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Watch Snow White by Dr.GoraParasit at the Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance 2024. In Snow White, director Dr. GoraParasit presents a powerful and healing interpretation of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale set against the backdrop of glacial mythology. BDSM aesthetics allow us to question human nature while simultaneously highlighting the everyday myopia of society, our naivety, and social prejudices. Dr. GoraParasit’s performance explores a range of themes, including glacial ecology, the climate crisis, multilingualism, migration, hate, and social-gender dynamics. It also invites us to contemplate broader existential questions of the present and the future. By seamlessly combining different media – such as twerk dancing, video game logic, soundscapes by composer Sandra Kazlauskaitė, and club music – the director exposes her own psychological vulnerabilities and those of contemporary society. With this production, Dr. GoraParasit invites the audience on a journey through the melting glaciers, using green screen techniques to prompt a transformative experience. We are encouraged to reflect upon ourselves through a magic mirror that unveils the reality of a world in the process of melting. And the heat is bound to intensify from here on... Erik Zielke (Theater Critic, Germany): The mirror still speaks at the Lithuanian National Theatre in Kaunas, director Dr. Gora Parasit attempts to disenchant and re-enchant the world with "Snow White" It is a long-standing misunderstanding: the old German fairytale treasure trove has made it into reading material for the youngest children. Blood, sex and crimes at the children's bedside. Attempted murders by jealous stepmothers, banishment of one's own children, secret visits from lovers, open-belly operations – all of them presented as bedtime stories. And yet what the bourgeois linguists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm compiled in the 19th century is only the censored version of the stories that circulated among the population. All that remains are the traces of the metaphor-enriched, sexually charged tales of castrated folk literature. The announcement of the theatrical adaptation of "Snieguolė", as Snow White is called in Lithuanian, is marked "18+". No, we are not dealing with children's theater here. But it is good that art is still taken so seriously that moral guardians ponder whether it is reasonable for an underage audience. In Germany, after all, such age restrictions in the theater are virtually unknown. Nevertheless, here too, art is sometimes the victim of prudery. We are in Kaunas, the old capital of Lithuania, which, unlike the current seat of government Vilnius, does not flaunt with baroque impressions, but instead witnesses pan-European modernism – between Art Deco and Bauhaus. The local National Theatre, the oldest professional theater in the country, has its venue in the former "Metropolitan" cinema, an Art Nouveau building that – renovated in a socialist-realist style – is itself a reflection of an unsettled history. The National Theatre in Kaunas was able to recruit Dr. Gora Parasit, who comes from Lithuania yet chooses her working environment freely between London and Berlin, North America and old Europe, as a director of the two-hour production of "Snow White". She alternates no less freely between theater and performance, installation art and photography. However, her striking, radical formal expression is set. The visual impression is incredibly strong, without losing the sound and the movement, the language and the content behind it. She enriches the Grimm fairy tale "Snow White" with mythical motifs from all over the world – and of course with contemporary legends. As with folk tales from the past, we are still trying to come to terms with reality through stories. Mirror, mirror on the wall. The theater evening begins – white as snow – with a journey to the glaciers. The unmanageable landscape, itself a source of numerous legends, is disenchanting itself in the Anthropocene: The melting of the glaciers makes us all eyewitnesses to climate change. The unmanageable landscape is being conquered by man against his will. And suddenly not only the world but also mankind becomes smaller than it ever has been. This way, the staging rehearses the disenchantment and re-enchantment of the world – and vice versa – with the audience and leaves them, trained by the fairytale, enlightened at best. Snow White is born, not through the devout wish of her mother, who dies during the birth of the child, but by means of medical technology. The last mysteries and wonders of mankind disappear and what remains is the barely explicable presence of modern man. Just as the evil queen looks into the mirror, all the actors in Dr. Gora Parasit's production look at the audience or into the camera, which uses green screen technology to send the players around the world and projects them oversized in the theater. Here, everyone speaks only to themselves and yet, painfully enough, to the audience. The fairytale adaptation is full of Chekhov moments: communication as an interweaving of different monologues. Everyone on stage is talking – in Lithuanian, German and English – yet seemingly only to each other; the addressee of their speech remains unclear. The director is above all an outstanding visual composer. Tableaux vivants emerge and dissolve. Quotes from pop culture and art history appear without imposing themselves upon the audience. The temporary freezing of the actors and the sequence of images become paradoxically dynamic. The scenic power is created not least by Sandra Kazlauskaitė's electronic soundscapes, which create atmospheres and transform them into club-capable music. Dr. Gora Parasit's artistic signature includes her latex costumes, which are more than mere accessories. The conservative audience – and there are quite some in Kaunas –, which can only be anaesthetized by tabloids, naturally takes offence at such stage performances. For them, sexual motifs should rather remain fabulously hidden. The highly artificial costume design reveals human nature more than any other material. The tension between art, artificiality and human nature becomes clearer in "Snow White" than in any other work of Parasit. Through the strangeness of her artistic language and the fantastic nature of the fairy tale, she comes astonishingly close to questions about what it means to be human. The Martin E. Segal Theater Center presents Snow White At the Segal Theatre Film and Performance Festival 2024 A film by Dr.GoraParasit Theater, Film, Performance Art This film will be available to watch online on the festival website May 16th onwards for 3 weeks. About The Film Country Lithuania Language English/Lithuanian Running Time minutes Year of Release 2023 In Snow White, director Dr. GoraParasit presents a powerful and healing interpretation of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale set against the backdrop of glacial mythology. BDSM aesthetics allow us to question human nature while simultaneously highlighting the everyday myopia of society, our naivety, and social prejudices. Dr. GoraParasit’s performance explores a range of themes, including glacial ecology, the climate crisis, multilingualism, migration, hate, and social-gender dynamics. It also invites us to contemplate broader existential questions of the present and the future. By seamlessly combining different media – such as twerk dancing, video game logic, soundscapes by composer Sandra Kazlauskaitė, and club music – the director exposes her own psychological vulnerabilities and those of contemporary society. With this production, Dr. GoraParasit invites the audience on a journey through the melting glaciers, using green screen techniques to prompt a transformative experience. We are encouraged to reflect upon ourselves through a magic mirror that unveils the reality of a world in the process of melting. And the heat is bound to intensify from here on... Erik Zielke (Theater Critic, Germany): The mirror still speaks at the Lithuanian National Theatre in Kaunas, director Dr. Gora Parasit attempts to disenchant and re-enchant the world with "Snow White" It is a long-standing misunderstanding: the old German fairytale treasure trove has made it into reading material for the youngest children. Blood, sex and crimes at the children's bedside. Attempted murders by jealous stepmothers, banishment of one's own children, secret visits from lovers, open-belly operations – all of them presented as bedtime stories. And yet what the bourgeois linguists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm compiled in the 19th century is only the censored version of the stories that circulated among the population. All that remains are the traces of the metaphor-enriched, sexually charged tales of castrated folk literature. The announcement of the theatrical adaptation of "Snieguolė", as Snow White is called in Lithuanian, is marked "18+". No, we are not dealing with children's theater here. But it is good that art is still taken so seriously that moral guardians ponder whether it is reasonable for an underage audience. In Germany, after all, such age restrictions in the theater are virtually unknown. Nevertheless, here too, art is sometimes the victim of prudery. We are in Kaunas, the old capital of Lithuania, which, unlike the current seat of government Vilnius, does not flaunt with baroque impressions, but instead witnesses pan-European modernism – between Art Deco and Bauhaus. The local National Theatre, the oldest professional theater in the country, has its venue in the former "Metropolitan" cinema, an Art Nouveau building that – renovated in a socialist-realist style – is itself a reflection of an unsettled history. The National Theatre in Kaunas was able to recruit Dr. Gora Parasit, who comes from Lithuania yet chooses her working environment freely between London and Berlin, North America and old Europe, as a director of the two-hour production of "Snow White". She alternates no less freely between theater and performance, installation art and photography. However, her striking, radical formal expression is set. The visual impression is incredibly strong, without losing the sound and the movement, the language and the content behind it. She enriches the Grimm fairy tale "Snow White" with mythical motifs from all over the world – and of course with contemporary legends. As with folk tales from the past, we are still trying to come to terms with reality through stories. Mirror, mirror on the wall. The theater evening begins – white as snow – with a journey to the glaciers. The unmanageable landscape, itself a source of numerous legends, is disenchanting itself in the Anthropocene: The melting of the glaciers makes us all eyewitnesses to climate change. The unmanageable landscape is being conquered by man against his will. And suddenly not only the world but also mankind becomes smaller than it ever has been. This way, the staging rehearses the disenchantment and re-enchantment of the world – and vice versa – with the audience and leaves them, trained by the fairytale, enlightened at best. Snow White is born, not through the devout wish of her mother, who dies during the birth of the child, but by means of medical technology. The last mysteries and wonders of mankind disappear and what remains is the barely explicable presence of modern man. Just as the evil queen looks into the mirror, all the actors in Dr. Gora Parasit's production look at the audience or into the camera, which uses green screen technology to send the players around the world and projects them oversized in the theater. Here, everyone speaks only to themselves and yet, painfully enough, to the audience. The fairytale adaptation is full of Chekhov moments: communication as an interweaving of different monologues. Everyone on stage is talking – in Lithuanian, German and English – yet seemingly only to each other; the addressee of their speech remains unclear. The director is above all an outstanding visual composer. Tableaux vivants emerge and dissolve. Quotes from pop culture and art history appear without imposing themselves upon the audience. The temporary freezing of the actors and the sequence of images become paradoxically dynamic. The scenic power is created not least by Sandra Kazlauskaitė's electronic soundscapes, which create atmospheres and transform them into club-capable music. Dr. Gora Parasit's artistic signature includes her latex costumes, which are more than mere accessories. The conservative audience – and there are quite some in Kaunas –, which can only be anaesthetized by tabloids, naturally takes offence at such stage performances. For them, sexual motifs should rather remain fabulously hidden. The highly artificial costume design reveals human nature more than any other material. The tension between art, artificiality and human nature becomes clearer in "Snow White" than in any other work of Parasit. Through the strangeness of her artistic language and the fantastic nature of the fairy tale, she comes astonishingly close to questions about what it means to be human. Producer - National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Lithuania Director, playwright, set designer and costume designer - Gintarė Minelgaitė-Duchin Composer - Sandra Kazlauskaitė The artist of lights is Paulius Varonenka Videographer - Edgaras Jocius Choreographer - Ema Senkuviene Camera and editing assistant - Laura Pociūtė Curator and costume - Birutė Jašinskaitė Producer and directors assistant - Rokas Naudžius Directors assistant - Asta Mačiulytė Performing : Susana AbdulMajid, Dainius Svobonas, Agnieška Ravdo, Indrė Patkauskaitė, Mantas Bendžius, Miglė Navasaitytė, Motiejus Ivanauskas, Goda Petkutė, Ugnė Žirgulė, Povilas Jatkevičius, Pijus Narijauskas, Kamilė Lebedytė, Andrius Alešiūnas, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Artūras Sužiedėlis, Ema Senkuvienė, Eva Kisieliūtė, Ignė Birškutė, Livija Andriuškevičiūtė, Karolina Jablonskytė, Gabrielė Bartkutė, Saulė Zokaitytė, Greta Balčiūnaitė, Daiva Kvedaravičiūtė, Ugnė Vasiliauskaitė, Edvinas Siurblys, Lukas Šimelis, Roberta Lukaševičiūtė, Viktorija Kuzabavičiūtė, Saulė Šeputytė, Kotryna Markevičiūtė, Monika Kvainickaitė About The Artist(s) Theatre artist, experimental filmmaker and designer Gintarė Minelgaitė (b. 1984) is better known by the pseudonym Dr. GoraParasit. The Kaunas-born artist graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2005 with a degree in acting, after which she went to London, where she changed her sphere of interest and undertook his second bachelor, this time in graphic design studies at School of Art, Architecture and Design, part of the London Metropolitan University. While studying design, Minelgaitė worked extensively with various publications, books and their restoration. She also applied her knowledge while working as an art director on the projects “Future Shorts” and “Secret Cinema”. However, soon Minelgaitė returned to the theatre and in 2013, graduated with a master’s degree in directing from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama at the University of London. During her studies, she repeatedly participated in an international summer program at the Watermill Center founded by Robert Wilson in New York, USA. Dr. GoraParasit has already created and presented more than two dozen installations, theatre, film and other works, such as the performances 1001 Nights in America (2014), Tuk Tuk Anamnesis (2017), SELF-FLES (2017), the first part of “Kaip kine” (“Like in films”) series PSYCHO (2017), comic book opera Alfa (2018), live sculpture-performance Pipe Dreaming (2018), live sculpture Tristan and Isolde (2020), performance Tik Tok Shakespeare (2020). Apart from Lithuania, her works have already been presented in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Israel and Germany. Get in touch with the artist(s) tarpdury@gmail.com and follow them on social media https://www.instagram.com/dr.goraparasit/ Find out all that’s happening at Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2024 by following us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube See the full festival schedule here. "Nightshades" - Veronica Viper Ellen Callaghan Dancing Pina FLorian Heinzen-Ziob Genocide and Movements Andreia Beatriz, Hamilton Borges dos Santos, Luis Carlos de Alencar Living Objects in Black Jacqueline Wade ORESTEIA Carolin Mader Schlingensief – A Voice that Shook the Silence Bettina Böhler The Hamlet Syndrome Elwira Niewiera & Piotr Rosolowski Wo/我 Jiemin Yang "talk to us" Kirsten Burger Die Kinder der Toten Nature Theater of Oklahoma:Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska Hans-Thies Lehmann – Postdramatic Theater Christoph Rüter MUSE Pete O'Hare/Warehouse Films QUEENDOM Agniia Galdanova Snow White Dr.GoraParasit The Making of Pinocchio Cade & MacAskill Women of Theatre, New York Juney Smith BLOSSOMING - Des amandiers aux amandiers Karine Silla Perez & Stéphane Milon ELFRIEDE JELINEK - LANGUAGE UNLEASHED Claudia Müller I AM NOT OK Gabrielle Lansner Making of The Money Opera Amitesh Grover Red Day Besim Ugzmajli The Books of Jacob Krzysztof Garbaczewski The Roll Call:The Roots to Strange Fruit Jonathan McCrory / National Black Theatre/ All Arts/ Creative Doula next...II (Mali/Island) Janne Gregor Chinoiserie Redux Ping Chong Festival of the Body on the Road H! Newcomer “H” Sokerissa! Interstate Big Dance Theater / Bang on a Can Maria Klassenberg Magda Hueckel, Tomasz Śliwiński Revolution 21/ Rewolucja 21 Martyna Peszko and Teatr 21 The End Is Not What I Thought It Would Be Andrea Kleine The Utopians Michael Kliën and En Dynamei Conference of the Absent Rimini Protokoll (Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel) / Film By Expander Film (Lilli Kuschel and Stefan Korsinsky) GIANNI Budapesti Skizo, Theater Tri-Bühne Juggle & Hide (Seven Whatchamacallits in Search of a Director) Wichaya Artamat/ For What Theatre My virtual body and my double Simon Senn / Bruno Deville SWING AND SWAY Fernanda Pessoa and Chica Barbosa The Great Grand Greatness Awards Jo Hedegaard WHO IS EUGENIO BARBA Magdalene Remoundou

Back to Top Article References Authors Keep Reading < Back Arab Stages 17 Spring 2025 Volume Visit Journal Homepage LEILI & MAJNUN. Written and directed by Torange Yeghiazarian By Namrata Verghese Published: May 12, 2025 Download Article as PDF REVIEW: LEILI & MAJNUN. Written and directed by Torange Yeghiazarian. Central Stage, Richmond. December 7, 2024. By Namrata Verghese “For this being is yours, my love, it is no longer me / In giving myself to you, my love, I am at last free.” — Majnun, Leili & Majnun Torange Yeghiazarian’s lush reimagining of Leili & Majnun injects the ancient Persian epic with new life. From the soundscape that marries the rhythms of Iranian, Arabic, Kurdish, and western music to the visual language of graffiti art and Persian miniature painting, the production celebrates the hybridity of Iranian diasporic storytelling. Produced by Central Stage, the Bay Area’s only production company founded and operated by Iranian artists, Yeghiazarian’s Leili & Majnun updates the twelfth-century epic for a globalized audience. It also spotlights its enduring resonance: although separated from Nizami by many millennia and miles, those temporal and spatial coordinates collapse when Leili & Majnun opens, and we are simply another audience, like the thousands that came before us, listening to Nizami’s poetry with bated breath. Like many people of Middle Eastern and South Asian heritage, I grew up with the story of Leila [1] and Majnun. It is, as Yeghiazarian notes in her program note, “the most popular love story in the Middle East and the many cultures influenced by the region’s literary treasures.” It is even rumored to have inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , a similarly tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. Yeghiazarian’s adaptation is based on Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi’s epic, which itself is based on the fabled love story between seventh century Arabic poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and his lover, Layla bint Mahdi. Still, even within the parameters of the well-known story, Yeghiazarian’s voice shines through in the play’s balancing of old and new, tradition and innovation. As an audience member, part of the thrill of the genre of the adaptation is tracking the director’s negotiation between familiar and novel elements. Yeghiazarian keeps us guessing as to which elements of the story remain the same and which she tweaks, delivering both nostalgia and freshness in equal measure. Leili & Majnun opens with the naqqal , or narrator, reciting Persian poetry, while a taut drumroll thrums in the background. In keeping with the play’s overarching theme of blending the old with the new, Yeghiazarian casts a woman in the role of naqqal , which is traditionally performed by a man, putting a fresh, feminist twist on an ancient tradition. The directorial decision to begin with Persian, without English translation, is striking. The play does not cater to a western audience; rather, we sit with the Persian, transported to another world. Soon, the ensemble chimes in, moving us into English with the lines: “We open our story in your name, the greatest name of all, never would I begin, without your name in my call / Your name is the key to all that’s locked, the solution to whatever is blocked / O maker of our thoughts and origin of our soul, being and nothingness are equally in your control.” The choice to blend Persian poetry with an English invocation is emblematic of Yeghiazarian’s embrace of diasporic hybridity. It did not seem to alienate the audience; rather, I watched many audience members, some of whom may be familiar with Nizami’s poetry and some who certainly were not, sit up, lean forward and catch their breath. The poem’s affective power transcended language. Image 1: The Naghal (Dina Zarif); photograph by Diaspora Arts Connection In a cheeky tribute to the original epic, once again demonstrating her deftness in drawing together the ancient and the contemporary, Yeghiazarian casts Nizami as a character in his own epic. The poet walks onstage, brandishing a comically large feather pen, sparking hoots and hollers from the crowd. At the behest of his son and the king, Nizami begins to recite the “cherished Arab love poem,” that “tasty Arab tale … made even more delicious when you tell it,” as his son tells him. The following tale melds the naqqal tradition of Persian storytelling with the contemporary form of musical theater. The first song, “It Is a Celebration,” which spotlights the community’s exuberance at Qays’s birth, beautifully captures the hybridity of this reimagining. “It is a celebration / a joyful congregation / The nobleman of the Aumerian clan / has a son,” the ensemble sings, palpable delight in their voices. “At last, at last, at last!” Each “at last” is accompanied by a clap, lending the song a folksy sound. The piece brings together Arabic rhythms and English lyrics in a way that does not require translation. Even the costuming feels like a nod to this hybridity—the actor who plays Leili, for instance, wore shalvar trousers with white tennis shoes. Image 2: The ensemble (right to left: Ameen Safi, Roeen Nooran, Dina Zarif, Behzad Golemohammadi, Yasaman Asgari, Adrienne Shamszad, and Brandon DiPaula) celebrating the birth of Qays; photograph by Diaspora Arts Connection Yeghiazarian’s adaptation hits many of the canonical notes: the staging is set in the “ancient Najd Desert of Arabia,” where Leili, the “moon-faced beauty,” and Qays, pride of his father’s Bedouin clan and poet whose “ruby lips … spread pearls,” meet in school. They’re immediately smitten with each other: “Do you ever feel like your heart is about to burst?” Qays asks Leila, to which she responds, “Like a pomegranate?” The actors do a wonderful job of portraying the shy glances and nervous smiles of a burgeoning crush. The two soon fall in love— “With one sweet smile from Qays,” the ensemble narrates, “Leili was lost”—but are forcibly separated. The separation is staged poignantly: Leili tells Qays, “They’re going to take me out of school.” The light, romantic music turns darker, more dissonant. The two protest; Qays cries out, “She has a thousand curls in her hair; how could I not get tangled up?” Leili responds, “His eyes are full of poetry; I need a thousand more days to read them.” [2] As the two recite poetry professing their love, the other cast members circle the pair, stomping their feet, hissing, “Shame. Shame. Shame.” Sharp staccato notes accompany the words, filling the atmosphere with dread. Unable to bear their separation, Qays unravels. The staging of this moment adds to its affective intensity: Qays, clad in a plain white tunic, pulls the cloth from his chest. The entire garment falls apart into tattered rags that represent the character’s unraveling mental state. Qays runs into the audience, wandering up and down the stairs, searching for his lover—a particularly effective directorial choice, as audience members get to witness, up close, his visceral devastation. Eventually, Qays flees to the desert. “He wandered the dusty pathways among the tribal tents,” the ensemble laments, “Longing for Leili. Searching for Leili. Every day. Everywhere.” Because Central Stage is a volunteer-run theater, the set design is sparse, but extremely thoughtful: we transition from the community into the desert through the simple addition of a large tree in the corner of the stage, under which Qays rests during his self-imposed exile. The tree’s long, wispy tendrils simultaneously shade him and obscure him from our gaze. Here, in the desert, Qays becomes “Majnun,” the eponymous “mad” lover of the original epic. The ensemble narrates, “The clan folk were unkind … To them, he was but a cad / And so, they declared him mad: Majnun! Majnun!” He spends his days writing love poetry on scraps of paper that he throws into the wind. When travelers encounter them, they are so moved by the beautiful verse that they spread the tale of Leili and Qays far and wide. From here, the play progresses to its canonical end: the lovers, separated for decades, reunite just once more before they die, heartbroken and alone. The play ends on a bittersweet note of hope: “This earthy world is ephemeral, the other eternal and pure,” the ensemble recites, “Leili and Majnun were unified in heaven, we are assured / Their love story immortalized and spread across the world.” Image 3: Majnoon (Roeen Nooran) praying to the starry night; photograph by Diaspora Arts Connection Despite its adherence to the narrative contours of the epic, Yeghiazarian’s reimagining nevertheless bears her authorial stamp. The play is distinctive in its diasporic hybridity, both in form, as the discussion of language and music above indicates, and its content. With wry humor, Yeghiazarian often references contemporary events and locations. For instance, when describing Leili’s beauty, a cast member translates: “In the Bay Area, one might say ‘her Middle Eastern good looks swooned American hearts.’” During an intense battle scene, the stage glowing with ominous red light, a cast member pauses, stands up, and says, in the highfalutin style of a BBC reporter, “The death toll was unexpectedly high,” parodying media approaches to conflicts in the Middle East. When the battle ends, the ensemble describes it as a “triumph,” and then quips, “Although, given the description of the massive death and destruction, one wonders if Master Nizami is being facetious in describing this as a triumph.” These surprising bursts of humor are striking in their playfulness. Because the poem is, famously, a tragic love story, most of its adaptations come off somber and heavy. But the lighter moments of levity in Yeghiazarian’s adaptation distinguishes the play’s tone from other tellings and break up the gravity of the narrative. Such choices allow the audience to catch their breath and eventually make the more difficult moments hit even harder. They also underscore the play’s relevance to a contemporary audience, as these direct ties to ongoing events make the romantic epic feel current and urgent. Connecting the past and present was part of Yeghiazarian’s goal for the play; she writes in a press release that celebrating “one of the most beloved Middle Eastern love stories” felt particularly prescient “as we face heightened political volatility in the Middle East.” Ultimately, Leili & Majnun is a luminous tribute to the Nizami epic. The care invested into the production from every angle, from the cast to the creative team, feels tangible. It is a true celebration of centuries of Iranian storytelling, from the ancient to the modern. At the same time, Yeghiazarian reimagines the epic for a globalized audience, attending, in particular, to the generative creative possibilities of hybridity. In its deft braiding of traditional and unconventional elements, Leili & Majnun accomplishes what the form of the adaptation can do, at its best: make the old feel new again. [1] I use “Leili” to refer to the protagonist of Yeghiazarian’s play, entitled Leili & Majnun , and “Leila” to refer to the character in the epic. [2] As anchored in the tradition of orality as this play is, the repetition of the word “thousand” in these lines reads as an intertextual gesture to another folktale from the region that began as an oral story cycle: One Thousand and One Nights . Article Bibliography, References & Endnotes References About The Author(s) Namrata Verghese is a PhD candidate in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University, and a JD candidate at Stanford Law School. Her research spans postcolonial studies, queer and trans theory, and the legal humanities; her dissertation project, Litigating Desire: Queer Literature on Trial in Twentieth Century India , locates encounters between British colonial law and queer literary production in the decades bookending Indian Independence. She was the winner of the Postcolonial Studies Association’s Postgraduate Essay Competition , and the Jeffrey S. Haber Award Prize for Student Scholarship . Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Law & Literature ; the Journal of Postcolonial Writing ; Law, Culture, and the Humanities ; the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities ; the Dukeminier Awards Journal of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law ; and the Routledge Companion to Cultural Text and the Nation . Her public scholarship has appeared in Teen Vogue , The Los Angeles Review of Books , The Millions , and elsewhere. Her work is supported by the Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities and Sciences, the Stanford Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis Digital Humanities Fellowship, the McCoy Center for Ethics Fellowship, the Stanford Center for South Asia Graduate Student Research Fellowship, and the Mellon Centering Race Consortium Graduate Fellowship. Arab Stages Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. The journal appears twice yearly in digital form by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of New York and is a joint project of that Center and of the Arabic Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Visit Journal Homepage Table of Contents O Lord! By Ali Abdel-Nabi Al-Zaidi Mothers Challenging the Divine: Ali Al-Zaidi’s Ya Rab! The 31st Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre. September 1-11, 2024. ARTIFICIAL HEART. By Mohammad Basha and Firas Farrah. LEILI & MAJNUN. Written and directed by Torange Yeghiazarian SHAHADAT (THE TESTIMONIES) Adapted by Fouad Teymour Review: TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF GAZA: THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE Staging Revolutions and the Many Faces of Modernism: Performing Politics in Irish and Egyptian Theatre Previous Next Attribution: Entries under this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Watch My virtual body and my double by Simon Senn / Bruno Deville at the Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance 2024. In the style of a digital conference, Mon corps virtuel et mon double (My virtual body and my double) plunges us into the testimony of the artist Simon Senn who has the disturbing experience of embodying the digital replica of a female body thanks to virtual reality. Together with programmer Tammara Leites, he also creates an artificial intelligence powered by his own personal data and capable of writing. A film that reveals the unexpected entanglement between technology and human beings. The Martin E. Segal Theater Center presents My virtual body and my double At the Segal Theatre Film and Performance Festival 2024 A film by Simon Senn / Bruno Deville Theater This film will be available to watch online May 16th onwards for 3 weeks. About The Film Country Switzerland Language French, with subtitles in German & English Running Time 55 minutes Year of Release 2022 In the style of a digital conference, Mon corps virtuel et mon double (My virtual body and my double) plunges us into the testimony of the artist Simon Senn who has the disturbing experience of embodying the digital replica of a female body thanks to virtual reality. Together with programmer Tammara Leites, he also creates an artificial intelligence powered by his own personal data and capable of writing. A film that reveals the unexpected entanglement between technology and human beings. Film director : Bruno Deville Production : Bastien Genoux Coproduction : Detours Films, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Compagnie Simon Senn With the support of : Fonds DE LA SCENE A L’ECRAN Partnership : TV5Monde. Based on the performances by Simon Senn About The Artist(s) Simon Senn is a Swiss artist. He works primarily with video and performance, exploring the effects of technology on human relationships. Bruno Deville, director and screenwriter, was born in 1976 in Ottignies, Belgium. Joint Swiss and Belgian citizenship. 1992 Receives degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wavre. 1995-2000 Attends ECAL (École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne). 2000 Receives degree in directing from ECAL. 2004 Cofounder of Le Flair production company in Lausanne. Detours Film : Detours Films is a cinematographic approach to apprehending reality, soaking up life trajectories, questioning the political positioning of the contemporary world, or flirting with movement and matter. Words and encounters are the keystones of this visual, often documentary, approach. It's a way of highlighting the inner worlds of people who are atypical or at odds with established norms. Get in touch with the artist(s) a.luthier@vidy.ch , bastien.genoux@detoursfilms.ch and follow them on social media Simon Senn : http://www.simonsenn.com Detours Film : https://www.detoursfilms.ch Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne : https://vidy.ch/fr/production/ Find out all that’s happening at Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2024 by following us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube See the full festival schedule here. "Nightshades" - Veronica Viper Ellen Callaghan Dancing Pina FLorian Heinzen-Ziob Genocide and Movements Andreia Beatriz, Hamilton Borges dos Santos, Luis Carlos de Alencar Living Objects in Black Jacqueline Wade ORESTEIA Carolin Mader Schlingensief – A Voice that Shook the Silence Bettina Böhler The Hamlet Syndrome Elwira Niewiera & Piotr Rosolowski Wo/我 Jiemin Yang "talk to us" Kirsten Burger Die Kinder der Toten Nature Theater of Oklahoma:Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska Hans-Thies Lehmann – Postdramatic Theater Christoph Rüter MUSE Pete O'Hare/Warehouse Films QUEENDOM Agniia Galdanova Snow White Dr.GoraParasit The Making of Pinocchio Cade & MacAskill Women of Theatre, New York Juney Smith BLOSSOMING - Des amandiers aux amandiers Karine Silla Perez & Stéphane Milon ELFRIEDE JELINEK - LANGUAGE UNLEASHED Claudia Müller I AM NOT OK Gabrielle Lansner Making of The Money Opera Amitesh Grover Red Day Besim Ugzmajli The Books of Jacob Krzysztof Garbaczewski The Roll Call:The Roots to Strange Fruit Jonathan McCrory / National Black Theatre/ All Arts/ Creative Doula next...II (Mali/Island) Janne Gregor Chinoiserie Redux Ping Chong Festival of the Body on the Road H! Newcomer “H” Sokerissa! Interstate Big Dance Theater / Bang on a Can Maria Klassenberg Magda Hueckel, Tomasz Śliwiński Revolution 21/ Rewolucja 21 Martyna Peszko and Teatr 21 The End Is Not What I Thought It Would Be Andrea Kleine The Utopians Michael Kliën and En Dynamei Conference of the Absent Rimini Protokoll (Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel) / Film By Expander Film (Lilli Kuschel and Stefan Korsinsky) GIANNI Budapesti Skizo, Theater Tri-Bühne Juggle & Hide (Seven Whatchamacallits in Search of a Director) Wichaya Artamat/ For What Theatre My virtual body and my double Simon Senn / Bruno Deville SWING AND SWAY Fernanda Pessoa and Chica Barbosa The Great Grand Greatness Awards Jo Hedegaard WHO IS EUGENIO BARBA Magdalene Remoundou

Watch Ewa – The Last Lesson by Andrea Mura / Federico Savonitto at the Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance 2026. After sixty years of theatrical and performative research, Ewa Benesz decides to leave Italy and return to Lublin, the city she fled in the 1980s during Polish martial law. The advancement of age forces her to discontinue her workshops, which involve people from all over the world. Ewa Benesz must say goodbye to her students, some of whom have maintained a relationship with her that has lasted for decades. Ewa's theatrical practice and research draw from a tradition and methodology that can only be transmitted personally, so there is a strong risk that her knowledge will be lost forever. In her return to Poland, Ewa confronts the silent weight of a life spent away from home, in a journey that is simultaneously an ending and a return to her origins. Polish actress, holds a BA from the University of Lublin and a diploma of the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Warsaw. She worked in the Instytut Aktora -Teatr Laboratorium managed by Jerzy Grotowski in Poland and she met Peter Brook. After fled the country due to the Martial Laws she collaborated with Rena Mirecka in the paratheatrical projects until 1996 – carried out in Europe, Israel and America. Since 1997 she has conducted her peculiar paratheatrical and theatrical workshops. She lives in the Sardinian mountains, where she conducts a practical research inspired by the ancient Sanskrit Vedic texts and cosmogonist myths. The Martin E. Segal Theater Center presents Ewa – The Last Lesson Andrea Mura / Federico Savonitto At the Segal Theatre Film and Performance Festival 2026 Screening Information This film will be screened on June 1, at 5:30 PM, at The Segal Theatre Center RSVP Please note there is limited seating available for in-person screenings at The Segal Centre, which are offered on a first-come first-serve basis. Country Italy, Poland Language Italian, Polish Running Time 67 minutes Year of Release 2025 About The Film After sixty years of theatrical and performative research, Ewa Benesz decides to leave Italy and return to Lublin, the city she fled in the 1980s during Polish martial law. The advancement of age forces her to discontinue her workshops, which involve people from all over the world. Ewa Benesz must say goodbye to her students, some of whom have maintained a relationship with her that has lasted for decades. Ewa's theatrical practice and research draw from a tradition and methodology that can only be transmitted personally, so there is a strong risk that her knowledge will be lost forever. In her return to Poland, Ewa confronts the silent weight of a life spent away from home, in a journey that is simultaneously an ending and a return to her origins. Polish actress, holds a BA from the University of Lublin and a diploma of the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Warsaw. She worked in the Instytut Aktora -Teatr Laboratorium managed by Jerzy Grotowski in Poland and she met Peter Brook. After fled the country due to the Martial Laws she collaborated with Rena Mirecka in the paratheatrical projects until 1996 – carried out in Europe, Israel and America. Since 1997 she has conducted her peculiar paratheatrical and theatrical workshops. She lives in the Sardinian mountains, where she conducts a practical research inspired by the ancient Sanskrit Vedic texts and cosmogonist myths. With Ewa Benesz Directed by Andrea Mura, Federico Savonitto Produced by Chiara Andrich, Andrea Mura, Federico Savonitto Cinematography Andrea Mura, Federico Savonitto, Chiara Andrich Editing Jacopo Quadri, Nicolò Tettamanti Sound engineer Camilla Iannetti Camera operator Camilla Iannetti Sound design and Music Francesco De Marco Color correction Giada Di Fonzo About The Artist(s) Andrea Mura Italian director and producer with a background in Philosophy and a diploma from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. His documentary work, with works such as “Nodas” (2015) and “Transumanze” (2021), explores the dialogue between memory, popular traditions and contemporaneity. His films have gained recognition at numerous international festivals, including RAI Film Festival (Bristol), Primed (Marseille), See You Sound (Turin), Visioni Italiane (Bologna) and DocuMed (Tunis). As a producer, he has collaborated on Ginko Film projects, including François Xavier Destors and Alfonso Pinto's “Toxicily” (France-Italy, 2023) and Giulia Camba's “Oplà” (Italy, 2024). Since 2014, he has shared the artistic direction of the Sole Luna Doc Film Festival in Palermo with Chiara Andrich. Federico Savonitto Documentary director. A graduate of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, he has long held the position of teaching tutor at the CSC - Sede Sicilia, taught filmmaking, and made several documentaries such as La fine che non ho fatto (2011), La città sconosciuta (2013), Pellegrino (2017), In un futuro aprile (2019), Not Available - It's about Yann Keller (2022), An Invisible Enemy (2022) The Secret Plan (2024) that participated and won awards at several international festivals, such as Biografilm Festival, Giornate degli Autori, DOK Leipzig, Locarno Film Festival, Listapad, DOC- Cévennes, Festival dei Popoli, Trieste Film Festival, Trento Film Festival, Ortigia Film Festival, Asolo Art Film Festival. Get in touch with the artist(s) info@ginkofilm.it and follow them on social media https://www.ginkofilm.it/en/film/the-last-lesson/ Find out all that’s happening at Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) 2026 by following us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube See the full festival schedule here

FRANCESCA D'UVA presents An Hour With Francesca D’Uva at the PRELUDE 2024 Festival at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center CUNY. PRELUDE Festival 2024 An Hour With Francesca D’Uva FRANCESCA D'UVA 8-9 pm Saturday, October 19, 2024 The Segal Theatre RSVP Francesca will present material from her solo show, This Is My Favorite Song , which will premiere at Playwrights Horizons in November. The show, written over the last three years, examines her relationship to comedy before and after her father's death. Directed by Sam Max Originally commissioned by Abrons Arts Center, currently being produced by Playwrights Horizons LOBSTER Nora loves Patti Smith. Nora is Patti Smith. Nora is stoned out of her mind in the Chelsea Hotel. Actually, the Chelsea Hotel is her mind. Actually, the Chelsea Hotel is an out-of-use portable classroom in the Pacific Northwest, and that classroom is a breeding ground for lobsters. LOBSTER by Kallan Dana directed by Hanna Yurfest produced by Emma Richmond with: Anna Aubry, Chris Erdman, Annie Fang, Coco McNeil, Haley Wong Needy Lover presents an excerpt of LOBSTER , a play about teenagers putting on a production of Patti Smith and Sam Shepard's Cowboy Mouth . THE ARTISTS Needy Lover makes performances that are funny, propulsive, weird, and gut-wrenching (ideally all at the same time). We create theatre out of seemingly diametrically opposed forces: our work is both entertaining and unusual, funny and tragic. Needylover.com Kallan Dana is a writer and performer originally from Portland, Oregon. She has developed and presented work with Clubbed Thumb, The Hearth, The Tank, Bramble Theater Company, Dixon Place, Northwestern University, and Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. She is a New Georges affiliated artist and co-founder of the artist collaboration group TAG at The Tank. She received her MFA from Northwestern University. Upcoming: RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR with The Hearth/Connelly Theater Upstairs (dir. Sarah Blush), Dec 2024. LOBSTER with The Tank (dir. Hanna Yurfest), April/May 2025. Needylover.com and troveirl.com Hanna Yurfest is a director and producer from Richmond, MA. She co-founded and leads The Tank’s artist group TAG and creates work with her company, Needy Lover. Emma Richmond is a producer and director of performances and events. She has worked with/at HERE, The Tank, The Brick, and Audible, amongst others. She was The Tank’s 2022-23 Producing Fellow, and is a member of the artist group TAG. Her day job is Programs Manager at Clubbed Thumb, and she also makes work with her collective Trove, which she co-founded. www.emma-richmond.com Rooting for You The Barbarians It's the Season Six premiere of 'Sava Swerve's: The Model Detector' and Cameron is on it!!! June, Willa, and (by proximity) Sunny are hosting weekly viewing parties every week until Cameron gets cut, which, fingers crossed, is going to be the freakin' finale! A theatrical playground of a play that serves an entire season of 'so-bad-it's-good' reality TV embedded in the social lives of a friend group working through queerness, adolescence, judgment, and self-actualization. Presenting an excerpt from Rooting for You! with loose staging, experimenting with performance style, timing, and physicality. THE ARTISTS Ashil Lee (he/they) NYC-based actor, playwright, director, and sex educator. Korean-American, trans nonbinary, child of immigrants, bestie to iconic pup Huxley. Described as "a human rollercoaster" and "Pick a lane, buddy!" by that one AI Roast Bot. 2023 Lucille Lortel nominee (Outstanding Ensemble: The Nosebleed ) and Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group Alum. NYU: Tisch. BFA in Acting, Minor in Youth Mental Health. Masters Candidate in Mental Health and Wellness (NYU Steinhardt: 20eventually), with intentions of incorporating mental health consciousness into the theatre industry. www.ashillee.com Phoebe Brooks is a gender non-conforming theater artist interested in establishing a Theatre of Joy for artists and audiences alike. A lifelong New Yorker, Phoebe makes art that spills out beyond theater-going conventions and forges unlikely communities. They love messing around with comedy, heightened text, and gender performance to uncover hidden histories. She's also kind of obsessed with interactivity; particularly about figuring out how to make audience participation less scary for audiences. Phoebe has a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University's School of the Arts. The Barbarians is a word-drunk satirical play exploring political rhetoric and the power of words on the world. With cartoonish wit and rambunctious edge, it asks: what if the President tried to declare war, but the words didn't work? Written by Jerry Lieblich and directed by Paul Lazar, it will premiere in February 2025 at LaMama. The Barbarians is produced in association with Immediate Medium, and with support from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation. THE ARTISTS Jerry Lieblich (they/them) plays in the borderlands of theater, poetry, and music. Their work experiments with language as a way to explore unexpected textures of consciousness and attention. Plays include Mahinerator (The Tank), The Barbarians (La Mama - upcoming), D Deb Debbie Deborah (Critic’s Pick: NY Times), Ghost Stories (Critic’s Pick: TimeOut NY), and Everything for Dawn (Experiments in Opera). Their poetry has appeared in Foglifter, Second Factory, TAB, Grist, SOLAR, Pomona Valley Review, Cold Mountain Review, and Works and Days. Their poetry collection otherwise, without was a finalist for The National Poetry Series. Jerry has held residencies at MacDowell, MassMoCA, Blue Mountain Center, Millay Arts, and UCROSS, and Yiddishkayt. MFA: Brooklyn College. www.thirdear.nyc Paul Lazar is a founding member, along with Annie-B Parson, of Big Dance Theater. He has co-directed and acted in works for Big Dance since 1991, including commissions from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Old Vic (London), The Walker Art Center, Classic Stage Co., New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, and Japan Society. Paul directed Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die which was reprised in London featuring David Byrne. Other directing credits include Bodycast with Francis McDormand (BAM), Christina Masciotti’s Social Security (Bushwick Starr), and Major Bang (for The Foundry Theatre) at Saint Ann’s Warehouse. Awards include two Bessies (2010, 2002), the Jacob’s Pillow Creativity Award (2007), and the Prelude Festival’s Frankie Award (2014), as well an Obie Award for Big Dance in 2000. Steve Mellor has appeared on Broadway (Big River ), Off-Broadway (Nixon's Nixon ) and regionally at Arena Stage, Long Wharf Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Stage and Yale Rep. A longtime collaborator with Mac Wellman, Steve has appeared in Wellman's Harm’s Way, Energumen, Dracula, Cellophane, Terminal Hip (OBIE Award), Sincerity Forever, A Murder of Crows, The Hyacinth Macaw, 7 Blowjobs (Bessie Award), Strange Feet, Bad Penny, Fnu Lnu, Bitter Bierce (OBIE Award), and Muazzez . He also directed Mr. Wellman's 1965 UU. In New York City, he has appeared at the Public Theater, La Mama, Soho Rep, Primary Stages, PS 122, MCC Theater, The Chocolate Factory, and The Flea. His film and television credits include Sleepless in Seattle, Mickey Blue Eyes, Celebrity, NYPD Blue, Law and Order, NY Undercover, and Mozart in the Jungle. Chloe Claudel is an actor and director based in NYC and London. She co-founded the experimental company The Goat Exchange, with which she has developed over a dozen new works of theater and film, including Salome, or the Cult of the Clitoris: a Historical Phallusy in last year's Prelude Festival. She's thrilled to be working with Paul and Jerry on The Barbarians . Anne Gridley is a two time Obie award-winning actor, dramaturg, and artist. As a founding member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, she has co-created and performed in critically acclaimed works including Life & Times, Poetics: A Ballet Brut, No Dice, Romeo & Juliet, and Burt Turrido . In addition to her work with Nature Theater, Gridley has performed with Jerôme Bel, Caborca, 7 Daughters of Eve, and Big Dance, served as a Dramaturg for the Wooster Group’s production Who’s Your Dada ?, and taught devised theater at Bard College. Her drawings have been shown at H.A.U. Berlin, and Mass Live Arts. B.A. Bard College; M.F.A. Columbia University. Naren Weiss is an actor/writer who has worked onstage (The Public Theater, Second Stage, Kennedy Center, Geffen Playhouse, international), in TV (ABC, NBC, CBS, Comedy Central), and has written plays that have been performed across the globe (India, Singapore, South Africa, U.S.). Upcoming: The Sketchy Eastern European Show at The Players Theatre (Mar. '24). Francesca D'Uva is an experimental comedian living in Brooklyn. Often employing her background in electronic music, she alternates between improvised storytelling and meticulously crafted mini-musicals that take the audience on a chaotic and strange journey inside her mind. She has performed all around New York City and at venues like MoMA PS1, MOCA and Ars Nova. Francesca was the 2022 Performance AIRspace Resident at Abrons Arts Center, culminating in her solo show, This Is My Favorite Song , which will have its Off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons in November. Explore more performances, talks and discussions at PRELUDE 2024 See What's on

Back to Top Article References Authors Keep Reading < Back Arab Stages 14 Spring 2023 Volume Visit Journal Homepage Book Review: ACTING EGYPTIAN By Marjan Moosavi Published: November 26, 2023 Download Article as PDF ACTING EGYPTIAN: THEATRE, IDENTITY, AND POLITICAL CULTURE IN CAIRO, 1869–1930. By Carmen M. K. Gitre. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019; pp. 192 + xii. By Marjan Moosavi, University of Maryland-College Park Carmen Gitre’s multifaceted analytical examination of “modern Egyptianness” is presented in four chronologically arranged chapters, each exploring compelling cases of performance, plays, and performers, spanning the late nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. As a book on social history highlighting the processes of “nontextual historical recuperation,” Acting Egyptian draws the readers’ attention toward playfulness, ambivalences, liminality, and tensions of theatrical practices, events, and spaces. In doing so, Gitre gives due recognition to the visions and processes of theatre-making that willingly or unwittingly reflect and restore those ambivalences and multiplicities. Pivoting her analysis on the conceptual model of ambivalence allows her to privilege complexity and multiple frameworks, eschewing binarized and generalizable concepts. As such, in this recuperative account, the author foregrounds subalterns’ tenuous pursuit of negotiating and reformulating their national identity in the face of overbearing and monolithic discourses around Egyptian nationalism, including the effendiya bourgeoisie and other modernizing forces. Across the four chapters, she subtly examines four distinct categories: the upwardly mobile, secular-educated middle-class men (known as effendis ) striving for modernity and social advancement, elite individuals well-versed in European culture, women trailblazers involved in performance at theatres and cabarets and their management, and urban working-class individuals including immigrants from rural and Upper Egypt (Sa‘id Misr) . Chapter one, “Aida in Egypt,” begins with the debut of Verdi’s Aida , commissioned by the Ottoman governor of Egypt at Cairo’s Khedivial Opera House in 1871. The chapter’s multidisciplinary discussion examines signs and processes of urban renewals and social hierarchies as indicative of unifying processes of identity formation through reframing spatial configurations and authentic Egyptianized narratives. The Opera House’s architecture was used as a platform to represent the hierarchies and status of audience members, giving visibility to Egyptian court elites, their patronage of performances and their Euro-centric taste for entertainment. In a detailed discussion about alternative spatial designations, the author highlights that binaries that were maintained in the Opera House were in compliance with Ottoman court culture, complicating the public/private binary. Spatial designation for women in “harem boxes” in the Opera House, for instance, represented the binaries such as “interior/exterior” (34). In effect, while showing women in isolation, these boxes also manifested the horizontal dynamics of hierarchy in the Ottoman courts. Gitre then suggests that the harems’ central location in the Ottoman palace allowed women to have both physical proximity to the throne and a significant standpoint in exercising sovereignty. She concludes the chapter by bringing European and elite Egyptian audiences’ responses to the spotlight. Reframing Egyptian coherent identity and national pride in opera performances in tandem with urban development created a unique experience for these audiences at the turn of the century and paved the path for developing effendiya nationalism as a hegemonic social identity in 20th-century Egypt. In chapter two, “How to Be an Effendi ,” Gitre sheds light on how effendis, as the culture-savvy elites, created an Egyptian national identity by splicing Western culture and technology with indigenous customs and lifestyles. Here, the author focuses on the Arabic-language theatre district ‘Imad al-Din Street, its proscenium stages, and realistic theatre-making as a territorial space for disseminating consensus on effendi identity, masculinity, and narratives (43). The chapter discusses Farah Antun, a well-known Syrian Christian émigré and effendiyya member, and his effective role in perpetuating hegemonic discourse of “civilized” and modern Egyptian identity. This modern Egyptian identity is distanced from sha’bi (popular and working class) and indigenous dispositions. For example, Gitre discusses Antun’s linguistic innovations in utilizing an “elevated colloquial” in his canonical play Misr al-Jadida (New Egypt) to distinguish effendis’ distinct social status (46). Ironically, Antun’s efforts in magnifying Egyptian nationalism led to his own marginalization and a “fraught position” in the discursive and practical milieus of Egyptian nationalism. Gitre devotes the rest of this chapter to sharing the outcome of her close reading of Antun’s works substantiated by compelling archival research on periodical press. Her nuanced account convinces the reader to agree that the ambiguities, instability, and fluidity in effendi identity and narrative, as reflected in their theatrical practices, are worthy of unstinting attention. Building on this understanding, chapter three familiarizes readers with grassroots and interactive street performances by the sha’b and women. Focusing on “The Story of Ahmad the Rat,” also situated at the turn of the century, Gitre examines playfulness and satirical improvisation as resistive tactics used in farcical playlets called fasl mudhik that destabilize the pillars of effendiya’s hegemonic nationalism. The author begins by foregrounding specific characteristics in such comedic performances, including vulgarity in dialogue, language, action, fantasy, inverted gender roles, and audience participation, all challenging the decorum and rationality of the effendi value system. These sha’bi versions of modernity prospered in tensions with national homogeneity reinforced by effendi discourse and the dominant practice of cultural gatekeeping. More remarkably, Gitre’s attention to the multiple endings to a single narrative in Riwayat al-Sa’idi (Upper Egyptian’s Story) allows her to illuminate the ambivalences that she contends charge the history and historiography of Egyptian textual and nontextual performances. In doing so, she emphasizes how such hegemony extends to archives and documentation as it has overshadowed these subaltern voices. Chapter four, “Cabarets and the Mothers of the Nation,” gives an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural context and processes of fandom and stardom in which female trailblazers, as singers, actors, dancers, or managers, worked to both challenge and perpetuate the values that effendi nationalism imagined for them and their peers. By critically examining primary sources with the help of a variety of secondary sources, the author argues artists like Munira al-Mahdiyya took effendi and elite feminist values and ideas in unexpected, ambiguous directions by being practical and opportunist about indigenous values of adab (proper upbringing and social mannerism) and ‘afaf (purity and chastity) while performing on stage. These performing women perpetuated a unique freedom by practicing “disciplined transgression,” meaning while defying the effendi unified patriarchal freedom, they defined certain boundaries for their own sense and practice of freedom (116). Acting Egyptian offers substantive glimpses into Cairenes’ daily life in addressing “permeable and porous spaces,” including theatres that reflect and reflect upon a diversity of identities and experiences (7). In this vein, the author’s clear-eyed historiographical methodology reminds the readers that theatre history can bear marks of ideological coercion and needs to be revisited. One might wish that some of the discussions that surface in her analysis of plays and performances had delved deeper into examining performance and aesthetic elements. For instance, in her chapters, Gitre could have elaborated on the acting styles, scenic design, and directorial choices and processes in her analysis of plays under discussion. Admittedly, though, an entire book could be devoted to the subject of acting style and performance analysis. As is, Acting Egyptian is a superb, sweeping account of the critical role that theatre and performance can play in forming, transforming, and reforming national and political discourses in a multi-layered shifting context. Readers from various fields are bound to find numerous concepts of interest in Acting Egyptian . It is a highly readable page-turner and will appeal to Middle East researchers and students and the theatrical, musical, and dance scenes of the Global South. There is a growing body of scholarship about theatre in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Thanks to Gitre’s book, this body is taking shape and spirit. Article Bibliography, References & Endnotes References About The Author(s) Marjan Moosavi is an educator, researcher, digital curator, and dramaturg. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. She is the Roshan Lecturer in Persian Studies and Performing Arts and the Associate Director of the Roshan Initiative in Persian Digital Humanities at the University of Maryland, where she designs curriculum, mentors graduate students and pursues her interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of Theatre Studies and Digital Humanities. Her digital and curatorial collaborations include two pioneering and transnational digital projects: Digital Guide to Theater of the Middle East and the Digital Photo Exhibit on the Middle Eastern Theatre. Her work, whether academic or artistic, examines the dynamics of theatre-making in MENA countries and theatre’s intersection with gender, history, and politics. Her research has been published in venues including The Drama Review (TDR) , Asian Theatre Journal , New Theatre Quarterly , Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation , and Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy . She is a longstanding Regional Managing Editor for TheTheatreTimes.com . Arab Stages Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. The journal appears twice yearly in digital form by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of New York and is a joint project of that Center and of the Arabic Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Visit Journal Homepage Table of Contents Review: Mother Courage adapted and directed by Alison Shan Price Review of Theaters of Citizenship: Aesthetics and Politics of Avant-Garde Performance in Egypt written by Sonali Pahwa Review: Decolonizing Sarah: A Hurricane Play written and directed by Samer Al-Saber “Indigenous Avant-Gardes”: The Shiraz Arts Festival and Ritual Performance Theory in 1970s Iran Review: Baba written by Denmo Ibrahim, directed by Hamid Dehghani Review of MUKHRIJĀT AL-MASRAḤ AL-MIṢRĪ (1990-2010): DIRĀSA SĪMIYŪṬĪQĪYAH [Female Egyptian Directors (1990-2010): A Semiotic Study], written by Hadia Abd El-Fattah Review of Syrian Refugees, Applied Theater, Workshop Facilitation, and Stories: While They Were Waiting written by Fadi Skeiker Review: Layalina written by Martin Yousif Zebari, directed by Sivan Battat Up There by Wael Kadour, Introduction Review: Playwright Showcase, New Arab American Theater Works Two Giants of Egyptian Theatre: Conversations with Mohamed Abul-ʿEla El-Salamouny and Lenin El-Ramly Crossing Borders: A Theatre Practitioner’s Odyssey, An Interview with Hassan El Geretly On Writing Egypt from the Diaspora: An Interview with Adam Ashraf Elsayigh Performance Review: A FAMILY THAT HAS BEEN BLOCKED Performance Review: BETHLEHEM SITE-SPECIFIC THEATER FESTIVAL Performance Review: HOOTA. By Amer Hlehel Performance Review: LITTLE SYRIA Book Review: ACTING EGYPTIAN Book Review: MANSOUR, MONA. THE VAGRANT TRILOGY Previous Next Attribution: Entries under this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Martin E. Segal Born July 4, 1916 in Vitebsk, Russia. Died August 5, 2012 in New York City. (click here to read the New York Times Obituary ) Officer, Board and Committee Memberships: Founder (1939), The Segal Company, international consultants and actuaries for employee benefit plans; President, 1939-1967; Chairman, 1967-1991; Chairman Emeritus and consultant – 1991-2012 Founder and Chairman, Board of Directors – The New York International Festival of the Arts, Inc., 1985 until discontinuation in 2002 The American-Scandinavian Foundation – Trustee, 1986-1991; Advisory Trustee, 1991-2012 The ASCAP Foundation – Member of the Board of Directors, 1997-2003 American Theatre Wing – Member of Advisory Committee/Tony Voter, 2000-2008 Board of Hospitals, City of New York – Member of the Board, 1962-1970 City Center of Music and Drama, Inc. – Member, Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Committee, 1971-1974; also Treasurer, 1974; Governor Emeritus – 1974-2012 Commission for Cultural Affairs of the City of New York (predecessor to Advisory Commission for Cultural Affairs)– appointed by Mayor Beame as first Chairman, 1975-1977 Cultural Assistance Center (predecessor to Alliance for the Arts) – Founder and President 1974-1982; Chairman, 1982-1984; named Honorary Chairman in 1984 Film Guild of New York – Founder (1940-1941) The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Inc. – Founding President and CEO, 1968-1978; Founder and President Emeritus, 1978-2012 The Glenridge Performing Arts Center, Sarasota, Florida – Member, Board of Advisors, 2004-2012 The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York – Member, Board of Visitors, 1983-1996 Member, Board of Trustees, The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc., 1996-2008 Vice Chairman, 2003-2008 Harvard University – Member, Visiting Committee, School of Public Health, 1979-1992; Member, Dean’s Council, School of Public Health, 1990-2006; Member, Board of Advisors, Center for Health Communication Mentoring Program at School of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 2003-2012 The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton – Trustee, 1972-1991 (positions included member of Executive Committee, Chairman of Finance Committee and Chairman of Review Committee); Trustee Emeritus, 1991-2012 The Library of America – Founding Advisor, 1984-2012; Sole Honorary Member of the Board of Directors, 2005-2012 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. – Vice Chairman, 1978-1981; Chairman, 1981-1986; Chairman Emeritus, 1986-2012 Mayor’s Committee on Cultural Policy, NYC – Chairman, 1974 The George Meany Center– Member, Board of Trustees, 2001-2010; Trustee Emeritus, 2010-2012 Mount Sinai Hospital – Trustee, 1966-1970 Museum of Modern Art – Member, Board of Trustees, and Chairman, Exhibitions Committee 1978-1981 (retired from Board) Musica Sacra – Member, Honorary Council, 2001-2012 National Building Museum – Member, Board of Directors, 1983-1991 National Urban League – Member of National Board, 1961-1970; Vice President, 1967-1970; Chairman of the National Urban League’s First Equal Opportunity Day Dinner, November, 1961 New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation – (Mayor Lindsay’s first appointee), Member of the Board, Chairman of Finance Committee and Member of Executive Committee, 1970-1972 Office for the Arts at Harvard – Member of Advisory Committee, 1993-1999; Member of Council, 1999-2012 The Public Interest – Founding Member; Publication Committee, 1965-2002 (The Public Interest discontinued publication in 2005.) Public Radio International (formerly known as American Public Radio) – Founding Member, Board of Directors, 1981-1994; Director Emeritus, 1994-1998; Counselor at Large – 1998-2012 Helena Rubinstein Foundation, Inc. – Member, Board of Directors, 1972-1995 S.L.E. Lupus Foundation – Member, Board of Directors, 2000-2012 The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. – Member, Board of Directors, 2000-2004; Member of Executive Committee, 2002-2004 The Studio In A School Association – Member, Advisory Board, 1988-2012 Theatre Development Fund – Member, Advisory Council, 1992-2012 Town Hall Foundation – Member, Advisory Council, 1986-2012 Young Audiences, Inc. – Member, National Board, 1979-2012 Mr. Segal was Organizing Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Future of Arts Education – November 11-13, 1999 He was General Chairman of “Night of 100 Stars II” (first AIDS benefit – The Actors’ Fund of America– held on February 17, 1985). In 1979, Mr. Segal was co-chairman of the mission to lay the basis for cultural exchanges between the United States and China via the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange; visited China with the U.S. delegation, as co-chairman, for this purpose (March 8-23, 1979). Mr. Segal served on the Advisory Council of the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange from 1982-1988. He served on the Board of the Fund for the City of New York from 1978-1987 and was Chairman of its Public Service Awards Committee in 1978 and 1979. Mr. Segal was a Partner, Wertheim & Co. from1967-82 and President (1972-1975) and subsequently Chairman (1975-1982) of Wertheim Asset Management Services. He is a former columnist for the Associated Press. Honorary Degrees: New York University – Doctor of Humane Letters (1988) The Juilliard School – Doctor of Humane Letters (2006) Graduate Center of The City University of New York – Doctor of Humane Letters (1979) Mannes College of Music – Doctor of Music (1976) Pratt Institute – Doctor of Humane Letters (1976) Long Island University – Doctor of Humane Letters (1986) Manhattan School of Music – Doctor of Music Honoris Causa (1999) Commendations and Awards (in order received): International Film Importers and Distributors of America (1973) The Municipal Art Society of New York – Certificate of Merit “for his innumerable contributions to the well-being of the City…” (1974) Third Street Music School Settlement – Award for Service to Music (1981) Museum of the City of New York – Annual Award of Distinction, in recognition of outstanding contributions to the cultural life of New York (1982) Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture – New York City (1982) Concert Artists Guild Award (1983) League of Women Voters of the City of New York Education Fund Award, in recognition of his leadership and public service to the cultural life of New York City” (1984) Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (1984) Ministry of Culture of The French Government – Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (1984-2005) The International Center in New York, Inc. – Distinguished American of Foreign Birth Award (1985) Alumni and Friends of LaGuardia High School – annual Award for leadership in the arts community (1985) Alumni Association of the City College of New York – John H. Finley Medal (1985) Board of Directors/Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts – established annual Martin E. Segal Awards (1986) Town Hall – Friend of the Arts Award (1987) Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. – First Directors Emeriti Award (1987) Songwriters’ Hall of Fame – Patron of the Arts Award (1988) National Federation of Music Clubs – Presidential Citation (1989) Creative Arts Rehabilitation Center – Public Spirit Award (1989) New York State Governor’s Arts Award (1989) The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York – President’s Award (1990) The National Arts Club – Medal of Honor (1992) Lincoln Center Laureate Award (1997) Museum of the City of New York – Our Town Treasure Award (1998) Arts Roundtable – Award of Honor (1998) Citizens Union of The City of New York – Civic Leadership Award (1998) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center – CUNY Graduate Center (2000) The Acting Company – The Joan Warburg Humanitarian Award (2001) S.L.E. Lupus Foundation Award (2001) Alliance for the Arts – Honoree (2004) The American-Scandinavian Foundation – Honoree, 2004 The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center – Honoree (2005) New York Landmarks Conservancy – Living Landmark (2005) Ministry of Culture of The French Government – Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (2005) The American Academy of Arts and Letters – Presidential Citation of Distinction (2009) The American-Scandinavian Foundation – Award for Distinguished Public Service – (2010) Club Affiliations: The Century Association The National Arts Club The Pilgrims of the United States

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Research The Martin E. Segal Theater Center is committed to supporting research about theatre and the performing arts in a myriad of ways, through written scholarly enquiries as well as audio-visual documentation of artist talks, performances, interviews, and more. Our rich archive includes practitioners from United States as well as international performing arts landscape. All material and media published by The Segal Center is made available for free on our website. Books The Segal Centre supports the creation, editing, translation and distribution of books that explore scholarly, practice and multifacted criticism of key areas and developments in the performing arts. Explore Books Visiting Scholars Program The fellowships offer theatre scholars 3-6 months of research in NYC. They get workspaces, library access, and opportunities to collaborate with other fellows, faculty, and students on their research. Explore Program Segal Talks Featuring conversations with performing arts professionals from all over the world, our Segal Talks aim to capture a cultural Weltzustand ie State of the World. Explore Talks Journals The Segal Publication Wing includes three open-access digital journals, namely Arab Stages, European Stages and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. The journals are all available for FREE online to a global readership. Explore Journals

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Support The Segal Center If you'd like to support our work to bring visibility to the performing arts through our programs, please consider making a donation to The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. We are a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization and all gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. You can also get in touch with other types of support, collaborations and partnerships. Get In Touch Donate Online Visit the link below to donate online. Under the field titled 'Designation', choose 'Funds for The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center' Proceed to fill in your details. Any and all amounts are welcome. You will receive an email confirmation immediately. We will send across a tax receipt (including the amount and confirmation the designation) shortly. Proceed You will be redirected to The Graduate Center Foundation CUNY donation portal (external link) Donate via Cheque You can also donate with checks. Payable to: The Graduate Center Foundation, Inc. Memo: MESTC or Segal Center Mailing Address: Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Graduate Center CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016

The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. 2025 Festival See the full lineup of films at this year's festival below. A selection of films will be screened in-person at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (and a few at the Anthology Film Archives) whilst others will be available to watch online on this website until June 8th 2025. SEE IN-PERSON SCHEDULE Festival Lineup IN-PERSON Acting Sophie Fiennes; Cheek by Jowl; Lone Star; Amoeba Film IN-PERSON Grand Theft Hamlet Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls IN-PERSON Moi-même Mojo Lorwin/Lee Breuer IN-PERSON Radical Move ANIELA GABRYEL ONLINE + IN-PERSON Somber Tides Chantal Caron / Fleuve Espace Danse IN-PERSON This is Ballroom Juru and Vitã ONLINE + IN-PERSON Benjamim de Oliveira's Open Paths Catappum! Collective IN-PERSON His Head was a Sledgehammer Richard Foreman in Retrospect ONLINE + IN-PERSON PACI JULIETTE ROUDET IN-PERSON Reas Lola Arias IN-PERSON The Brink of Dreams Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir IN-PERSON Transindigenous Assembly Joulia Strauss IN-PERSON Bila Burba Duiren Wagua IN-PERSON JJ Pauline L. Boulba, Aminata Labor, Lucie Brux ONLINE + IN-PERSON Peak Hour in the House Blue Ka Wing ONLINE + IN-PERSON Resilience Juan David Padilla Vega IN-PERSON The Jacket Mathijs Poppe ONLINE + IN-PERSON Funambulism, Hanging by a Thread Jean-Baptiste Mathieu ONLINE + IN-PERSON Jesus and The Sea Ricarda Alvarenga IN-PERSON Pidikwe Caroline Monnet ONLINE + IN-PERSON Skywalk Above Prague Václav Flegl, Jakub Voves ONLINE + IN-PERSON Theater of War Oleh Halaidych In-Person Screenings at The Martin E. Segal Center (365 5th Ave, New York) and Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Ave, New York) Google Maps Google Maps Thursday May 15 1:00 pm Resilience by Juan David Padilla Vega (Canada, 2024, 70’) U.S. PREMIERE 2:20 pm JJ by Pauline L. Boulba and Aminata Labor (France, 2024, 72’) 4:00 pm This is Ballroom by Vita and Juru (Brazil, 2024, 92’) 5:50 pm Transindigenous Assembly by Joulia Strauss (Greece, 2024, 86’) 7:25 pm Radical Move by Aniela Gabryel (Poland, 2023, 77’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE RSVP Day 1 Friday May 16 12:00 pm Bila Burba by Duiren Wagua (Panama, 2023, 70’) 1:20 pm Acting by Sophie Fiennes (UK, 2024, 145’) U.S. PREMIERE 3:55 pm The Jacket by Mathijs Poppe (Belgium, Netherlands, France, Lebanon, 2024, 71’) U.S. PREMIERE 5:15 pm Brink of Dreams by Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir (Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, 2024, 102’) Special section SPOTLIGHT ON BASINGA 7:10 pm Funambulism, Hanging by a Thread by Jean-Baptiste Mathieu (Germany, 2024, 52’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE 8:10 pm Skywalk above Prague by Václav Flegl, Jakub Voves (Czech Republic, 2020, 51’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE RSVP Day 2 Saturday May 17 11:00 am SHORT FILMS PROGRAM Benjamin de Oliveira’s Open Paths by Bruno Esperança (Brazil, 2024, 37’) U.S. PREMIERE Peak Hour in the House by Blue Ka Wing (Honk Kong, 2024, 7’) Paci by Juliette Roudet (France, 2024, 33’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Jesus and the Sea by Ricarda Alvarenga (Brazil, 2024, 3’) Somber Tides by Chantal Caron (Canada, 2024, 12’) N.Y. PREMIERE Theater of War by Oleh Halaidych (Ukraine, 2024, 40’) U.S. PREMIERE Pidikwe by Caroline Monnet (Canada, 2024, 10’) U.S. PREMIERE 1:25pm Grand Theft Hamlet by Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane (UK, 2024, 90’) RSVP Day 3 Sunday May 18 3:00 pm SPECIAL FESTIVAL PRESENTATION AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003) Reas by Lola Arias (Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, 2024, 82’) RSVP at AFA Wednesday May 21 to Wednesday May 28 HIS HEAD WAS A SLEDGEHAMMER: RICHARD FOREMAN IN RETROSPECT AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES Guest-programmed by Andrew Lampert. The retrospective is co-presented by New York University Special Collections, home to the Richard Foreman and Kate Manheim Papers, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance. For full schedule of the retrospective go to this LINK . 3:00 pm SPECIAL FESTIVAL PRESENTATION AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003) Moi-Même by Mojo Lorwin & Lee Breuer (France, US, 1968/2024, 65 min, 16mm-to-DCP) followed by Q&A with Mojo Lorwin and Kevin Mathewson, moderated by Frank Hentschker RSVP at AFA About The Festival The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The 2025 festival is co-curated by Frank Hentschker and Tomek Smolarski, and supported by Gaurav Singh Nijjer on digital design. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. From its inaugural edition in 2015 to its present-day hybrid avatar, The Segal Film Festival for Theatre and Performance (FTP) has served as a platform for recorded works that span the length and breadth of the performing arts. Festival Founder and Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, Frank Hentschker shares his inspiration for creating the festival: “Film and digital media are an integral part of theatre and performance. I am surprised that there is not a film festival out there right now focusing on theatre and performance. I thought ‘why not create one’?” In the time before Corona, the Segal Film Festival had evolved into the premier US event for new film and video work focusing on theatre and performance. Its mission was to invite experimental and established theatre makers to present work created for the screen – not filmed archival recordings – to audiences and industry professionals from around the world. Now, after a year and a half of digital and hybrid theatre offerings, the festival must take on a new meaning. The festival has held on to its mission of being a free and open-to-all event accessible to everyone. The 7th edition of the festival was held digitally in March 2022, and featured 80 films from 30 countries. For queries, feedback and any more information get in touch with us at segalfilmfestival@gmail.com Meet The Team Tomek Smolarski Co-Curator Tomek Smolarski is a cultural manager, producer and curator with over 20 years of experience in production of international cultural events and extensive knowledge in cultural diplomacy. He has produced projects with leading U.S. institutions, including BAM, MoMA, Film at Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, MoMI, Pacific Film Archives, Chicago Cultural Center and many others. Gaurav Singh Nijjer Web and Digital Producer Gaurav Singh Nijjer is a theatre-maker, creative technologist and designer whose artistic works explore technology and media in live performance. He is one half of the Indian performing arts collective Kaivalya Plays, and also works as a freelance artist and arts manager with collectives in India and abroad, currently as Digital and Web Producer at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center at the Graduate Centre CUNY. He is a former German Chancellor Fellow and a Chevening scholar. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Apart from theatre, Gaurav also works as a freelance marketing, design and creative consultant for diverse organizations. Frank Hentschker Co-Curator Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Currently executive director and director of programs at the Segal Center, Hentschker has transformed the center into the nation’s leading forum for public programming in international and U.S. theatre and theatre studies; each year, he curates and produces more than forty events—staged readings, lecture-demonstrations, symposia, works-in-progress, and conversations with theatre scholars, theatrical luminaries, and emerging voices in the international, American, and New York theatre scenes. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series; the annual fall PRELUDE festival, which features more than twenty New York–based theatre companies and playwrights; and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Hentschker also led CUNY’s nineteen performing arts centers in founding the CUNY–Performing Arts Consortium (C–PAC), producing the consortium’s first joint festival in 2009. Hentschker edited the MESTC publications Jan Fabre: I Am A Mistake, Seven Works for the Theatre (2009) and New Plays from Spain (2013), and he served as president of the board of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art from 2005 to 2009. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theatre festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne); and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years. Producer, General Operations Manager Teresa Soraka Next Generation Fellow Nurit Chinn

Journals The Segal Publication Wing includes three open-access digital journals and over twenty-five individual volumes of international plays and theatre resources. The journals are all available for FREE online to a global readership. After three decades, the final print editions of The Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT), Slavic and East European Performance (SEEP) , and Western European Stages (WES) were printed in 2013/2014. All Journals are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography and are members of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. The Ruin at the Volland Store, photo by Maddy Michaelis Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT) JADT publishes thoughtful and innovative work by leading scholars on theatre, drama, and performance in the Americas – past and present. Read Now Past Issues End of The World Theatre, Egypt. Image ©Kaupo Kikkas Arab Stages Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. Read Now Past Issues Le Septième Jour. Directed by Meng Jinghui. Photo: Christophe Raynaud de Lage Festival d’Avignon European Stages The journal provide English-language readers with the most comprehensive source available on current theatre practices across Europe. Read Now Past Issues Ondinnok’s Xajoj Tun Rabinal Achi,directed by Yves Sioui Durand at Montreal’s Excentris. (Photo by Martine Doyon) Indigenous Stages (Coming Soon) The world’s first and only global interdisciplinary academic journal dedicated solely to indigenous stages. Its mission is to foster, survey, and publish the contemporary and historical theoretical discourse surrounding the field.

What's On Year round, the Center presents a wide variety of FREE public programs which feature leading national and international artists, scholars, researchers, arts managers and other stakeholders. Sharings, discussions, readings and more, join our events in-person in New York or online via Howlround. Free entry and open to all, always! No events at the moment Past Events You can view an archive of our past events below Fri, Jun 05 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 7) / Anthology Film Archives Details Jun 05, 2026, 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at the Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Thu, Jun 04 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 6) / Anthology Film Archives Details Jun 04, 2026, 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at the Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Wed, Jun 03 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 5) / Anthology Film Archives Details Jun 03, 2026, 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at the Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Tue, Jun 02 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 4) / Anthology Film Archives Details Jun 02, 2026, 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join the Segal Center to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals at Anthology Film Archives Mon, Jun 01 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 4) / Anthology Film Archives Details Jun 01, 2026, 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Multiple Dates Mon, Jun 01 10th International Segal Center Film Festival (Day 3) / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details Jun 01, 2026, 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA +23 more Sun, May 31 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 3) / Anthology Film Archives Details May 31, 2026, 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Sat, May 30 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 2) / Anthology Film Archives Details May 30, 2026, 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Fri, May 29 Screenings: 'Robert Wilson on Screen' at Anthology Film Archives (Day 1) / Anthology Film Archives Details May 29, 2026, 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA Join us at Anthology Film Archives to discover fragments of the multiverse of Robert Wilson (1941-2025) with screenings of documentaries, productions, videos, and rehearsals. Mon, May 18 World Voices: MARIUS VON MAYENBURG (Germany) / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details May 18, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA Join us for an evening with one of Germany's most celebrated playwrights, Marius von Mayenburg. +31 more Mon, May 18 World Voices: PENDA DIOUF (Senegal / France) / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details May 18, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA Join us for the reading of a work in progress of JULIUS by Penda Diouf, one France's most significant young playwrights. +38 more Sat, May 16 World Voices: JEAN-LUC LAGARCE (1957-1995) / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details May 16, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA Join us for an evening celebrating the work of the late Jean-Luc Lagarce, one of France's most significant playwrights of the second half of the 20th century. +63 more Mon, May 11 World Voices: LISA WENTZ (Austria) / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details May 11, 2026, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA Join us for an evening with one of Europe's most interesting emerging playwrights. +21 more Mon, May 04 World Voices: VICKIE RAMIREZ, Tuscarora / CANADA / US / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details May 04, 2026, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA +22 more Thu, Apr 23 Book Celebration—CASSANDRA: A Dramatic Poem, by Lesya Ukrainka (1871 –1913) + 5:00 pm Talk by Seth Baumrin / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details Apr 23, 2026, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA +20 more Thu, Apr 23 Seth Baumrin: “The Kharkiv Dramaturgy - Fortitude and Democracy in Ukrainian Modern Theatre" / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details Apr 23, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA +5 more Mon, Apr 20 Buenos Aires in New York, with Romina Paula's SOMBRAS, of course (Argentina) / Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Details Apr 20, 2026, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA Join us for an evening celebrating New York's artistic exchange, Buenos Aires in Translation, with Romina Paula, one of Argentina’s most celebrated playwrights, directors and filmmakers. +53 more Tue, Apr 07 VOICING INNOCENCE: Trauma, Memory, and Contemporary Opera in the Work of Kaija Saariaho / Skylight Room GC CUNY 9th Floor Details Apr 07, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Skylight Room GC CUNY 9th Floor, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA A conversation with librettist and dramaturge Aleksi Barrière about the upcoming 2026 Metropolitan Opera US premiere of Innocence, the final opera by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, Barrière's mother. +9 more Load More Visit Archive

A green city-wide pop-up-park festival of creative, innovative, and inspiring environmental art works in the boroughs of New York City. Free. Outdoors. Off-grid. No electricity. Rain or shine. Bridge Matter / The Reach Bridge Matter / The Reach Brooklyn is Not a Sacrifice Zone Brooklyn is Not a Sacrifice Zone Weather Weather Bridge Matter / The Reach Bridge Matter / The Reach 1/13 Prelude in the Parks performances for the planet SEE SCHEDULE FREE | OUTDOORS | OFF-GRID/NO ELECTRICITY | RAIN OR SHINE A green city-wide pop-up parks festival of creative, innovative, and inspiring environmental art-works by artists addressing environmental & climate change issues. Co-Curated by Frank Hentschker & Robin Schatell / Mov!ngCulture Projects; The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center CUNY. June 7th @ 6pm, June 8th & 9th @ 3pm What's On: Performance I Dance I Music I Theatre I 13 Presentations Where It's Happening: Parks & Gardens City-Wide: Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island – all 5 Boroughs Partners: Bronx River Community Garden; Eastside Outside Community Garden; Manhattan , Hunters Point Park Alliance/Queens ; ID Studio Theater/Bronx ; Social Practice CUNY; Newtown Creek Alliance/Brooklyn ; Roc-A-Natural Cultural Foundation/Staten Island ; Summer on the Hudson/Riverside Park Conservancy/Manhattan What's On Performance I Dance I Music I Theatre I 13 Presentations in 5 Boroughs Friday, June 7 - All performances @ 6pm Brooklyn Pliable Futures Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn Manhattan Devrai (Sacred Grove) Richard Move / MoveOpolis! Riverside Park, Manhattan Manhattan Bridge Matter / The Reach Kinesis Project dance theatre Inwood Hill Park, Gaelic Field, Manhattan Queens Guinean Environmental Stewardship Traditions Sidiki Conde and Tokounou Dance Company Hunter’s Point South Park, Queens Saturday, June 8 - All performances @ 3pm Bronx Land Connections: Reflections with Dennis Dennis RedMoon Darkeem Bronx River Community Garden.,The Bronx Manhattan The Heat Will Kill Everything Keith Josef Adkins Riverside Park South, Manhattan Bronx Dance in Connection ID Studio Theater and Daniel Fetecua Barretto Point Park, Viele Avenue, The Bronx Staten Island Mixed Use | Cyn | M.A. Dennis | Manners and Respect | | Thomas Fucaloro | Tappen Park, Staten Island Brooklyn WATER RISES Artichoke Dance Company Newtown Creek Nature Walk, Kingsland Ave, Brooklyn Manhattan Community Poetry and Tea Tea, Arts & Culture Eastside Outside Community Garden, Manhattan Sunday, June 9 - All performances @ 3pm Brooklyn Brooklyn is Not a Sacrifice Zone Al Límite Collective Newtown Creek Nature Walk, Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn Brooklyn Resilience Thinking Walkscape Rafael de Balanzo Joue and Daniel Pravit Fethke Endale Arch, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Brooklyn Weather Anh Vo Brower Park, Prospect Place, Brooklyn Locations City-Wide: Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queen Staten Island – all 5 Boroughs Meet The Team Robin Schatell Co-Curator Robin Schatell is a creative producer who works with artists, arts group, cultural and community organizations and city agencies to shape, design, develop, and organize creative visions for activating their public spaces with arts and cultural programming. Co-Founder , Mov!ng Culture Projects, Director of Museum Mile Festival for 20 years, Founder and Artistic Director of Riverside Park’s Summer on the Hudson Festival, Executive Director of River To River Festival, Director of Programming for Madison Square Parks’ Mad Sq Art program, Curator of Public Programs for the Van Alen Institute, Managing Director of Performance Space 122, and Ralph Lemon Company, Founder of The Puffin Room, Manhattan Community Board 3 Member, Contributing Cultural Writer for TheLoDownNYC.com. Gaurav Singh Nijjer Web and Digital Producer Gaurav Singh Nijjer is a theatre-maker, creative technologist and designer whose artistic works explore technology and media in live performance. He is one half of the Indian performing arts collective Kaivalya Plays, and also works as a freelance artist and arts manager with collectives in India and abroad, currently as Digital and Web Producer at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center at the Graduate Centre CUNY. He is a former German Chancellor Fellow and a Chevening scholar. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Apart from theatre, Gaurav also works as a freelance marketing, design and creative consultant for diverse organizations. Frank Hentschker Co-Curator Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Currently executive director and director of programs at the Segal Center, Hentschker has transformed the center into the nation’s leading forum for public programming in international and U.S. theatre and theatre studies; each year, he curates and produces more than forty events—staged readings, lecture-demonstrations, symposia, works-in-progress, and conversations with theatre scholars, theatrical luminaries, and emerging voices in the international, American, and New York theatre scenes. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series; the annual fall PRELUDE festival, which features more than twenty New York–based theatre companies and playwrights; and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Hentschker also led CUNY’s nineteen performing arts centers in founding the CUNY–Performing Arts Consortium (C–PAC), producing the consortium’s first joint festival in 2009. Hentschker edited the MESTC publications Jan Fabre: I Am A Mistake, Seven Works for the Theatre (2009) and New Plays from Spain (2013), and he served as president of the board of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art from 2005 to 2009. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theatre festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne); and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years. Producer, General Operations Manager Teresa Soraka Next Generation Fellow Nurit Chinn For queries, feedback and any more information get in touch with us at segalcenter@gmail.com

Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. The journal appears twice yearly in digital form by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of New York and is a joint project of that Center and of the Arabic Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Back to Top Untitled Keep Reading < Back Arab Stages Volume 18 Visit Journal Homepage Table of Contents Practicing Place: Site-Specific Performance and the Reinscription of Memory in Palestine Marina Johnson Resisting the Unleashed Evils of the US- Invasion of Iraq in Amir Al-Azraki’s The Widow (2017) Thamir Az-Zubaidy Dina Mousawi’s RETURN: a Compelling site of representing Women’s Status of Agency Under Occupation Hind Sabah Bilal Renewed Awareness Toward Salvation: The Journey of The Story of Zahra from Page to Stage Raeda Ghazaleh Site-Specific Performance and Theatrical Memorialization of the Nakba Hala Khamis Nassar Performance Review: WAILING SONGS OF THE PAST, MIGHT THEY GROW OUR RESILIENCE. By Maya al-Khaldi. Dia Barghouti Performance Review: DUMMY IN DIASPORA. By Esho Rasho. Suzi Elnaggar Performance Review: ENGLISH. Written by Sanaz Toossi Peyman Shams Performance Review: THE CAVE. By Sadieh Rifai Sami Ismat Performance Review: IRAQ, BUT FUNNY by Atra Asdou Suzi Elnaggar Performance Review: COSMOS/AWALEM by Ashtar Muallem and Emile Saba. Malek Najjar Arab Stages Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. The journal appears twice yearly in digital form by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of New York and is a joint project of that Center and of the Arabic Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Visit Journal Homepage

The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. 2026 Festival The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at CUNY's Graduate Center presents the 10th edition of the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP), running May 28 – June 5, 2026, in partnership with Anthology Film Archives. The 2026 festival is co-curated by Tomek Smolarski with Frank Hentschker. This milestone anniversary edition brings together a bold international program of new films alongside a major retrospective celebrating Robert Wilson , who passed away in 2025 at the age of 83. A selection of films will be screened in-person at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (free, first-come first-served ) on May 28th, 30th and June 1st , with a selection of films will be screened at Anthology Film Archives ( ticketed ) from May 29th to June 5th. Festival Lineup Bob Wilson's Life & Death of Marina Abramovic Giada Colagrande Hamlet: A Monologue Franco Laera Obsessed with Light Sabine Krayenbühl & Zeva Oelbaum Robert Wilson In Situ Pauline de Grunne The Black Rider Theo Janssen & Ralph Quinke WATERMILL 1993 + WATERMILL CENTER BYRD HOFFMAN SUMMER PROGRAM 2009 Stefan Kurt / Tomek Jeziorski Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera Mark Obenhaus In-I In Motion Juliette Binoche Overture for KA MOUNTAIN AND GUARDenia TERRACE Robert Wilson / Filmmaker Unknown Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars Howard Brookner The Making of a Monologue: Robert Wilson's Hamlet Marion Kessel Ewa – The Last Lesson Andrea Mura / Federico Savonitto Monk in Pieces Billy Shebar Palestine Comedy Club Alaa Aliabdallah / Charlotte Knowles Robert Wilson on Screen Screenings at Anthology Film Archives Unbound John English / Tom Garner Firebird Irina Patkanian / Marion Schoevaert Museum of the Night Fermín Eloy Acosta Respoken Sidney Ken / Thai Phirun Hul STATIONS + LA FEMME À LA CAFETIÈRE + LA MORT DE MOLIÈRE Robert Wilson VIDEO 50 + DEAFMAN GLANCE Robert Wilson Screening Schedule at The Martin E. Segal Center (365 5th Ave, New York) Google Maps (free and open to all, first-come first-served) Thursday May 28 6:00 pm Short Opening 6:10 pm Monk in Pieces by Billy Shebar & David C. Roberts (USA / Germany / France, 2025, 94’) 7:50 pm Q&A with Billy Shebar 8:20 pm Reception — Wine & Cheese RSVP Day 1 Saturday May 30 12:00 pm Unbound by John English & Tom Garner (Spain, 2024, 91’) 1:40 pm Respoken by Sidney Ken & Thaiphirun Hul (Cambodia, 2024, 26’) 2:15 pm Palestine Comedy Club by Alaa Aliabdallah & Charlotte Knowles (Palestine / UK, 2024, 97’) 4:00 pm Museum of the Night by Fermín Eloy Acosta (Argentina, 2025, 88’) 5:45 pm In-I In Motion by Juliette Binoche (France, 2025, 156’) RSVP Day 2 Monday June 1 5:00 pm Firebird by Irina Patkanian & Marion Schoevaert (USA, 2026, 23’) 5:30 pm Ewa - The Last Lesson by Andrea Mura & Federico Savonitto (Italy / Poland, 2025, 66’) 6:40 pm Obsessed with Light by Sabine Krayenbühl & Zeva Oelbaum (USA, 2025, 90’) RSVP Day 3 Robert Wilson on Screen Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Ave, New York) Google Maps (Ticketed, please see AFA website) RSVP Friday May 29 6:45 pm Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera by Mark Obenhaus (1984, 58’) 8:45 pm Overture for KA MOUNTAIN AND GUARDenia TERRACE (1972, 80’, Silent) Saturday May 30 6:15 pm Video 50 + Deafman Glance (1978 / 1981, ~85’) 8:30 pm Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars by Howard Brookner (1987, 90’) Sunday May 31 5:30 pm Stations + La Femme à la Cafetière + La Mort de Molière (1982 / 1989 / 1995, ~90’) 8:00 pm The Black Rider by Theo Janssen & Ralph Quinke (1990, 120’) Monday June 1 6:30 pm Hamlet: A Monologue by Franco Laera (1997–2000, 95’) 8:45 pm The Making of a Monologue: Robert Wilson's Hamlet by Marion Kessel (1995, 62’) Tuesday June 2 6:30 pm Stations + La Femme à la Cafetière + La Mort de Molière (1982 / 1989 / 1995, ~90’) 8:45 pm Bob Wilson’s Life & Death of Marina Abramovic by Giada Colagrande (2012, 57’) Wednesday June 3 7:00 pm Robert Wilson In Situ by Pauline de Grunne (2017, 90’) 8:45 pm Watermill 1993 + Watermill Center Summer Program 2009 by Stefan Kurt / Tomek Jeziorski (1993 / 2010, ~65’) Thursday June 4 6:45 pm Video 50 + Deafman Glance (1978 / 1981, ~85’) 9:00 pm Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera by Mark Obenhaus (1984, 58’) Friday June 5 6:45 pm Overture for KA MOUNTAIN AND GUARDenia TERRACE (1972, 80’, Silent) 8:45 pm Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars by Howard Brookner (1987, 90’) This summer, in collaboration with the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance, The Robert Wilson Estate & Trust, and The Watermill Center, Anthology presents an extensive film series celebrating the work of the great theater artist Robert Wilson, who passed away in 2025 at the age of 83. Wilson was a towering figure in experimental theater over the past fifty years, an astonishingly prolific and inventive artist who was responsible for such landmarks of 20th century performance as “The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud” (1969), “Einstein on the Beach” (1976), and “the CIVIL warS” (1984), as well as legendary, highly singular productions of everything from Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and Wagner’s “Parsifal” to Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape”, Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”, and Heiner Müller’s “Hamletmachine”. Wilson collaborated with an astonishing range of artists, musicians, writers, and actors (William S. Burroughs, Willem Dafoe, Philip Glass, Lou Reed, and Tom Waits, to name just a few), and in 1991 founded The Watermill Center on Long Island, a “laboratory for performance” that continues to host performances, exhibitions, and residencies, and to develop productions, up to the current day. One of the hallmarks of Wilson’s work is his ambitious, highly expressionistic, and always defiantly anti-naturalistic style, and his full embrace of every imaginable dimension of the theater: performance, music, costume and set design, and so on. His drive to explore multiple forms and modes of expression led him to make numerous moving-image pieces over the course of his career, including important early video works like VIDEO 50 (1978), DEAFMAN GLANCE (1981), and STATIONS (1982). He also personally oversaw the filming of many of his most important theater productions. This series includes his own films and videos, a sampling of the filmed versions of his productions, and several documentaries made about his life and work over the years, such as Mark Obenhaus’s definitive chronicle of perhaps Wilson’s most famous work, EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, and Howard Brookner’s revealing portrait film, ROBERT WILSON AND THE CIVIL WARS. Read More About The Festival The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The 2026 festival is co-curated by Frank Hentschker and Tomek Smolarski. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. From its inaugural edition in 2015 to its present-day hybrid avatar, The Segal Film Festival for Theatre and Performance (FTP) has served as a platform for recorded works that span the length and breadth of the performing arts. Festival Founder and Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, Frank Hentschker shares his inspiration for creating the festival: “Film and digital media are an integral part of theatre and performance. I am surprised that there is not a film festival out there right now focusing on theatre and performance. I thought ‘why not create one’?” In the time before Corona, the Segal Film Festival had evolved into the premier US event for new film and video work focusing on theatre and performance. Its mission was to invite experimental and established theatre makers to present work created for the screen – not filmed archival recordings – to audiences and industry professionals from around the world. Now, after a year and a half of digital and hybrid theatre offerings, the festival must take on a new meaning. The festival has held on to its mission of being a free and open-to-all event accessible to everyone. The 7th edition of the festival was held digitally in March 2022, and featured 80 films from 30 countries. For queries, feedback and any more information get in touch with us at segalfilmfestival@gmail.com Meet The Curators Tomek Smolarski Co-Curator Tomek Smolarski is a cultural manager, producer, and curator with over 20 years of experience producing international cultural events and building bridges across disciplines through cultural diplomacy. His work spans theater, film, and performance, and he has collaborated with leading U.S. institutions including BAM, MoMA, Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, MoMI, Pacific Film Archive, and La MaMa Theatre, among many others. Frank Hentschker Co-Curator Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Currently executive director and director of programs at the Segal Center, Hentschker has transformed the center into the nation’s leading forum for public programming in international and U.S. theatre and theatre studies; each year, he curates and produces more than forty events—staged readings, lecture-demonstrations, symposia, works-in-progress, and conversations with theatre scholars, theatrical luminaries, and emerging voices in the international, American, and New York theatre scenes. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series; the annual fall PRELUDE festival, which features more than twenty New York–based theatre companies and playwrights; and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Hentschker also led CUNY’s nineteen performing arts centers in founding the CUNY–Performing Arts Consortium (C–PAC), producing the consortium’s first joint festival in 2009. Hentschker edited the MESTC publications Jan Fabre: I Am A Mistake, Seven Works for the Theatre (2009) and New Plays from Spain (2013), and he served as president of the board of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art from 2005 to 2009. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theatre festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne); and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years. with special thanks to Jed Raphael (Anthology Film Archives); Clifford Allen; Christof Belka & Noah Khoshbin (RW Work, Ltd.); Paige Laino & Nicole Martorana (The Watermill Center); Brian Belovarac (Janus Films); Rebecca Cleman, Karl McCool, and Jooyoung Park (EAI); Pauline de Grunne; Tomek Jeziorski; Stefan Kurt; Franco Laera; Edward McCarry (Cinema Guild); Mark Obenhaus; Ralph Quinke; and Elena Rossi-Snook (NYPL).

Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. The journal appears twice yearly in digital form by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of New York and is a joint project of that Center and of the Arabic Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Back to Top Untitled Keep Reading < Back Arab Stages Volume 16 Visit Journal Homepage Table of Contents An Interview with the Iraqi-born British playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak by Hadeel Abelhameed Hadeel Abelhameed Review: GUERNICA, GAZA: VISIONS FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. By Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi Marina Johnson Performance Review: The Tutor Hala Baki, California Polytechnic State University Review: OF KINGS AND CLOWNS: LEADERSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPTIAN THEATRE SINCE 1967 By Tiran Manucharyan. Areeg Ibrahim Review: PLAYS OF ARABIC HERITAGE. By Hannah Khalil Kari Barclay Arab Stages Arab Stages is devoted to broadening international awareness and understanding of the theatre and performance cultures of the Arab-Islamic world and of its diaspora. The journal appears twice yearly in digital form by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of New York and is a joint project of that Center and of the Arabic Theatre Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Visit Journal Homepage

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The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. 2024 Festival See the full lineup of films at this year's festival below. A selection of films will be screened in-person at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center whilst others will be available to watch online May 16th onwards, for a period of three weeks. SEE IN-PERSON SCHEDULE Online, In-Person "Nightshades" - Veronica Viper Ellen Callaghan Online Conference of the Absent Rimini Protokoll (Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel) / Film By Expander Film (Lilli Kuschel and Stefan Korsinsky) Online Festival of the Body on the Road H! Newcomer “H” Sokerissa! Online / In-Person I AM NOT OK Gabrielle Lansner Online, In-Person MUSE Pete O'Hare/Warehouse Films Online / In-Person ORESTEIA Carolin Mader In-Person SWING AND SWAY Fernanda Pessoa and Chica Barbosa Online The End Is Not What I Thought It Would Be Andrea Kleine Online The Roll Call:The Roots to Strange Fruit Jonathan McCrory / National Black Theatre/ All Arts/ Creative Doula Online Women of Theatre, New York Juney Smith Online "talk to us" Kirsten Burger In-Person Dancing Pina FLorian Heinzen-Ziob Online GIANNI Budapesti Skizo, Theater Tri-Bühne Online, In-Person Interstate Big Dance Theater / Bang on a Can Online / In-Person Making of The Money Opera Amitesh Grover In-Person QUEENDOM Agniia Galdanova Online, In-Person Schlingensief – A Voice that Shook the Silence Bettina Böhler Online The Great Grand Greatness Awards Jo Hedegaard Online The Utopians Michael Kliën and En Dynamei Online next...II (Mali/Island) Janne Gregor Online BLOSSOMING - Des amandiers aux amandiers Karine Silla Perez & Stéphane Milon Online / In-Person Die Kinder der Toten Nature Theater of Oklahoma:Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska In-Person Genocide and Movements Andreia Beatriz, Hamilton Borges dos Santos, Luis Carlos de Alencar Online Juggle & Hide (Seven Whatchamacallits in Search of a Director) Wichaya Artamat/ For What Theatre Online, In-Person Maria Klassenberg Magda Hueckel, Tomasz Śliwiński Online / In-Person Red Day Besim Ugzmajli Online Snow White Dr.GoraParasit In-Person The Hamlet Syndrome Elwira Niewiera & Piotr Rosolowski Online / In-Person WHO IS EUGENIO BARBA Magdalene Remoundou Online / In-Person Chinoiserie Redux Ping Chong In-Person ELFRIEDE JELINEK - LANGUAGE UNLEASHED Claudia Müller Online Hans-Thies Lehmann – Postdramatic Theater Christoph Rüter Online Living Objects in Black Jacqueline Wade Online, In-Person My virtual body and my double Simon Senn / Bruno Deville Online / In-Person Revolution 21/ Rewolucja 21 Martyna Peszko and Teatr 21 Online The Books of Jacob Krzysztof Garbaczewski Online / In-Person The Making of Pinocchio Cade & MacAskill Online / In-Person Wo/我 Jiemin Yang In-Person Screenings at the Segal Center Find it on Google Maps (365 5th Ave, New York) Thursday May 16 6:00 -7:40 PM Queendom by Agniia Galdanova 7:50 – 8:50 PM Maria Klassenberg by Tomasz Śliwiński and Magda Hueckel (World Premiere) RSVP Day 1 Friday May 17 6:00 – 7:00 PM Genocide and Movements by Andreia Beatriz, Hamilton Borges dos Santos and Luis Carlos de Alencar 7:00 – 8:00 PM Swing & Sway by Fernanda Pessoa and Chica Barbosa 8:00 – 9:30 PM Making of Pinocchio by Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill RSVP Day 2 Saturday May 18 11:05 AM – 12:05 AM Who is Eugenio Barba by Magdalene Remoundou 12:10 - 2:15 PM Schlingensief: A Voice That Shook the Silence by Frieder Schlaich 2:20 - 3:50 PM ELFRIEDE JELINEK - LANGUAGE UNLEASHED by Claudia Muller 4:00 – 5:51 PM Dancing Pina by Florian Heinzen-Ziob RSVP Day 3 Monday May 20 2pm – 3:30 PM Die Kinder der Toten by Kelly Copper & Pavol Liška - Nature Theater of Oklahoma 3:35 – 5:20 PM Viewing of selected short films from the festival lineup Red Day by Besim Ugzmajli (15 Mins), Interstate by Big Dance Theater / Bang on a Can (6 Mins), Wo/我 by Jiemin Yang (11 Mins), I AM NOT OK by Gabrielle Lansner (12 Mins), MUSE by Pete O'Hare / Warehouse Films (10 Mins), ORESTEIA by Carolin Mader (6 Min), "Nightshades" - Veronica Viper by Ellen Callaghan (6 Mins), Snow White by Dr.GoraParasit (18 Mins), The Roll Call:The Roots to Strange Fruit by Jonathan McCrory / National Black Theatre/ All Arts/ Creative Doula (23 Mins) 5:20 – 6:40 PM Chinoiserie Redux by Ping Chong, Kristina Varshavskaya 6:45 – 7:45 PM Revolution 21 by Martyna Peszko (US Premiere) 7:50 – 9:30 PM The Hamlet Syndrome by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski RSVP Day 4 About The Festival The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The 2024 festival is co-curated by Frank Hentschker and Tomek Smolarski, and supported by Gaurav Singh Nijjer on digital design. The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. From its inaugural edition in 2015 to its present-day hybrid avatar, The Segal Film Festival for Theatre and Performance (FTP) has served as a platform for recorded works that span the length and breadth of the performing arts. Festival Founder and Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, Frank Hentschker shares his inspiration for creating the festival: “Film and digital media are an integral part of theatre and performance. I am surprised that there is not a film festival out there right now focusing on theatre and performance. I thought ‘why not create one’?” In the time before Corona, the Segal Film Festival had evolved into the premier US event for new film and video work focusing on theatre and performance. Its mission was to invite experimental and established theatre makers to present work created for the screen – not filmed archival recordings – to audiences and industry professionals from around the world. Now, after a year and a half of digital and hybrid theatre offerings, the festival must take on a new meaning. The festival has held on to its mission of being a free and open-to-all event accessible to everyone. The 7th edition of the festival was held digitally in March 2022, and featured 80 films from 30 countries. For queries, feedback and any more information get in touch with us at segalfilmfestival@gmail.com Meet The Team Tomek Smolarski Co-Curator Tomek Smolarski is Film and Performing Arts Curator at the Polish Cultural Institute New York, with over 20 years of experience in production of international cultural events and he has extensive knowledge in cultural diplomacy. He initiated and executed projects with partners all over the US such as BAM, MoMA, Film at Lincoln Center, Museum of the Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, NYU Skirball, Abrons Arts Center, Martin E. Segal Theater Center, La Mama Theater, Joe's Pub, RedCat, Odyssey Theater, Berkley Arts Museum and Pacific Film Archives, Chicago Cultural Center and many others. Gaurav Singh Nijjer Web and Digital Producer Gaurav Singh Nijjer is a theatre-maker, creative technologist and designer whose artistic works explore technology and media in live performance. He is one half of the Indian performing arts collective Kaivalya Plays, and also works as a freelance artist and arts manager with collectives in India and abroad, currently as Digital and Web Producer at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center at the Graduate Centre CUNY. He is a former German Chancellor Fellow and a Chevening scholar. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Apart from theatre, Gaurav also works as a freelance marketing, design and creative consultant for diverse organizations. Frank Hentschker Co-Curator Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Currently executive director and director of programs at the Segal Center, Hentschker has transformed the center into the nation’s leading forum for public programming in international and U.S. theatre and theatre studies; each year, he curates and produces more than forty events—staged readings, lecture-demonstrations, symposia, works-in-progress, and conversations with theatre scholars, theatrical luminaries, and emerging voices in the international, American, and New York theatre scenes. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series; the annual fall PRELUDE festival, which features more than twenty New York–based theatre companies and playwrights; and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Hentschker also led CUNY’s nineteen performing arts centers in founding the CUNY–Performing Arts Consortium (C–PAC), producing the consortium’s first joint festival in 2009. Hentschker edited the MESTC publications Jan Fabre: I Am A Mistake, Seven Works for the Theatre (2009) and New Plays from Spain (2013), and he served as president of the board of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art from 2005 to 2009. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theatre festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne); and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years. Producer, General Operations Manager Teresa Soraka Next Generation Fellow Nurit Chinn

Page Title This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors. Small Title This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors. Small Title This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors. Small Title This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors.