 Good morning, good afternoon and good evening everybody joining us from across the globe This is no summary Conversations with artists that don't fit in a box. We are Golden Thread productions for those who may not know Golden Thread is the first American theater company focused on the Middle East and we are based in San Francisco It's my pleasure today to join Four fabulous playwrights of Arab heritage who we just had the honor of commissioning to create new work They are Hassan Abdul Razza, Hanna Falil joining us from the UK Tareq Hamami and Mona Mansour joining us from the US in New York Welcome everyone. Thank you. Thank you. So I just wanted to start by asking you Identity questions. Oh dear. So I'm curious to hear from you. How your Background noise How your Middle Eastern or Arab heritage has influenced Your writing your your work Whoever wants to start first I Guess I can dive in so my name is Tareq Hamami my background is I'm Algerian American and I Guess the way that my background has influenced my my work. I is because I always kind of feel like I'm you know in In two worlds, you know That of being in America and that's of my of where I was born and where I come from in Algeria and so And also trying to hold on to that identity because I feel like especially From from non-Arab people they'll say oh, you don't look Arab and so they won't know that I am and so I've always felt this need to let people know to really hold on to that And so I think a lot of my writing has been influenced by that of people trying to Hold on to who they are figure out who they are or in fine work defined who they are as a person as well and Also the fact that My I was I was raised in a dual religious house of my dad being Muslim and my mom being Catholic I think I've always my writing is always focused around faith in some way and not specific religion But just that idea of faith and how do you find? Faith meaningful specific to you when there's so many different ideas around and so I think that's kind of influenced my writing as I've As I've grown as a writer Thanks Hannah you want to go next? Oh So I am half Palestinian half Irish and I was brought up in the Middle East as a child in Dubai and then my parents separated when I was a teenager and I came to London and I was with my Irish mom and I still saw my dad Frequently, but I stopped I didn't go to Palestine after I was 11 and and I was sort of I didn't feel part of Sort of Arab community or diaspora and then in my early 20s I started writing plays and I always wrote Arab characters because I felt so frustrated with the way Arab characters or portrayed often on telly and in the theater and so I was trying to redress that balance, but I was also sort of trying to Learn more about my own heritage and and through that kind of process of beginning to write plays about my heritage I reconnected with it in this really beautiful way and and I met and and sort of became part of this wonderful growing diaspora of Arab artists in London and more widely the UK and and so yeah The first player about Palestine plan D was really sort of important to me Because it was terrifying. I was really scared to write about such a huge subject But then it felt really like the right thing to do and now I don't seem to I don't seem to be able to write about anything else Which is you know problematic because the Irish side are getting annoyed But yeah, so that's that's me Mona hi everybody nice to see you all. I'm the only one wearing these I Would just echo what taught it and how to have said that feeling of being like half, you know, I mean I'm Born and raised in America, but my dad came from Lebanon in the late 50s and Where I grew up in Southern California, my dad was sort of the first person from his village to Come to the States and so when the war happened Many of our cousins came to live with us and so I always say it was like the Middle East kind of came to our house so It is interesting and to hear you talk about that Hannah about Kind of when you started to write into that whatever that is that identity because I don't Don't Yeah, I don't think I had a palpable sense of it until I started to write my own material like I was an actor before But when I look back like the first Complete thing that I wrote that wasn't a sketch that wasn't like sketch comedy was a play called me in the SLA And it was about my obsession with Patricia Hearst Who I don't know if anybody was but you know who was kidnapped and Blah blah blah But it was like the SLA which also was the southern Lebanese army and and so I brought into this whole sort of notion of like You know how at the end of the day it was my desire to be really American and not just American but to be like One of the gold chip families of America like I I didn't want to be middle-class and I didn't want to be certainly didn't want to be like Arab middle-class and And and I guess the last thing I'll say right now is that I moved to New York a year after 9 11 and At that time there was so much going on There was a community that was beginning to coalesce So there was a company called Nick Nebras and you know out of that I think nor came and and the lark started to have things go on and that's really been a joy To see that grow and part of the reason it grows is because stuff's happening like bad things are happening But the flip side is we get to be in conversation and to talk about things that we probably didn't talk about before Thanks, Mona Hasan Hello, everybody. My name is Hassan Abdul Razak. I'm a playwright originally from Iraq and I grew up in a little bit in Iraq Until the age of eight and I left and moved around in in Egypt in Algeria as well and in To to the United Kingdom and I wasn't when I arrived in the United Kingdom I had this sort of Arab makeup in my in my in my blood and I had family connections But I started wanted to really integrate I wanted to become sort of part of the British society and I didn't really think I Avoided thinking about the politics of the Middle East and so on I this was something like my dad and his generation did and and I wanted to be kind of different from that but circumstances forced Forced the identity in a way upon me. The first was the first Gulf War and suddenly I was at university and Everybody around me the student union were talking about Saddam Hussein and Iraq and as if everybody was an expert and felt really really frustrating when I was watching my country sort of suffering in that in that first Gulf War and people like my frustration of the People's lack of basic understanding that Iraq was not Was not at all about Saddam Hussein and that was really implanted the first sort of impulse pulse to try and make great stories That explain who I am and what my people are like and what I know about Iraqis But really probably what cemented it for me was I went to the States in 2011 and I and I worked in Boston and Just when 9-11 happened And I had a group of Arab friends. I was working as a scientist My background is not is not really literature is more science and my academic background and and there we really Became kind of a very closely together and we started talking about politics all the time and about Arab identity and It was the first time I read Edward Said and It politicized me obviously 9-11 and it was it was very difficult to be in America at that time I had in my neighborhood trucks driving by going with a slogan death to all Muslims now And I will never forget that it's kind of this emblazoned on my on my memory So when I went back to the to England, I was I had this desire to write and I went and I saw plays about Iraq And I knew I knew the Iraq war was going to happen even before it happened and then I saw these plays about Iraq and written by English playwrights and American playwrights and it's really frustrated me and that was my incentive to write my first play which was back that wedding and to try and give voice to To to to the truth about Arabs as I knew as I knew it Thanks, Hassan. It's it's interesting because I I come from Iran and I come also from a Muslim Christian background and I Had to move to the US Because of the Iranian Revolution or stay in the US because of the revolution in Iran in 1979 And I feel like our lives are so impacted by politics that the I Don't know the ambivalence that we encounter in the US And I don't know if it's the same in the UK or not the ambivalence towards politics Really bothered me. I remember during the hostage crisis Iran was on the news every night, you know, the the reports of the hostages were Every like day one days 30 day, whatever But people in my neighborhood, I think there was only one family in my neighborhood who actually knew where Iran was Nobody knew where the country was What language people speak or what the revolution is about or what is what the US has done there So there is this Urge I feel that we all share to tell our stories and I wonder Hannah you talked about, you know, your Irish side is now gonna You know want to be represented and Mona I know in your trilogy You have kind of mapped out your family history both your mother side and your dad side, right? and I wonder Yeah, what if what is that urge to like do justice to the Complex complexity and the many layers that we that we carry because I feel like I'm constantly In a position of correcting people. We are not just this. We're not just that especially, you know as a woman from the Middle East and I wonder if Any of you have or Hannah and Mona just because I mentioned your place if you have something to add sure, and I I I very much Echo everything that you said to range and it's really for me a lot of it's about There's a there's a fine line because you don't want to write history lessons That's not our job as as artists We it's not our job to educate people in a sort of, you know in an academic kind of way And sometimes people see my plays and they're like, but I didn't find out enough about the history And I'm like, there's this thing called Google feel free, you know, like you can find out if you really want to find out It's more a provocation but also about Demystifying and sort of it's that I'm sure we all Felt like we don't I want to see the people that I know on stage the Arabs I know like and we're talking about sort of also about I think it's important to talk about Islam and about Muslims and and You know, I talk about this so much to people who question because like many of you I'm also, you know, I have Catholicism on one side and I have Islam on the other side and In any portrayals of Christianity people are allowed to have different degrees of Commitment to their faith, aren't they? You know, you can be a Christian who's a very very dedicated Christian and who goes to to church every Sunday Or you can be someone who just prays occasionally But that's not allowed if you're a Muslim and you're not allowed to have an ongoing Negotiation or conversation with your faith if you're a Muslim and so I think I think just showing people those possibilities because everything's always so blindery Is really really important and that's and I feel like the responsibility is more to about humanizing and saying look We're all the same and really aren't we? You know, we're all just human beings and and with different Experiences have a look have a look open the door look in the door and see this is the house This is the this is these are the conversations. We have it's not so different and As a way of kind of opening the door for people to then take responsibility to go and find out more and as you say to I was like to find out what's going on in these places that you have an opinion about but you don't really know anything about Yeah, I uh hearing you say you talk Hassan is like I don't say music to my ears, but I've heard people Talk about Iraq I'm like, uh, if you don't know how to fucking pronounce it Then don't talk to me about what we should be doing over there um Just to clarify like my so the trilogy is about, you know a fictitious Palestinian scholar and Kind of these two ways his life could go so just to be super clear, you know My dad's Lebanese And while almost an atheist, you know is is from is christian and so I didn't know I would be writing that trilogy I mean, it was a completely unwise decision, right? Like so many things we do in the arts like you're just like wait, how did I But I had written the first play urge for going Which is now the third play in the trilogy, but I really wrote that just to sort of say I wanted to sort of interrogate The place my father came from and specifically his village Which is called me you me and it's in the south and it's near Sidon and when you tell people That your family is from me. You need they go. Oh, it was at the camp Like they assume they're from the camp. They actually don't realize that there's like a village there And so when I was growing up, it was you know, I would say the notion of Palestine Was was in my home and not in an academic way and not in a particularly A way that I would appreciate now, but it sort of made me want to look at that so um I just wanted to clarify that but it The interesting thing I think at least doing this in the states is that Our community, right? So like in the trilogy itself I I have two actress who are Palestinian. I also have an Iranian actress and I have someone who is I think Nadine Malouf is like Italian and Lebanese and Caitlyn Cassidy is like Syrian and Irish there's a lot of us who are just these mixes of things and and so we sort of What am I trying to say? I think we sort of bring that That that confrontation that we've had with both sides We sort of bring it into the room If that makes sense and it and it creates a sort of energy That you you might not have right if you did it in in the country where it was where is set But that thing about wanting to correct people and I totally echo what you're saying Taranj And Hannah that thing too of like I've had people say the same thing like well, wait a minute. I wanted to know more and it's this Yeah, we're It's a play And moreover, you know, it's not an NGO like if it if it does uh Open up hearts and minds. I mean I I don't know why we would be doing this if we didn't want to do that But to say well, I hope to get 200 more signatures or something that's an actionable item I'm not writing those. I mean people can But that's not where I'm at um I sort of want to unsettle people too. Just like any theatrical experience Speaking of where we're at and oh Tarik. Did you want to add something? Well, I was just going to add in there. I think part of the thing that draws us to tell Like our stories is also this I feel like there's no greater Or just there's nothing more sad than when People aren't known, you know, like for instance when I was growing up and people would ask Oh, that's an interesting name. Where are you from? I would say I'm from Algeria And at first they'd say oh Nigeria said no no no Algeria and they wouldn't they would never heard I get I get palace. I say Palestine. They say oh Pakistan I'm like no Yeah, no two different places and then they'll say oh, I'd never heard of that country before and it's It's the largest country in Africa, you know, so So this idea of of not even knowing that are like our people exist And then even on top of that the struggles that are faced like I wrote a play about The Algerian civil war and part of the reason I wrote is because no one knew it happened And so all of these people suffered all these people died and especially in the United States If you would mention Algerian civil war people would say I didn't even know that happened there So I think there's a lot of of North African and Middle Eastern hit like Not it's not even history because you know, like you said, we don't want to write a history lesson, but just knowing that There are That that there's struggle and that there's triumph and that there's people there not just from what you see on your 90 second Clip on the news every night. I think that's a driving force You're all um You know, you have established careers as playwrights. Some of you also teach so I'm curious What did you have lined up? before the pandemic hit and I guess that's the first part of the question and then the second part is and what are you how did that How did the pandemic change or what did you end up working on? I will let Hassan start. Oh, yeah, I was um I was asked to write which I would still love to do Uh, but although the the centenary has passed, but there was the centenary of the iraq 1920 revolution Which was an uprising that happened in iraq. It started Mainly in the south of iraq against the british colonial powers And uh, and I was being asked to to do that as a as a project for the bradford literary festival And then of course covet happened and and it didn't happen, but it's uh, it's it's uh I'm still reading about that revolution and I would maybe it's something I would I would sort of come back to it because there are In iraq history, there is always these echoes of Everything that happened under the british has also subsequently happened Under the americans and these echoes and connections, which hannah brilliantly explored in her play Museum, sorry, I was gone out of my head the title But you you will say it So, uh, yeah You know those connections between the past and the present are something of interest to me So I hope to go back to that project once once covet goes Tarek, do you want to jump in? I yeah, I was actually right in the middle of a rehearsal process for her production Um at the school that I teach at uh being a two colleagues of mine We uh, we wrote a musical about the life Another actual historical story about someone named mary rogers who who was lived in new york and Died under mysterious circumstances and it was interesting because it became the first tabloid You know kind of murder story where people sensationalized things and so it was this idea of like The news starting to not become the news anymore And then subsequently people had you know written about used her Death as a means to write something else and no one's ever actually written about her and her life So we wrote a musical about her and we were in the middle of rehearsal when suddenly everything shut down And so the whole production kind of got cancelled and and so now We're back in this semester doing it But now it'll be in a radio play with uh with kind of a video companion piece to it So it's it's been a whole uh new world of of theater production Trying to do a musical over zoom. I can tell you is Is a little difficult So we're been we're trying to find our way through that right now Hannah you want to tell us what you were doing and what are you doing now? sure, so um, it was April was supposed to be my month April 2020. Little did I know? um, I had had my play museum in Baghdad that um Has sound so kindly I mean you can imagine how terrified I was when I sent the first draft of that play to my good friend the Iraqi playwright Hassan Abdul Razak I've written a play about the museum in Baghdad. Please don't Please don't tell me off. Please don't hate it. Thank goodness. He only had one note Which was we don't drink mint tea. We drink cardamom tea. I was like, I'll take that. That's fine Oh, anyway, so So that play had been at the raw Shakespeare company in Stratford upon Avon And it was supposed to be transferring to London to the kiln theater, which was used to be called the tricycle so that was hugely exciting and at the same time I was supposed to have a play opening at Hampstead Theatre Which is just up the road and I absolutely adored the idea That people who had never heard of me, which is most people in north london would be like, who's this Bitch who's got a play on at two theaters like we've never heard of her And she's got a play on like like one stop on the tube away from each other But sadly it wasn't to be so the the show that was supposed to be on at Hampstead was a play called sleepwalking Which is a two-hander about motherhood and both shows have been cancelled and I don't know what's going to happen with them. So that was very sad and I was very Um, I was very low in april As what I was calling the ghost milestones went past tonight should be first night tonight should be closing night but um I've had some lovely other opportunities. I've always wanted to write for children I've got a daughter who's eight and um, who's really annoyed that she's never allowed to watch any of my plays because they're not really appropriate and So I've I've been working on a couple of things for young people one was a joyous I mean what I've been so impressed by is how innovative people have been And so one project was a company called fly high stories who are a young people's company here Basically commissioned a bunch of writers to write tiny plays five minute plays that were to be sort of uh re-imaginings of classic stories and the idea was that you could download them print them at home And then perform them at home with your kids So during lockdown and so I wrote one for them called not the gingerbread man Which is basically about the fact that we couldn't get any flour I don't know if you had the same thing in the states But everyone bought up all the flour and all the thing everyone was baking And so my version is we can't make a gingerbread man because there's no flour in the house So let's make rocky road instead and it became the rocky road person And because we've made a lot of that Um Yeah, so I've been doing that and I also have been doing some adaptations of greek myths Which has been really lovely and I'm really enjoying that so yeah I've I've been keeping busy Jumping Mona I wait, did you make rocky road ice cream or is it like an english? So what is rocky road? Okay, so rocky road is like a I should know but I'll send you the recipe So basically what it is is it's like a it's like a mix up of biscuits with marshmallows and nuts and raisins and chocolate And you sort of mush it all together and melt it together and then you stick it in the fridge and you cut it into blocks It's delicious. Okay. Yeah recipe. Yeah Um, I think we're all gonna need that recipe I know let's just put it on a group chat. Um, I Is similar, you know, I mean to everybody's experiences. I Was at the public theater. We were in our third technical rehearsal for the vagrant trilogy You know in terms of working on it like with the public It's it's been about a 10 year process so I I almost feel like I I haven't blacked it out, but it's just like I don't I think I just went on autopilot You know, we were all called into the on-sparker space at the theater Um, there were three plays rehearsing. Um at that time The visitor was another one And nobody knew anything and at that point I thought I would be coming back over the weekend for a paper tech I was like, I'll do it. Um and Here we are. Uh, my Beloved director marqueen davie got got covet. He's better. Thank god, but it was very obviously You know scary time and in new york, uh in particular um that From what I know is is postponed and you know, our set is in there We've got this like 2000 pound The main piece of our set that at different times was a hill in palestine and then a sort of ceiling in london and Then the floor of their dwelling in urge for going so it's in there um the cast Somewhere in there Because we were sort of broken up so quickly we started doing these friday night zooms And we've kind of had a good record and we get together Sometimes there's music Um, there's poetry Sometimes it's just bitching and complaining about life, but we we always read this Naomi shihab nai poem called kindness that I highly recommend. We just read it's like going to church and we always read that um But you need to share that with us Yeah I will it's anyway, it's Gorgeous to be able to connect with all of them and we miss each other terribly and You know in theater there's so much I I assume it's the same in the uk, but I know in the states there's a sense of you know I don't know people can be expendable or like look, you know just And and and I I try to fight back against that also in regard to casting it's like no this person's been with this piece For nine years. I have a couple of the actors who've been with it since the beginning and so It's it's terrible like i'm not gonna lie. It's really painful Um, but i'm grateful for that So that is postponed and beyond that I had I was supposed to have two productions of we swung we talked we go to war uh next year Um One that's been canceled and the other I just haven't heard anything at all I had a suspicion that that's not happening. Um So that's you know, I have a theater company and and and we did do a play on zoom Um Back in august I think and I was very very happy about how that turned out Uh, it was a play. We we we researched it the way, you know the joint stock method Um, and we wrote it and it's an absurd and ridiculous I'm very heightened And it somehow my director scott elingworth did an incredible job and that play is called beginning days of true jubilation And we do want to do it in person sometime next year But um, but that the gift and it and it helped to laugh Because you know at one point I was like should we be doing this now? There's so much in the world that It just seems like is it out of tune? but I think at least speaking for myself it was a gift To sit in a rehearsal And be like how how is this ridiculous? Bit gonna work. How are we gonna do this little shtick? Right this comedia moment. Um, it's a gift. I think The psychic costs to all of us. We just don't even know um Not to sound because there's so many things in the world that are so Literally more important right then then then like my expression is a playwright But at the same time it's it's part of all that and I do think that I don't know I follow Hannah on Twitter. So we get to sort of Check in and on each other that way and um, you're pretty open about the stuff you go through and it's there's you know I think there's a lot of a lot of us in theater who are who are Becoming adaptable, which is great, but we are grieving And it's it's the thing that we want to do the most and the reason we're in this ridiculous business has been sort of, you know Taken away from us And I just want to say one last thing which is it didn't have to be that way and it definitely did not have to be that way in the united states Thanks, mona We have some questions from the folks that are Watching on facebook and I think we'll Shift our conversation to talk about your commissioned work So golden thread has commissioned you to create new work and that's been So it's one way that golden thread Obviously, we try to support our artists during this tough time that there have been so many cancellations but also as You all mentioned I think we're all looking for Community we're all looking for opportunities to be creative and to find Creative fulfillment. So I think Giving an excuse to play rights to to sit down and write via a commission. I think has been one way For us. I pulled on thread to do that and I want to begin with you tarik so your commission is To write a play about the Black Panthers time in Algeria Um, I know that this is early in the process, but is there something you can share with us about that? Yeah, it's um It's a really fascinating thing to to dive into research wise because there's there's some things I I kind of knew about something that I you know knew a little bit of information about but the more you dive into it It's it's a really fascinating time in Algeria and specifically in Algiers in the late 60s early 70s Because basically the the general idea is Eldridge Cleaver had to flee the United States and him and and some other prominent Black Panthers found their way to Algiers and the reason why they went there is because the Algerian revolution had had just ended earlier in the decade and Algeria and specifically Algiers had kind of established itself As this hub for anti-colonial revolutionaries around the world And so it wasn't just the Black Panthers, but there were many other groups that were all kind of converging onto the city all at the same time and it's just this fascinating look at how You know the new Algerian government wanted to establish, you know a governance for its people, but also be like a kind of beacon for other Countries around the world to to kind of exile their their colonial oppressors And so I'm excited about this play too because I mean one it combines a story from both of my my heritage is, you know, the Algeria and America And part of the reason why everybody was coming to Algiers at the time was because of the Algerian Revolution and as I started researching this I realized that a lot of my My conversations with family growing up had focused largely on on the Algerian civil war because that had been You know so prevalent through my life that I realized I had never really Spoken to my dad or my a lot of my relatives about the revolution You know, like my dad was a child during the revolution And so I sat down finally and just said tell me about The revolution. What do you remember? What happened? And he told me these amazing stories That I realized how have I never heard this before? um And so I you know, it's been fascinating to go down that line And so I think this story Will have a lot to do with with the revolution and mainly the the aftermath of the revolution And um, and then what the Black Panthers were looking to to get from being in Algiers Whether it be information or even resources Because the Algerian government at the time Would at some point officially recognize a revolution and give them like office space And a monthly stipend so you're also getting resources from it And so I I think the play will focus mainly on The the Black Panthers looking for that official recognition from the Algerian government And then finding the similarities between the Algerian revolution And the revolution that the Black Panthers are trying to start here in the United States because the more The more you you go into it the more you realize that there were many similarities in terms of the treatment from the their each person's oppressor and And then ultimately what they what they were looking to do and also what some of the You know the the roadblocks or the you know the the pitfalls were because You know Algerians we definitely had a lot of pitfalls after the after the revolution there and I think that there were I think some things that the That the Black Panthers might have learned from that maybe so That's that's why I've been really excited about it just for the research and also an excuse to pester all my My relatives and the people I know for stories and and even my dad's old friends from college, you know because it turns out that Eldridge cleaver announces to the world in July of 1969 at the University of Algiers that he's now in Algeria And I did the math and I realized wait my dad began his undergraduate studies at the University of Algeria the next month and so He him and and some of his good friends from college Were were kind of in the midst of of everything during that and so They've been some really good A lot of a lot of good help and stories have been coming from that That's great that sounds fascinating and then the three of you Hannah Mona and Hassan You guys decided to collaborate On one play and I just want to be clear that this isn't something golden thread asked or suggested But that the three of you Suggested and are pursuing so who wants to speak on behalf of your mutual project Go on Hassan. All right Well, we We're still very early days. So we've actually had our first meeting today Just discussing broad ideas And Mona had the idea of having this sheet of Google sheet that we are sharing and putting in kind of like a collage of ideas So everybody's just putting in things that are attracting them Um You know stories that they've come across or specific moments And just kind of we're building it up into layers now and To so what are our subsequent meeting will be building up on these ideas and trying to find where the connections are And then Hannah had today this wonderful idea of just like kind of having Almost like a baton being passed on so maybe one of us would start with with With writing something and then somebody else would react to it and take Maybe a character or a or a moment And expand them Or take something into into their into the next story and so we would write three stories that have a kind of Either it's going to be a thematic link or just a basic link But we're not we're not wedded that it has to be completely synchronized I think we can we can each bring our own kind of interest to it And I've had uh, so i'm So far this is very early. I mean i'm sharing something that will probably change completely by the time we get through the process But I was interested in two areas of one was an incident that sort of happened to me uh, where I visited a I was I was visiting a town called dorset in in the south of of england And I met a group of of people who I thought would be sort of very liberal very left-wing And I was quite shocked by their anti-immigrant stance and this was post brexit And and dorset is not one of those places that is Typically talked about when people talk about brexit they talk about Working class northern towns where people have didn't have jobs and so on dorset is actually quite wealthy and and a lot of people who live there Have have money. So I'm interested In that in that dynamic of of people who have and then on a completely different subject I don't know which one i'm going to pursue. I'm also interested in people who Come back from the dead People who are who experience near death exp or have death experiences and I resuscitated and being brought back And now there is a whole science to that that where people are Can be brought back and there are machines that are being made and and so on that that Allows, you know, so the moment when you die is not really a final moment It's a moment where you can be brought back from and there's something about that a metaphor somewhere is sitting in that and the idea that I might explore So maybe it's somebody who has a near-death experience indoor set Combining both ideas Yes There's a Hannah Mona. Do you guys want we have one more question from our facebook audience? but um, I want to give Hannah and Mona a chance if you have something about this collaboration that you want to comment on or idea that you want to share I'll just say that like I mean all my ideas are very In their infancy, but what an amazing opportunity you've given us to run You know like seriously as as writers you never ever get a message from someone saying We'd like to commission you do you want to have a think about what you might like? I mean just never happens you have to go begging begging begging and like dance and buy wine and be charming and so And and to have the opportunity to write with these two other Writers who are so brilliant whose work I respect so much and who I love and you know writing is such an isolated thing So to be able to kind of have a particularly now as well You know we don't even leave the house for meetings anymore So to to be able to have conversations and to share creative ideas with these two It's just I hope you know Taranj how grateful we are and how How exciting it is for all of us. It's it's really wonderful. Thank goodness for golden thread I'm glad to hear it. So Mona our next question from the audience. I think is directed at you because you began working as an actor and then sort of started writing and the question is can you share a time you really Resonated with or saw yourself in a character or play on stage A formative moment that brought you to writing the plays you write So a moment as an actor That then shaped you to become a playwright I mean in my case, there's sort of a A bridge period, I guess you could say because I had studied Very diligently You know, whatever my undergrad was a sort of high pressure program or something acting Program so people got cut, you know, I mean we thought it was the end of the world if that happened But I thought I wanted to be sort of a classical regional theater actor So I wanted to play like major Barbara and things like that and then We started doing improv like I guess my senior year and I I just took to it right and Eventually I got into sort of the improv and then kind of high pressure comedy scene in la and I and I was in something called the Sunday Company at the groundlings where it was just you know It's funny when I think about that now because in the states the Liz Lerman method of feedback and all of that that we do here That's really quite kind and very artist focused That process was much more at least then it was much more like, you know, you'd present a scene and The person running the Sunday Company would be like Get off the stage and don't ever let me see that again, you know So it was very uh, you know, or you'd get it in the show and it would bomb So I learned how to do that and and that was really That middle period what I realized was oh, I don't want to I don't want to be the one doing this anymore um I just I want to hand it off to other people And then I had written this to a hander with another woman And when a friend of mine said can I take that to a director's lab? And work on it and I said you mean like a real play Like not us in it. He's like, yeah, I said, oh that'd be great And I think that's when I just literally went oh, I'm so happy to hand this off to somebody but um But it's always in it informs all of my writing. I think you just kind of can't Kind of can't shake it for better or worse, right the being of the being an actor and and uh the way that I've also just feel lucky being able to observe really great directors among them ever an ochre can From golden thread now at osf um mark wing davie Mimi O'Donnell like watching people Who are very high level? Speak to actors into the heart of the moment. I'm like, oh, that's a why I wasn't a very good actor and b This is really good for me to understand now As I'm writing because that director picked up on the turn that this character's made that I didn't even realize I had written in there and they're solidifying what This blueprint that I've put down so I don't know if that answers that question, but It wasn't a character. I guess I should say that it wasn't like I saw a character and went. Oh my god This means I want to write. I think I just wanted to be listened to You know, I was like listen to me You know some child impulse that probably should gotten worked out, but it didn't so You know here we all are But Hannah, I you said something earlier today. I feel like you must say in this context about your characters It was so brilliant. It was so great. That's so not fair I will say but what I will say first before I say that is that on the question of a character um Really important moment for me was I think it was around 2000 2001 I went to see a play called nine parts of desire written by heather raffaugh Performed by heather raffaugh and she came to london and did it the bush I had never seen an arab actress on stage who was so brilliant and who Did all these different characters and all these women I knew and I'd never seen it done before and I went Oh my gosh, it's allowed. It like I'm so Grateful to heather. Um Yeah, that was a really key moment for me. So what I said earlier was we were talking about characters and I said basically I can't sort of tell you in advance who my characters are going to be Because basically they're all me or my dad or my mom or my granny Which is true because what I do is I sort of I do the research. I work really hard. I do the research. I know the Situation that I'm setting up But then I sort of try and put myself in the shoes of the characters and imagine what I would do if I was them So it's not as lazy as it sounds. I then realized after I said this and Hassan and Mona were laughing at me I was like, no, that sounds terrible, doesn't it or really narcissistic, but um, Hopefully not that. Hopefully just empathetic Yes, I think we all get inspiration from our our family um And not from our political leaders So I want to in our final few minutes. I want to throw in the election and brexit and I don't know What's happening How are folks, uh, how are folks coping? With with this situation has everyone voted already Or uh, Mona and Tarek Early voting doesn't start until tomorrow in New York, but I have my plan Uh, so on Tuesday, I'll be I'll be heading out to vote Yeah, I mean it seems appropriate For this conversation it seems appropriate to say that all the ways of this anxiety in this country about ballots and and corruption, I mean I think if I'm looking around this circle itself, right Where most of our families come from or we ourselves come from are often the places that The western world likes to look at to say, oh, well, that's just Look at that. Look at that corruption And people are very scared as you know, Torange, you know, and I think there's a great deal of anxiety I I've definitely got the circle of friends who were like, I can't do don't ask me anything till after Yeah, I remember when um, Trump was elected in in, um, I don't know when he was elected There was like a little gathering of theater artistic directors in the bay area to figure out. Oh my god. What happened What should our response be and I was like, you know, to actually be Aligned with your political leader is so rare and such a privilege You know Most leaders are corrupt and not popularly elected and not, you know, all the things that We take for granted um With our with our democracy and so as you know, I said I come from Iran a country where, you know Many in the country do not identify with their leadership. So Not identifying with our political leadership is uh is Part of part of our daily life One of the problems here of the last four years is just the idea of not knowing Where anything is going or not knowing what's going to happen and give it circumstance like I think about, um, there when during trump's actual inauguration. I was actually in algeria um, I I brought on my wife had come uh for the first time to go see algeria and um We came back the week before that that muslim band have been put into effect and so um, I remember flying home thinking like They're saying this is gonna happen. I don't know what's gonna happen When I land, you know, I have a us passport, but I also have an algerian passport. So I don't know and so I think that's kind of a microcosm of what the problem has been the last four years Is that we nothing is really known about What's going to happen or how things are going to happen and I think that's Really what the anxiety is But the thing I do keep in mind to keep myself positive and uplifting is that as as much as As bad as this was in 2016 a positive note is how few people did vote in 2016 because You don't really need to overturn any Trump votes to vote him out. You just need people to finally Feel empowered enough to leave their home to go cast a vote And as long as that happens I think we might be okay, but you know, that's always still a big if But I don't think we need to have some of the most Uh die hard of his of his kool-aid drinkers see the light in order to rectify what's The situation there. So I try to keep that as a positive impact in my life I don't know that actually translates as well. We we appreciate that Tarik Hannah and Hassan Are you feeling the the impact of rex it at all? The the changes that are happening Brexit in a way somewhat disappeared From the headlines and I mean we were we were like brexit every day. It was up to covet And that is really worrying because we don't really It's it's what what is being done in the background On brexit is is really worrying like what what the effects of what will come out Will probably not be as thoroughly debated as if we if we didn't have the covet Because it really has receded from the from from the headlines So, uh, we are looking it looks like we're heading towards a no deal Brexit that's that's definitely happening And that's that was before a nightmare scenario that even the even the conservatives Even the even the group who are pro brexit where we're often going no, no, no, this is not going to happen We will find it So we are now like they're like, oh, yes. Yeah, it's gonna have you know, we're gonna have a no deal brexit And it's like, wow, that was the thing that was the precipice. We were all fearing But covet has somehow made it less So it seems It's it's people are so worried about that that they are That that they don't see that this is going to be a real cliff. We're jumping off So it has made matters matters worse in that in that regard And my point of view, I think the biggest the biggest sort of legacy of regsett has been And also the government that we have and the way they've behaved is that it feels like and I think you Probably echo this in the states is is that there seems to be permission for people to be racist So people who probably were always racist, but but kept it to themselves now It's okay. And you know the incidents of of You know racial abuse that people are suffering is disgusting and I think And that the the legacy of brexit we don't quite know yet has and what it's going to be for us every day because of course The deals haven't been reached but I mean even on a personal level so I can't talk about this very much yet, but I have been offered a post In the states and it took a really long time for that to be agreed and I didn't know why that was and now I know it's because That uk won't be in In the EU when when this you know when this thing happens So so it makes it really complicated and I you know, I could have not got the job as a result of that if it you know So I think it will have really big repercussions on people's lives and we don't even know what they are yet like day to day Um, which is worrying. But yeah, but the the whole permissive permissive racism thing is just distressing and awful Yeah, in the Bay Area, we've seen a Surprisingly high number of anti-armenian violence of violent acts The school and church were there was graffiti written on the walls and then The church the school hall was Burnt they they said it was arson. So That's really Shocking to me in this day and age in in the Bay Area too. So Yeah, it's not just anti-Muslim. I think you're right that everyone Feels like they have a carte blanche to express whatever hatred they have towards anybody In ways that were completely unacceptable before Um, we are almost that are at time. Um, any last comments or Words of wisdom you want to share I mean, I'm really grateful to you to range as well Oh, I just want to say that you and and golden thread and um, you you're you've kind of held a lot of us together and held us up And um, I'm excited for this next part of your life Yes, yes, maybe one day. I'll be I'll be a full-time playwright uh tarak, yeah Here this this commission has been a bit of a a lifesaver Right when new york Fully like really locked down and became the epicenter of the virus in the world. I my my second child was born and so We had a a baby through the height of the of the pandemic and so Dealing with that and then after he was born and just dealing with Having a second kid in the middle of all this. I was feeling very um Very uncreative, you know It was very hard and then I felt awful about myself as like what kind of writer are you that you can't write right now Which now that I'm passing a little bit. I realized was ridiculous Um, but then when I got your email about this like, hey, what do you think of this idea? It really kind of helped me out of that that whole that that like creative block of a kind of hole I dug myself into so I was very very appreciative of of uh of your commission and I just go through it in general Well, thank you. Thank you to you for your writing and for your talent and for your creativity and for sharing it with us Uh, I want to thank howl round for providing this free live stream service I want to thank wendy reyes our live stream tech and Linda hirone who's minding the facebook live stream and sending me questions Join us next time for our third no summary conversation with the team of golden thread fairy tale players That will be on november 6 and that will focus on theater for young audiences And how representation matters even more For children. Thank you so much for being with us. Uh, check out our programming on golden thread.org And join our email list if you are not on it yet. Thank you so