 Hello everybody and welcome to No Summary Golden Friends online conversations with artists who don't fit in a box. My name is Sahar Asaf, she, her, I'm the executive artistic director of Golden Thread Productions and by way of visual description I'm a Lebanese Arab woman with a fair complexion and a brown hair and today I'm wearing a blue top turtleneck and my background is a plain white wool. For those of you who don't know Golden Thread is the first American company devoted to theater from or about the Middle East and we were founded in 1996 by playwright and director to Ranjia Ghazarian. I would like to take a moment here to acknowledge the people of the land on which we work and live today, the multiple Oloni tribes, despite the atrocities of colonization and genocide, native communities persist today and are active in efforts to preserve and revive their culture. At Golden Thread we are driven by a desire to expand this land acknowledgement statement to recognize our community's experience of occupation in the Middle East, the refugee crisis and displaced population. Whether we are immigrants displaced by political or economic events for us born for one or more generations we all appreciate what the human connection to land and honestly today it's even more pertinent to state this acknowledgement as we woke up yesterday to a new war raging against Ukraine and the looming of a new refugee crisis in Europe and the world. This today is our first no summary of 2022 and this live stream series of conversations with artists who don't fit in a box will return this year with new episodes that will take us on a journey behind the scenes of making theater at Golden Thread and today I'm really thrilled to be launching this series with two of the cast members of drowning in Cairo, a world premiere by Adama Shafil Sayyar which will open at Golden Thread this April. Hello Martin, hello Wiley. I will begin by briefly telling you a little about our actors here and we'll have all the hour to ask them all sorts of questions but by way of introductions Martin Zabari Hiday is an Iraqi-Syrian-American actor playwright. He has worked with Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, Shakespeare Theatre, Court Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, National Queer Theatre among many others. Martin has appeared on NBC's Chicago Med. He holds a BFA in acting from the Arts University of Bern with England. Wiley Nauman's name and sorry, Strasser is an Armenian-American performer and native to the San Francisco Bay Area. Most recently he appeared in the Broadway National Tour of a Christmas Carol at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. A Tony Award-winning production originally conceived at the Old Vic in London. He has worked with many of the Bay Area Theatre companies including San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley Rap Magic Theatre, Cutting Ball, Crotted Fire and Golden Thread. Welcome back Wiley. He has trained internationally with Theatre Zar and Yuyach Kani. You'll correct my pronunciation of that and received this degree from UCLA School of Theatre Film and Television. I want to also acknowledge that Noor Hamdi who we announced as a cast member and who was also supposed to join this conversation today received last week an exciting opportunity that conflicts with our production dates. It is of course unfortunate for us but we are super excited for Noor. We're always beyond delighted to see Mina artists being recognized for the talents they are. And in a surprising turn of events we now have Amin El Gamal playing Moody and we are just thrilled to have him. Amin worked on the play with us back in 2018 when it was included in New Thread Stage Trading series and directed by Khaled Naga. Amin El Gamal is the first generation Egyptian American actor originally from the Bay Area best known for playing Cyclopes on Fox Prison Break Revival which made him the first openly queer Muslim actor to play a leading role on television. On stage he has appeared in productions and workshops at the NYU Public Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Musical Theatre West in Noise Within and the Pasadena Playhouse. He's a graduate of Stanford and UCS MFA in acting. Unfortunately Amin could not join us today for the short notice but we are just very happy to have him amongst our cast. Now before we dive into our conversations with the two fabulous artists we have in the room I would like to take a moment to welcome you folks who are joining us here on Zoom but also those who are tuning into the live stream on HowlRound. Those here with us please feel free to utilize the chat function to post your comments and questions throughout the conversation. So I will now begin by first Wiley I want to say welcome back to Golden Thread. Can you tell us all about you know what was your relationship with the company tell me about that play you know I'm new here and I'd love to hear more about your experience with Golden Thread. Yeah um I first worked with Golden Thread really early on having moved to San Francisco around 2011 or somewhere in there I did uh I did one of the fairy tale um players shows um that was all about Rumi we did like seven seven tales that were written by Rumi and um that was my first project with Golden Thread and then I uh I had gotten to work with Everyn Ochkin um on a few different productions but not at Golden Thread um and then finally Urge for Going came around um and I got to do that show with him. Oh that's lovely well hello to to um Everyn um and and also I want to say that Fairy Tale is what is coming back this year with Nasruddin's magnificent journey to Summercans so lovely to hear that you've been engaged in that show I want to also ask you both actually and maybe we can continue with you Wiley about your what brought you to to the theater world what was your first theater experience as an actor perhaps like when did you first perform on stage what do you remember about that why acting is your career basically? I think I was drawn to performing and taking on different characters like even when I was very very young like in preschool I was I was obsessed with the Wizard of Oz and I was in love with Dorothy and also just wanted to be Dorothy and would dress up as her like for years um and also like Rafi my favorite musical singer or um it was Fred Astaire that got me like performing on stages dancing tap dancing I started with um and then in terms of like theater productions I think my first my first roles were like you know a swallow in the Snow Queen and um like a demon in the Ramayana that that was my that was my start I love that and how about you Martin first where are you your you want to tell us where are you I know I'm currently in Bartlesville Oklahoma my partner and I are journeying west we're moving to Los Angeles so so this is just one of our stops and all the other stops are kind of just like boring motels but my partner is an architecture freak and so we are at this frankwood right building one of his only skyscrapers and we're staying at what is now a hotel in this beautiful room I thought I would be like in my car for this conversation but I'm here in this beautiful room I wish I could show you on your way to us yeah on your way to us right yeah begin rehearsals next week we'll talk about that but tell us about your beginnings Martin tell us like who you are where you know what brought you to theater why acting all these things I moved to the US when I was in fourth grade I was nine years old and in sixth grade two years after that I you know I barely spoke English I obviously as a nine-year-old was kind of restarting my life and childhood here in the country and I auditioned for the play in sixth grade which was the Lion the Witch in the wardrobe and I played a leopard which is not really a character in this play it was just added and it not only like started my love for theater and acting and just like this expansive it was just the first time in this country that I was with people who didn't like judge me or like that I didn't feel judged for not speaking good English it was just really collaborative experience and I loved it and I was put in this like leopard halter top and leopard skin tight pants and I it was it was a big moment for me both for theater but also just like my queerness I was like I'm in a halter top I love this more than I've loved wearing boy clothes um yeah that's that's how I started it's been downhill there I love that that's very encouraging down just from there you're both full-time actors correct that's what you do right and and I by way of introductions tell us what you what you do when you're not doing acting or theater well when I'm not doing acting recently I've been writing when I'm not doing theater um I like to sew my mom taught me how to sew she used to be a seamstress like a private seamstress for people when I was younger in Iraq and I learned how to sew from her when I was young and that's honestly that's what I do a lot and I take care of my plants those are the things I do outside of theater what about you Wiley um I also am a big plant guy I uh I worked as a gardener landscaper for a long time and also a florist but have kind of left those things aside in terms of working for money I I like to do them for myself and for people that I love yeah plants um yeah yeah that's that's great um I love that um I'm just realizing that I was so fast to jump on asking you questions and like you know start the conversation and did not give you a chance to to you know tell us your you know your just proper introductions your if you want to share your pronouns or visual description or um where you're zooming from you want to do your land acknowledgement please feel free to do that like interrupt me and do that right away I think I can quickly run through those things I use he him or they them pronouns um I'm currently in Bartlesville Oklahoma on my way to Los Angeles but I have been based in Chicago on the land of the Council of Three Fires and I have yet to do my land acknowledgement for my new home because I'm not there yet so I will figure that out too Wiley um Wiley yeah he or they um I am in Santa Cruz right now this is a lony land um this is where I grew up and I am right now I have a gray background I have a black henley on uh I have olive skin I have some some stubble that's moving towards the beard and I'm involved I hope you're looking at the chat both of you um some compliments in there for for you guys um okay I want to talk a little about the your acting techniques as actors I mean I'm I'm thrilled to be your director and I'm excited to um explore you know techniques with you and also learn from you so Wiley you you having your biography Teatro Zad and um you you tell me the the Teatro Yuyashchikani I'm not familiar with that would you tell us what that I got it good yeah what is that technique um Teatro Yuyashkani is a is a theater company that has existed as an ensemble for I don't know many decades now they're based in Lima um and they travel around the country and around the world um I saw them most recently at the Red Cat in LA um but I I linked up with them because I was working on a show at cutting ball and the writer of that show Andrew Saito had worked with them in Lima and was able to bring someone up to work with us as like a workshop prior to our rehearsal process at which point I said hey I'd love to see you in Lima I'm going to be there this summer and they happen to be doing an intensive so I got to join in um on that yeah they do a lot of um political theater and a lot of really bright and imaginative community theater I'm not give I'm not doing them justice but they do something really exciting exciting in what I'm hearing is that it's an ensemble driven creations it's a device technique um yeah yes which is definitely something I'm very uh I'm ever drawn towards and that's something that uh was really exciting to get to work with Teatro Zar as well um which was kind of a similar situation um we were working on a production of Antigone also with cutting ball and got to go out there as a cast um and work with Zar who are like um kind of offshoots of Grotowski and so very physical very devised very ensemble driven yeah that's my favorite way of working and and and Martin how about you like where where do you start as an actor what's your starting point what is your technique like um that's a really good question I why start with reading the play enough times to to not only understand like what's happening but to be able to read under the lines and to be able to like get into people's you know mind frame um but I I'm most like my process starts where I'm most interested in which is like the world building um and that's like given circumstances that's uh geographical circumstances political circumstances and all of those things kind of slowly feed um feed me in the rehearsal room I this is also a really good question because as I've as I've gotten older I've let go of structures and processes I've let go of like actor homework and made that a part of being like present as opposed to doing work on my own in a room um I've tried to like I've learned slowly more and more how to incorporate all of that homework into the rehearsal room so that um it's you know of course there's always things to do on your own and to think about that aren't useful to bring up or talk about in a rehearsal room but I think like most of my discoveries come in the room with other people as opposed to by myself where I like decide them and write them down and um yeah I mean that that's great I I hear you both and I as um as an actor and also as a director I I always think of the rehearsal room as a place for making discoveries basically so if you come with a very rigid technique that you're not able to be to adapt and be flexible to the other people that you're working with in the room it becomes a little problematic so I I love the ensemble creation for the mere fact that it's really give and take it's a lot of push and pull it's a lot of you know let's do things together and rework and you know the director's job is really to fix the choices that the actors are putting in so I love that yes of course there's some work to be done on your own but I I feel like that's that's all those why I say let's trust the process would lead us to to making these discoveries so we're gonna be together in a rehearsal room starting next week yay Tuesdays our first day it's crazy and we are um we're working on drowning in Cairo by Adam Ashraf Sayer it's a play set in Egypt and it began at the catalyst event for the play is the 2001 incident of the police in Egypt raiding the the boat on the Nile arresting all 52 men on board and really accusing them of debauchery and and and putting them in prison and torturing them and putting them in prison for up to three years so Adam just this is really a brief introduction about the play for folks here more not familiar with the with the synopsis of the play we don't want to give away so much obviously but Adam took this incident and kind of fictionalized the world that rotates around three men who happened to be on the boat on that night it was the first time on the boat and then how that event really altered their lives forever so I want to ask you first like what made you interested in the play in the story and my next next question to both of you is tell us a little about the characters that you're going to be playing Martin maybe and what made me what first drew me to the play is they're kind of two things that go back to back their love and care for each other and they're and like what ties them together and then on the opposite hand what really tears them apart or what starts to tear them apart and that being like socio-political economic kind of divides and just how that how the world kind of like fits in around that having like I don't know like what I'm allowed to say or not about the play it's just like having I'm really as a as a theater artist in general I'm really drawn to um economic and class differentiation and then like the what happens when there is that but then you have love and care for each other and like personal stake in one another and how does that play against you and I mean like we're literally seeing that right now in our world at the brink of a possible third world world and so like that kind of you know who who wages the war and then who has to actually deal and like carry the war on their backs versus the people who aged it and that is like that kind of theme is really present in this play and it's really you know it it's one of the juiciest things to me as an actor to get to work on and also just my personal you know my from a personal perspective I was born into a really kind of middle to high class wealthy family and that dynamic completely changed for my family in coming to the US and so I've it's it's like I have had two different kind of life you know lifestyles and like being born in this giant you know expansive house surrounded by people who don't have that and then kind of like the exact opposite of like moving somewhere where you're new where you don't have the resources you had and I was young in that first phase so just like just to I often I'm have to remind myself and check myself about the privileges that I was born into that I no longer have and it's a it's a it's an interesting kind of like back and forth yeah so that's a long answer to what draws me thank you for sharing that and I think that's I mean it's it's interesting how how our personal lives and journeys really feed into what kind of work we attract I always find that the work that I attract even with not not always like I'm not always conscious about that kind of right decision or this is a play you know for for different reasons you choose work but then if you do a little bit of digging you find things like what you're just saying like you've been on both sides of the equation and now with the character you're playing you know it's at the he's at the heart of that class and economic you know differences in the play what was it for you Eili what attracted you to this play well I remember hearing about this play I think from Everyn when when you were doing the staged reading of it and at the time I was like oh it's a it's a play about a gay nightclub on the Nile that sounds like so much fun which it is about that and it's also about so much more um and then more recently when it came back up I don't know it's so rare that I see a breakdown like a character breakdown but I'm like oh that's me um it's like three gay Middle Easterners that that was exciting yeah but with the character you're playing while I think we spoke briefly about that it's not exactly like you correct no it's true of and it's so interesting like you know as as this show was cast can we share that that like yeah you're you're playing Khaled right you want to tell us a little who Khaled is in the play but just even before that like you know that we were all cast and we didn't know who would play who yeah yeah we can totally share that yeah I did I did say early on I was like Khaled is definitely the one that is furthest from me but I think maybe that's true for all of us you know um yeah so Khaled is I think of the three the more conservative closeted um and privileged um yeah what else should I say about him those those that's what what comes up initially I I find Khaled's like um career and career path very interesting yeah I you know I'm not yeah I his kind of proximity to dictatorship or um yeah leadership and to power yeah I mean it's so interesting we all three of these characters are growing up and then this catalyst event happens and they all go in very different directions and so yeah I think Khaled goes to what is I don't want to say easy because it's not easy but what is and it's not comfortable either but what's available I mean we're all going to what's available right and I'm kind of talking around things because I don't want to spoil things I know we that's the problem um I I yeah go ahead sorry no no you go ahead I just wanted to say that for me what's interesting about all these three characters and and again we don't want to give too much today sorry for all the teasers audiences but really is that spoilers yeah yeah exactly um I find all of really like there's several things why I chose this play to be my directorial debut at golden friend one of them is obviously how well the characters are written and the complexity of the character characters it's true they all went in so in different directions after that incident but I I felt like I feel reading the play that each one of them is fighting in their own way against the system even Khaled who's like we see him as the most you know conforming he's the most right conservative or whatnot but I he breaks my heart really Khaled breaks my heart in the play because he's not able to really get out of the mold that was was given to him and I I love that about the play it's not it's not to say it's not the same struggle so it really breaks the stereotype of what it means to be gay what it means to be queer especially in the Middle East right because it's it can be so many different things um and thus you know the this our season this year is is titled to fight with love and really that came from part a big part of that theme really came out to me from this play and the fact that I see these characters fighting for their life to change the system but they're fighting with love and it it's not only the love for one another but the love for life and that is what's so inspiring about this piece to me um and I want to Martin you wanted to say something before I jumped on or no did you tell us probably just echoing what something what someone is saying no did you tell us a little about your character do you want to tell us a little about the character I guess I kind of danced around it I didn't really um yeah I mean Tahoe falls in this uh in that kind of theme that I was talking about of um there is a there is a different he lives in this different social class than his two friends and he's also connected to them in a very personal way having grown up with them um and so now that he now that they're all grown up and he has there's a different power that he has that he didn't as a as a young person and to me that's what his journey in this play is is how he um finds that power and kind of and even in his job um in his work with the human rights watch he it's really um it's just really amazing to see that kind of the shift in how that power changes when it's no longer about money and class and it's about information and um knowledge and yeah and how he kind of moves up that ladder in a way and what what do you imagine to be the most challenging about bringing these characters to life or bringing this play to life to me reading moody I mean I mean you know I mean I'm sure as an actor it's going to eat it up but that character is so challenging to me in my mind um I I would just be like so I don't know like overwhelmed as an actor because it's he has such a specific arc and a specific role that he plays in this play and it would be so easy to minimize that to um I don't know I don't know what the words are but it would be so easy to kind of minimize that journey and and it yeah I just think the actor playing that is like has a million challenges of how to activate that role to where you know to where we follow that journey and don't get like get stuck in the in the the pain of that character um in a way is the best way that I'm finding the words to say that I love that I love how you're saying it moody is the third character that we have and so it's Khaled and moody the three our three protagonists in this play and it's do I mean the gamal is playing moody um and I just want to we're at halftime and I want to remind those who are joining us now or like just mention that this is a no summary conversation with artists who don't fit in a box it's golden threads um you know bi-monthly conversations this year and we have Udas Martins the baddie and Wiley Neyman's trusser two of our three actors uh this spring in drowning in Cairo and this conversation is about their acting journeys uh theater journeys and also um you know the play so so Wiley what is what is the most challenging for you before we step into the rehearsal room? I think before we step in and as we step in and as we go through this it's it's very much what what you were talking about Martin and I think that like I I agree so wholeheartedly as I was trying on moody and you know how do you how does that character find different colors because there is a stuckness um and yeah how does that not get simplified and I think that as it relates to all of us and the whole play like there's a potential for a lot of darkness and um I think the ways the the myriad of ways that we fight for love um and and fight for joy and like what you know where where do we find humor and lightness and hope in this really you know difficult and epic struggle yeah yeah yeah the the thing that this question's making me think of is is that I think Adam has done a beautiful job really realizing these three people's lives in a very real and painful way and so now it's like our jobs to make sure that that does not live in darkness because there is so much joy and life to these people and but it centers a very tragic and dramatic event um so I see that as the biggest challenge it's like how do we give this light how do we give this play life so that it doesn't like live in darkness and death and loss because we're most trying to make it work of course of course of course I mean yeah and that I have to say that's a beautiful question to take to the rehearsal room to remind ourselves that it's definitely this play is is about the story and the tragic event that happened in all of this but it's about much more than that it's about what happens after that whole thing like how is it going to change our world and and I've always been driven to the kind of theater that really lives beyond the curtain call kind of so to speak right like what do we hope and this is a question for all of us what do we hope audiences would take away from this play I hope this play leaves people thinking about their privilege um I you were talking about that a little bit Martin and I think that privilege is well especially for Haled but also for all of us you know what do we do with our privilege and what are we willing to fight for I feel the same way and one of your other like warm-up questions for us to have was a line of dialogue that was stuck with us I purposely didn't want to go back and read it so I could pick a new one I wanted to pick the one that comes to mind the most and it's not everyone has the ability to fight um and and that I mean that I think like captures the play in a nutshell because there are these resources that are afforded to some of the characters and not others and they have to deal with that what is your favorite line widely I don't know I I did go back through the play because I digest I was going to yeah I may give you a different answer in a week or three weeks from now but the one that popped out to me recently was moody says um I'm as ready as I'm gonna be yeah and I think it relates to what you said to Martin like yeah not a yeah it relates to the the fight and the what is it to be ready and I don't know we're all fighting in our own ways like you could say that's not the fight but I don't know yeah I mean talk about a disadvantaged privileged person moody is like this like has kind of virtually every resource at his fingertips in a way and has grown up having that um but is a queer person and so that's all kind of strict yeah everything's taking away from him I love those lines I there are so many lines in the play that I love I love now I'm the two lines that are coming back to me now and I did not go back and look but one one of them stood out to me when I first read the play and it's the line I think Taha says or maybe moody those who tell don't die and then the line that Kim is coming back to me now is actually a line that you know kind of stood up for me in in one of the virtual readings that we were doing together part of the casting process and that is one I think moody also says to Khaled like we're not in they were on the boat and there he's like we're not in public we you know I don't want to give away too much but there was you know he was initiating something and he's like don't be afraid we're something to the effect of don't be we're not in public we're everybody and it's that feeling of belonging that these people are craving for and we all do in in in many instances of our life that's one way I identify with these characters just the the need to belong right the need to be accepted or the need to be for who that who we are and I would love audiences you know to walk away with with a little bit more compassion to to the differences you know and appreciation obviously to that okay I do have other questions but I want to also give a chance to our audiences in the room I hello everyone I read many familiar names thanks for joining us today please feel free to ask our actors any question you can type in the chat or you can ask for permission and Wendy our live stream technician will give you the opportunity to speak hello Homayra I moving on let's see who is there in your mind are there people who should not see the show right no everyone should come actually I I think when I'm doing theater I always think it's the people who don't want to see the show are the people that I want them to see the show and it's always a struggle to get those folks in the room yeah Amy Merrill hello Amy so lovely to have you here Amy has a question about whether the playwright will be part of the rehearsal process yes we're very happy that Adam is joining us for the first week of rehearsal so he will be in town next week and we will have him in the room and we will also have our dramaturg Salma Zotti in the room with that virtually joining for that first week of table work and thank you for for your comments we're happy to have you here okay let's see yeah I want to ask you also just just by way of introducing you a little deeper to our community like what what what you know let's you we're in the rehearsal room and we have a five-minute break right what what would you spend your time doing what do you usually spend your time doing in between you know intense sessions that's such an interesting question I thought about that not think or talk about the play good I mean that's like my most honest answer like everything else I need to do as a human being to make sure that I can continue this process you know the rehearsal day yes the basic self-care things yeah that are not this play I mean a five minute break is like nothing yeah a sip of water and a bathroom break yeah the 10 minute break maybe we'll go outside for a second yeah okay yeah I love that that's all I'm taking hints here okay I'm using this conversation and our stage manager is also you know watching so get in keep track what what is the thing that you do before last thing that you do before a curtain goes up sorry I think you might have froze to have oh I did the question you asked the question was what to both of you like what is it um what do you what do you guys do before the like what is the last thing you do before the play starts before the curtain goes up just the opposite of what I just said think about nothing except the play yeah breathe is that it yeah just try to let declutter my brain of anything else that might be in it that is not related to the journey of the before yeah it always depends on the show and on the night I think um but probably some kind of grounding um yeah breathing like yeah inviting all parts of me online yeah yeah yeah and that leads me to the question how do you take care of yourselves like what do you do how do you step out of character to use a technical phrase how do you what do you do after you know curtain call we go home how do you keep your sanity depends on the show for me um it's unfortunate that it's grouped this way in my brain but um mostly when I'm doing swana centered work um I can't eat afterwards I have like knots in my stomach I'm like going through kind of like a withdrawal process after every performance and if it's not swana centered work like christmas carol it's like I turned off a switch it's like okay that's done I'm out of that very easy but like if you know if I've just spent the last two and a half hours like reliving traumas from my childhood it's going to take like a couple hours for me to just like even be able to like drink water eat you know have a you know be able to talk yeah yeah like you said it's definitely different for every show and I don't know even christmas carol sometimes I got to cleanse that you know like there's there's a certain amount of like letting go and brushing off that I can attempt and a certain amount that will just happen in time I think like you're saying yeah and again it's just like basic self-care things you know like yeah hydrate rest and and yeah I don't know sometimes sometimes it's like okay I'm I need to be alone or sometimes it's like okay I need people let's connect with something that's not what we just did and ground in that and let that be the coming back to a new reality yeah yeah I'm never a drinker except for after a show like I never drink I never think about alcohol but immediately after a show I'm like that's all I need at first like right away like I need a drink yeah yeah I asked this question because I find it extremely important for actors to be aware and to take care of themselves and I I want to ask you like how would what you know what kind of advice would you give your younger self or emerging swan or artists you know listening to us today but before I do that I want to also give the opportunity to one of our attendees who matter gives I to ask a question matter is their hands so maybe Wendy would you please allow me to speak hello can you hello for those who don't know who might I give sides playwright cultural consultant of one American activist and a friend of golden fredden I'm so happy to be here so this is a follow-up to Martin's quest answer to the last question I find a lot of times like when people come and see a swana work they really attribute it to that part of the world and they tisk tisk how we do certain things how we treat lgbt blah blah lgbtq and such but there as we all know I mean there's a lot of oppression towards the lgbtq community in our own country the united states and around the world so how will make this a question for sahad how will we educate people that this is not just an egypt issue or a muslim issue or a middle east issue this is an issue that it's happening around the world in various degrees that's a good question that's a very good question humaira I my answer to that is really when I'm working on a show when I'm in the rehearsal room my heart and soul is in that play and is in really trying to make a personal connection to the world of the play it is true it's an egyptian story it is true it's very specific in place and at time but I feel the theater that is really very specific is theater that is universal that can fly it's the story that would be able to connect if we go very general it for me it doesn't speak to me you know and I want to give an example I once in lebanon I did I did a translation adaptation of the play by tracy let's august osage county which is very specific right midwest oklahoma and when folks first heard that I'm doing this adaptation they were like why is that relevant in lebanon like this is an oklahoma you know midwest story that has nothing to do with with people here and the way I read the play is that it's a play about a dysfunctional family and it can be my family it can be any family really and in our adaptation that's what we wanted to make the play about and it worked and people did not even like people who didn't know that this is a tracy let's write obviously his name was there and everything but not everyone is is familiar with the theater world they didn't even realize that this is uh you know uh and like a contemporary you know text from from international theater so I think the answer is you know is in our approach to how we tackle these plays how we want to present them again like this is it is a story about Egypt but it's I as a woman who has lived and is living in a patriarchal world I do suffer from similar kind of oppression right I do suffer so I do feel myself fighting for basic rights you know and that's that's my my my relation like to to the characters in the play to Moody or to Khaled who's trying to hide and conform or to Taha who's in a way like we might question his ethical right behavior in the play at a certain point without giving away too much but again like everyone is doing their best and it's it's the human the shared humanity that we want to focus on we're we're going to be doing lots I hope lots of top back sessions so that audiences will get a chance to ask questions my approach in the directing and coaching the actors is to make this relevant to us as human beings citizens of this world so that hopefully that would be reflected to our audiences that would be my my answer and we do our best as always we have many questions I'm sorry I'm just noticing that we have questions also in in the chat do you have dream projects that you're hoping to bring into life in the next few years I think this is a question for all who are your favorite theatrical partners that you love working with over and over again so these are Martin or Wiley feel free to um to tackle these questions so the first question is from an anonymous attendee do you have dream projects that you're hoping to bring into life in the next what are you working on next I want to say what do you have plans Martin and Wiley yeah do you want to do can you share do you want to share yeah yeah I don't mind well my biggest project is moving right now so I'm going to move um and see how that goes I'm also um I'm also a playwright and I I wrote my first play about a year ago so I'm in the very early works of trying to learn how to develop a play and uh figure that out and try to like workshop it and you know um find a good home for it so um yeah that's going to be taking up a lot of my you know next couple years probably how about you Wiley I mean this is the big one in my future um I'll have another a few other little projects um a remount and a workshop and a drag show during our rehearsal process but um up next I think I'm gonna go plant a cherry tree that's great and and we have a question from Heather Heather is a the program manager of FTP at Golden Thread and Heather is asking you guys are there any resonances that occur for you when thinking about performing this play in the city of San Francisco it's particular histories the city's current challenges and changes for example in relation to gay queer histories gentrification etc and this is definitely relevant to the question that Homero is asking so do you want to take a stab at it that's so much and I don't see where that I don't know why I'm not seeing Wiley I have this to if you go down right next to the raised hand thing there's a Q&A oh great thanks I also was like where are these mystery questions that's a habit and I'm going to put it in the chat for everyone to read I personally don't know a lot about San Francisco and I this is my first project at West so I'm I'm really excited to learn all these things that Heather you're asking I don't personally have any answers I guess short answer I would say yes I mean there's such a there's such a deep-rooted queer history in San Francisco and yes you know we just had one of the like stronghold queer bars shut down a year and a half ago and so yeah there's been a lot of change I mean I've been in San Francisco for most of the last decade and there's been a lot of change in that time and there has been a lot of change in the last two years and so I think we're coming out of a moment that we don't we don't know what it's what yeah what it's going to look like on the other side and this is a really interesting moment yeah I don't know that kind of answers your question but thank you thank you Heather for the questions definitely an interesting moment that we live in there's so much yeah and and we're unfortunately coming to the end of our time and I want to make sure that we hear your thoughts about or like if we have Suana actors watching this emerging actors I want them to hear you give them a tip about how if there's one thing that they should be doing like what would you tell your younger self as Suana queer performers so hard to synthesize it into a couple words because I have like paragraphs I'm sure I guess one thing I would I would tell my younger self if I could is that a loss of opportunity for you is a gain of opportunity for someone doing the same thing you're trying to do so like trust like you said Suana like trust in the process and that's not just the rehearsal room that's like the whole industry like that you know things that are that you are meant to do will happen and you know the things that you are not make way for other beautiful things um yeah that's one thing I would just say I guess if you if you have fire if you want to if you're like curious just do it like don't wait I think it's really easy to get scared and caught up in like this binary of success and failure and it's like it's all a myth just just get out there and do the work and like the people that you look up to most very well are you know making coffee in the morning and like you know whatever you know like they're yeah just do it I love that trying to try to let go of like scarcity mentality yes um like there is a one role and I you know and there are five of us and one of us will get it and it's you know I I think when I when I kind of let go of competition and seeing people who should who I should have been seeing as family I was seeing them as competition um when I started to let that go is when I started to be able to do the things that I wanted to do in the industry and and feel proud of those things I love that thank you both for sharing and I can't wait to begin the process with both of you next week and unfortunately we're almost at time and I know that Martin needs to check out in two minutes so I want to take a moment to say thank you both Martin and Wiley and also sending my love to Amin who's going to join us as Moody in the play and I would also love to thank HowlRound for hosting the program as a reminder all of our No Summary episodes live on Golden Threads website and HowlRounds and I want to thank Wendy Reyes our livestream technician and the rest of Golden Threads really small but mighty team Michelle Nadine, Trilla, Linda and Heather and big thank you to all of you audiences and listeners in the room without whom really nothing would make any sense. Coming up next before I close I must say coming up next at Golden Threads is what do the women say it's our celebration of Mina women artists on the occasion of the International Women's Day which usually happens on March 8 and this year we have a wonderful lineup of artists that we're celebrating in a hybrid format so if you're not ready really to come back to an in-person gathering you will be you will have the opportunity to watch the event live streamed so visit our website. Homayra Gilsai is going to be with us as co-moderator and facilitator for the event I'm so thrilled to be sharing stage with you Homayra thank you and goodbye for now I guess thanks everyone thanks everyone thank you all see you soon