Playwright Yussef El Guindi
Directed by Stuart Carden
Featuring Larry Balducci, Nunzio Cancilla, Christian Craig, Kamal Hans, Braden Moran, Andrew Perez, Pranidhi Varshney, and Tariq Vasudeva
Award-winning playwright Yussef el Guindi gives us a darkly humorous, sensual, and provocative look at identity, media representation, love, and lust in the Arab American community. Struggling writer Gamal, fueled by frustration over the limited Arab voices represented in the US media, engages in a prank campaign to shake up the system. His weapons? A chocolate mousse cake and lipstick. His targets? A popular Arab American writer and an influential Sheikh. But those in power have a way of turning the tables. When Gamal’s lover, Noor, is convinced by a prominent publisher to alter her novel to satisfy Western hunger for “Orientalist” fare, Gamal lashes out at his own community. The results are staggering.
The staged reading was followed by a Q&A session with the playwright.
Presented in partnership with Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s thinkTank. thinkTank uses provocative theatrical language to engage its community in a timely conversation about the social, political and economic issues in which it has a stake.
