Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts presents a panel on LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS Chair Michael Cadden Administrative Director Marion Young PROGRAM IN THEATER The Dramaturgy Director/Thesis Advisor Tim Vasen Faculty Advisor Jill Dolan of Political Violence: Faculty Advisor (on leave ’14-15) Brian Herrera Faculty Advisor Robert N. Sandberg Faculty Advisor Stacy Wolf , Aasif Mandvi, Producer Darryl Waskow Production Stage Manager Carmelita Becnel and Muslims on U.S. Stages Theater Operations Specialist Rob Del Colle Costume Shop Manager Keating Helfrich Costume Shop Assistant Julia Kosanovich Costume Technician Caitlin Brown Technical Director Timothy Godin Assistant Technical Director Nora Hyland Theater Technician Torrey Drum Prop Master Alexandra Geiger Scenic Artist Melissa Riccobono Master Carpenter William Wilson Academic Support Joseph Fonseca Director of Communications Steve Runk Web & Multimedia Strategist Justin Goldberg Multimedia Specialist Zohar Lavi-Hasson Visual Communications Specialist Tracy Patterson Communications Associate Jaclyn Sweet Communications Assistant Hope VanCleaf For more information about the Lewis Center for the Arts visit arts.princeton.edu Or contact: Director of Communications, Steve Runk at [email protected]

UPCOMING LEWIS CENTER EVENTS

Exit, a Collaborative Senior Dance Thesis Students in the Program in Dance perform repertory works by Mark Morris and Lar Lubovitch, a new work by Greg Dolbashion, and new choreography by five seniors in the program. April 17 at 8:00 p.m.; April 18 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center $15/$10 students/seniors April 6, 2015 Hero Written, choreographed and directed by Eamon Foley ’15 A new work based on interviews with Vietnam veterans, set to an indie rock score with aerial choreography. 6 p.m. Music direction by Vince diMura. FRIEND CENTER April 25, 26, 29, 30 and May 1 at 8:00 p.m. Marie and Edward Matthews ‘53 Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street Convocation Room (113) Free and open to the public AYAD AKHTAR is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. His play, , The Dramaturgy of Political Violence: Ayad Akhtar, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is the story of a successful Pakistani-American lawyer whose dinner party spins out of control amid a heated discussion of identity and religion. He is also Aasif Mandvi, and Muslims on U.S. Stages the author of the critically acclaimed, poignant coming-of-age novel, American Dervish, which describes organized by a family’s struggle to identify both as Muslim and American, one boy’s devotion to his faith, and the Fawzia Afzal-Khan (Montclair State University) sometimes tragic implications of extremism. The book was voted a 2012 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Shelf-Awareness, and O (Oprah) Magazine. As a screenwriter, Jill Dolan (Princeton University) Akhtar was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within. He has received commissions from and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. OPENING REMARKS AASIF MANDVI is an Indian-American actor and comedian who is perhaps best known for his work Jill Dolan as a regular correspondent on with . Mandvi received an for his READING critically-acclaimed one-man show, Sakina’s Restaurant. His stage credits also include the 2002 Broad- way revival of Oklahoma!, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Homebody/Kabul, Suburbia, Aasif Mandvi Trudy Blue, and Speak Truth to Power. His film and television credits include the title role in Merchant/ Ivory’s The Mystic Masseur; Music and Lyrics, on which he worked with Hugh Grant and Drew Barry- READING more; as well as Spider-Man 2, Freedomland, The War Within, Sorry Haters, , , Ayad Akhtar CSI, Law and Order, and ER.

CRITICAL COMMENTARY NEILESH BOSE is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at St. John’s University. He earned Fawzia Afzal-Khan his Ph.D. in history from Tufts University. As a historian of modern South Asia, he researches 19th and 20th century nationalism, religion, and culture, and the decolonization process of the mid-20th century. HISTORICAL COMMENTARY His other research interests include diasporas and migrations, popular culture, and the philosophy of Neilesh Bose history. He is the author of Beyond Bollywood and Broadway: Plays from the South Asian Diaspora (Indi- ana 2009) and Recasting the Region: Language, Culture, and Islam in Colonial Bengal (Oxford 2014). THE PRACTICE OF THEATRE Jamil Khoury JAMIL KHOURY is a playwright and the founding artistic director of the theater collective Silk Road Rising, where he employs his experiences living in the Middle East and his eleven years as a cross-cul- DISCUSSION tural trainer and international relocations consultant to promote playwrights of Silk Road backgrounds. As a playwright, Khoury focuses on diaspora and other Middle Eastern themes, with a particular AUDIENCE Q&A interest in the intersections of culture, national identity, sexuality, and class. Khoury conceived of and curated the Silk Road Cabaret: Broadway Sings the Silk Road. Khoury also was a featured playwright in Presented by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, in collaboration with the English Department, Silk Road Rising’s production of The DNA Trail: A Genealogy of Short Plays about Ancestry, Identity, and the Muslim Life Program in the Office of Religious Life, the Program in Theater, and the Program in Gender Utter Confusion. Khoury’s play Precious Stones won Gay Chicago Magazine’s 2003 After Dark Award for and Sexuality Studies Outstanding New Work and has been performed in ten cities across the . JILL DOLAN is Annan Professor in English, Professor of Theater, and Director of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She received the 2011 George Jean Nathan Award for SPEAKER BIOS Dramatic Criticism for her blog, The Feminist Spectator. She received the Distinguished Scholar Award FAWZIA AFZAL-KHAN is a University Distinguished Scholar, Professor of English, and Director of Women for Outstanding Career Achievement from the American Society for Theatre Research in 2013. She also and Gender Studies at Montclair State University. She works at the intersection of feminist theory, cultural re ceived a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women and Theatre Program in 2011 and the 2011 and performance studies, and postcolonial studies. She created the first course on writings by and about Outstanding Teaching Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Her books include Muslim women at Montclair State and has published extensively on this topic. She is the author of five The Feminist Spectator as Critic; Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theatre; and The Feminist books, including her recent controversial memoir, Lahore With Love: Growing Up With Girlfriends Pakistani- Spectator in Action: Feminist Criticism for Stage and Screen. Style. Afzal-Khan is a published poet and playwright, a contributing editor to The Drama Review, and a trained vocalist in the North Indian classical tradition. Her current research focuses on female singers in Pakistani popular culture.