFA’A Kal Naga* Run Time Approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission) Recorded Voices Gamze Ceylan*, Shaymaa Hasan Creative Team Young Actor Supervisors DIRECTOR Taibi Magar Jack Thomas Bonko, Devyn McQueen, Rebekah Peterson, Bradley Prom SCENIC DESIGNER Matt Saunders Acknowledgments COSTUME DESIGNER Dina El-Aziz Noura is presented by special arrangement with The Gersh Agency, Inc. LIGHTING DESIGNER Reza Behjat Playwrights Horizons, Inc. in association SOUND DESIGNER/ORIGINAL MUSIC Sinan Refik Zafar with Shakespeare Theatre Company produced the New York premiere of RESIDENT DRAMATURG Carla Steen Noura in 2018. World premiere produced by VOICE AND DIALECT COACH Keely Wolter Shakespeare Theatre Company (Michael Kahn, artistic director; RESIDENT FIGHT DIRECTOR Aaron Preusse Chris Jennings, executive director). Originally workshopped and developed RESIDENT CASTING DIRECTOR Jennifer Liestman with the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics at Georgetown STAGE MANAGER Katie Hawkinson* University in the Davis Performing Arts Center (Derek Goldman, director; ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Olivia Louise Tree Plath* Maya E. Roth, dramaturgy). CULTURAL CONSULTANT Shaymaa Hasan Noura was further developed at McCarter Theatre Center within their LAB play ASSISTANT DIRECTOR development programs and was produced Taous Claire Khazem by McCarter in Princeton, New Jersey, as the 2017 LAB Spotlight Production (Emily CASTING CONSULTANT McCorkle Casting, Ltd. Mann, artistic director; Timothy J. Shields, managing director). DESIGN ASSISTANTS Ryan Connealy (lighting) Special thanks to The Arts Center at NYU Lisa Jones (costumes) Abu Dhabi, Mohannad Mahmoud and C Andrew Mayer (sound) Samer Saem Eldahr for providing Arabic language assistance. *Member of Actors’ Equity Association Special thanks to the Iraqi and American +Alternate performances Reconciliation Project. 3 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY In rehearsal with Gamze Ceylan (Noura) and Layan Elwazani (Maryam) PHOTO: LAUREN B. PHOTOGRAPHY Synopsis “In letting go of the burden of silence — you open SETTING a door. Or maybe you close a door. Either way New York City. Christmas Eve, 2016. it’s a place from which you never return.” – Noura to Rafa’a in Noura CHARACTERS Noura, an architect originally Having fled their native Iraq years ago, Noura, her husband Tareq and from Mosul, Iraq. Now their son Yazen live in New York City as newly minted U.S. citizens. Their an immigrant living in passports now carry their Americanized names — Nora, Tim and Alex — New York City. but Noura is uncomfortable with the change. She’s restless on Christmas Tareq, her husband, originally Eve yet looking forward to a modest gathering of family and friends for from Baghdad. A former Christmas dinner. She finally gets to meet Maryam, an Iraqi orphan she’s surgeon in Iraq. Now an sponsored, who is visiting during a break from her graduate studies at emergency room hospitalist in Stanford. Rounding out the guest list is Noura’s childhood friend Rafa’a. New York City. Rafa’a, Noura’s childhood When Maryam arrives ahead of schedule to drop off gifts, Noura is neighbor from Mosul and a dismayed to discover that Maryam is pregnant — and unapologetic. close family friend. An OB-GYN. Maryam planned the pregnancy and wants the baby because she’s never had a family of her own. Noura is shocked at Maryam’s brazenness Yazen, Noura and Tareq’s very and worries how Tareq will react. On Christmas, Noura must face past American son. secrets, figure out how, or if, to move forward when she’s caught Maryam, a graduate student in between two countries and determine what sacrifice is necessary to physics studying at Stanford. make movement possible. Also originally from Mosul. 4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE CREATIVE TEAM Playwright Heather Raffo Director Taibi Magar “ Through the lens of a family of Iraqi immigrants, “ Preparing to direct Noura has awakened in me Noura explores what it means to be an American. a renewed and urgent perspective of our global It’s a story about modern marriage and humanitarian crisis, specifically around how hate motherhood, and at its heart, it’s about how we and violence are erasing our cultures.” balance the pull of rugged individualism with the call to purpose, community and belonging.” Heather Raffo is an award-winning playwright and Taibi Magar is an Egyptian American, Obie-winning actor who was the solo writer and performer of director based in New York and a graduate of the international and off-Broadway hit 9 Parts of the Brown University/Trinity Rep M.F.A. program. Desire, which bridged her Iraqi and American roots She is committed to both classics and new work and received countless awards and nominations, that wrestle with complicated humanistic and including the Lucille Lortel Award and Susan Smith political questions evoked by potent characters and Blackburn Special Commendation. She authored poetic language. the libretto for the opera Fallujah, which was workshopped at The Kennedy Center’s International In New York, Magar has directed and developed Theater Festival before premiering at Long Beach work for Ars Nova (Underground Railroad Game, a Opera and New York City Opera. The opera aired on New York Times and Tony Awards Critics’ Pick), The PBS accompanied by the documentary Fallujah: Art, Foundry Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience and Healing and PTSD. WP Theater. She is an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and the recipient of a Stephen Her latest work, Noura, began at Shakespeare Theatre Sondheim Fellowship, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Company in 2018 and received a Helen Hayes Award Fellowship, Public Theater Shakespeare Fellowship for Outstanding Original New Play and an L. Arnold and Theatre for a New Audience Actors and Directors Weissberger New Play Award. The original production Project Fellowship. toured to the Abu Dhabi Arts Center before its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. Regionally, she has directed and developed work at Alley Theatre, Trinity Rep, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Originally from Michigan, Raffo received her B.A. in Festival, Shakespeare & Company, Oregon English from the University of Michigan and M.F.A. in Shakespeare Festival and many academic institutions, Acting Performance from the University of San Diego. including The Juilliard School, Fordham University She has taught at dozens of universities and arts and New York University. centers and performed globally at London’s House of Lords, the U.S.-Islamic World Forum and the Aspen Ideas Festival. 5 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY FEATURE After the Door Slams: An Interview With Heather Raffo By Johanna Buch Writer and Publications Editor PHOTO: LAUREN B. PHOTOGRAPHY The moment I asked playwright Heather Raffo my first question, snowflakes began falling gently outside, as if on cue. “Look at the snow being perfect!” she exclaimed. “It’s my play! It’s Noura!” In the script’s opening lines, Noura recalls a snowfall on a cold day in Mosul, her former home and a city that still has her heart. Raffo knows this feeling well as the daughter of an Iraqi immigrant, and she explores it with tenacity and depth in her latest play, Noura.
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