Heather Raffo S Iraq Plays The Things That Can T Be Said

The Things That Can't Be Said: Three Plays About Iraq is a trilogy of plays by renowned Iraqi American playwright/performer Heather Raffo including 9 Parts of Desire, Fallujah: The First Opera about the Iraq War, and Noura. In these three works Raffo explores the indelible effects of war on Iraqis, Americans, and the refugees caught between the two cultures. When considered together, these three works give voice to nearly two decades of rarely examined traumas that have reshaped cultural and national identity for both Americans and Iraqis since the events of 9/11. Heather Raffo is a renowned playwright and performer whose work has been described by The New Yorker as an example of “how art can remake the world.” An American with Iraqi heritage, her work is seen as a rare bridge between western and eastern cultures. With ongoing debates about the legacy of America's foreign wars and future role in the Middle East, this volume offers a uniquely historical and deeply human perspective on the political issues of our time. Spanning a decade and a half, together these works form a mosaic of untold stories that were ground breaking in their time and continue to profoundly impact communities and classrooms internationally. 9 Parts of Desire (2003): "First Choice/The Best Shows in London" by The Times, and as one of the “Five Best Plays” in London by The Independent. Its award winning, Off-Broadway premiere ran for nine sold out months and was a critics pick of the The New York Times, Time Out, and Village Voice. The play then received productions in nearly every major regional theatre market in American before being translated for international productions in Brazil, Greece, Sweden, Hungary, India, Turkey, Malta, France, Iraq, Egypt, and Israel. It was the first commercial hit on a national and international stage by an Arab American playwright helping to birth a new genre of Middle Eastern American Theatre. Fallujah (2016) received its world premiere at Long Beach Opera before transferring to NYC Opera. The first ever opera about the Iraq War it tells a U.S. Marine's account of the battle of Fallujah it focuses on moral injury and veteran suicide. Noura (2018) won the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and was hailed “The Most Ambitious Premiere” of the Women's Voices Theatre Festival by The Washington Post and “stirringly powerful” by The New York Times. Told from inside the marriage of an Iraqi family, the play explores the lingering cost of exile for both recent refugees and more established American immigrants. Drawing inspiration from Ibsen's A Doll's Hous and championed as a first of its kind feminist refugee narrative, it is already being included in university curriculum both in America and abroad.

This introduction to the staging of genders and sexualities across world theatre sets out a broad view of the subject by featuring plays and performance artists that shifted the conversation in their cultural, social, and historical moments. Designed for weekly use in theatre studies, dramatic literature, or gender and performance studies courses, these ten milestones highlight women and writers of the global majority, supporting and amplifying voices that are key to the field and some that have typically been overlooked. From Paula Vogel, Split Britches, and Young Jean Lee to Werewere Liking, Mahesh Dattani, Yvette Nolan, and more, the chapters place artists’ key works into conversation with one another, structurally offering an intersectional perspective on staging genders and sexualities. Milestones are a range of accessible textbooks, breaking down the need-to-know moments in the social, cultural, political, and artistic development of foundational subject areas.

An Iraqi artist paints-into-life an astonishing generation of women, exposing their radical, sexy and ultimately human stories beneath. Nine Parts of Desire is inspired by live interviews and events of the last ten years on both sides of the Iraqi border.

As Noura and her husband Tariq prepare to celebrate a traditional Christmas, she looks forward to welcoming a special guest—Maryam, a young Iraqi refugee. But the girl’s arrival opens wounds the family has tried to leave behind, forcing them to confront where they are, where they’ve been and who they have become.

Beginning with early Arab American playwright, poet and novelist Kahlil Gibran and concluding with contemporary playwright Yussef El Guindi, this book provides an historical overview and critical analysis of the plays, films and performances of self-identified Arab Americans. Playwrights, filmmakers and performers covered include Ameen Fares Rihani, Danny Thomas, Heather Raffo, Ahmed Ahmed, Mona Mansour and Cherien Dabis. These artists, traditionally underrepresented in entertainment, publishing and academia, have created works that exemplify the burgeoning Arab American arts movement. By addressing cinema, stand-up comedy and solo performance, the author introduces audiences to contemporary genres that are shaping Arab American culture in the United States.

Safe in the liberal fortress of Manhattan, Raif Almedin is a first-generation immigrant who prides himself on his modern, enlightened views. But when his daughter falls for the son of a conservative Muslim family in White Plains, he discovers the threshold of his tolerance. In this sharp and timely tale, two families are forced to confront each other’s religious beliefs and cultural traditions, and to face their own deep-seated prejudice.

The collected essays from noteworthy dramatists and scholars in this book represent new ways of understanding theater in the Middle East not as geographical but transcultural spaces of performance. What distinguishes this book from previous works is that it offers new analysis on a range of theatrical practices across a region, by and large, ignored for the history of its dramatic traditions and cultures, and it does so by emphasizing diverse performances in changing contexts. Topics include Arab, Iranian, Israeli, diasporic theatres from pedagogical perspectives to reinvention of traditions, from translation practices to political resistance expressed in various performances from the nineteenth century to the present.

Contemporary Plays from Iraq is a ground-breaking collection of Middle Eastern drama translated into English for the very first time. With works from both established and emerging male and female playwrights, written in country and in exile, this volume offers current Iraqi perspectives on a war and occupation that have significantly impacted the Middle East and the rest of the world. Dealing exclusively with contemporary plays originating from Iraq, this anthology gives under-studied Arabic political theatre the attention it deserves and provides a general introduction that sets the plays within their cultural and historical contexts. The plays are preceded by introductions from the playwrights themselves, further enriching each piece for the enjoyment and understanding of the reader. The volume is introduced and translated by James Al-Shamma, Assistant Professor at Belmont University, US, and A. Al-Azraki, an Iraqi playwright.