 I can't hear anything. Hear anything. I don't think she started it yet. Hear anything. I don't think she started it yet. Haven't started y'all. I'll start in about two minutes. Hear anything. I don't think she started it yet. Haven't started y'all. I'll start in about two minutes. Hear anything. Hello. Hello and welcome. To no summary, Golden Thread's live stream series of conversations with artists who don't fit in a box. Golden Thread is the first theater company in the U.S. devoted to plays from or about the Middle East. We were founded in 1996 by playwright and director Toran Yagya-Zarian, and we are based in the unceded Ramatush Oloni land known colonial lead today as San Francisco, California. My name is Heather Rastavak-Akbarzadeh. My pronouns are she, her, hers, and I am the program manager of Golden Thread Fairy Tale Players, our theater for young audiences program. By way of visual description, I am a white woman with shoulder length, medium brown hair, and I am wearing black rims glasses and an olive green long sleeved blouse. Behind me is a tall wooden screen with geometric carved patterns. Today's no summary episode is entitled, what can the wise, full, mass redeemed teach us, bringing Middle Eastern storytelling to young audiences. For this conversation, I'm delighted to welcome three arts, culture, and education professionals, Sara Al-Kassab, Sabria Hassan, and Angela Norton Tyler, who I will introduce in a moment. Today's discussion will focus on the importance of theater arts education for young audiences during this particular historical moment. And more specifically, we will discuss this year's fairy tale players production, Nasrudin's Magnificent Journey to Summercond, written by Toran Yagya-Zarian and directed by Sara Al-Kassab. Before I introduce our panelists, I would like to take a moment to welcome folks who are joining us here on Zoom, as well as those tuning in to the live stream on HowlRound and Golden Thread's Facebook page. Those here with us in the Zoom room, please feel free to utilize the chat function to post your comments and questions throughout the conversation. We will leave approximately 10 minutes toward the end for a Q&A. So without further ado, it's my pleasure to welcome Sara, Sabria, and Angela, and I'll just take a moment to share excerpts from their bios, and then I'll ask them to further introduce themselves. Sara Al-Kassab is a first-generation Jordanian American who has been a core member of Fairy Tale Players since 2007. And as I've mentioned, she is the director of Nasrudin's Magnificent Journey to Summercond, as well as this season's FTP touring stage manager and costume designer. Sabria Hassan, an Oakland, California Unified School District alum with a B.A. in history from SF State University, is a program manager with the American Association of Yemeni Students and Professionals, where she builds targeted literacy programs for Arab and Afghan students within the Oakland Unified School District. And finally, Angela Norton Tyler is a teacher on special assignment at Fruitvale Elementary School in the Oakland Unified School District. She has been involved in education as a college instructor, elementary and middle school teacher, literacy coordinator, reading specialist, educational consultant, and business owner. Long list of expertise that she brings. So welcome, welcome everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Heather, for hosting. Yes, my pleasure. So yeah, I just shared a few sentences from each of your bios. So I'd like to start with asking you each to please share a little more about yourselves and and your relationship to Fairy Tale Players. Sara, would you like to begin? Sure. I've been a member of Fairy Tale Players initially as an actor, costume designer, eventually stage manager and this year director since 2007, when we brought the girl who lost her smile, which was a folk or a modern version of a folktale from Iraq. And since then we've brought stories from different specific cultures within the broader definition of Middle Eastern stories. And I'm really happy that we're having this conversation. And I'm really happy that we get to have this conversation in a way that everyone gets to share with us. So thanks to Golden Thread for making that happen. Thank you, Heather, for hosting. Yeah, thank you, Sara. Sabia or Angela, either of you want to pop in? Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me today. As Heather shared, I am a AYSP program manager. And my role is to not only promote early childhood education amongst my community, but being a working mother, a wife, having a very busy home life, I understand and can relate to the families I serve. When I approach my families, I share my story and I hear theirs. And it's just making them feel connected. And our ultimate goal is to bridge the line of communication between the school community and our families. And ultimately having them a part of the full on school community and being a part of their children's education. And Golden Thread has been a partner of ours from early 2020. During the pandemic, because of the pandemic, we did a Zoom assembly and had the activity guide that was provided by you all. The students loved it. At that time, it was Leila's quest for flight. And then we had the pleasure of finally having an in-person full on assembly at our three partner schools. And they were really excited. And so we were as well. Thanks, Sabria. I have to mention what an incredible community partner that AYSP has been for us. And I just want to thank Sabria personally for the tireless work of helping bringing our program to particularly schools in the Oakland Unified School District. So thank you, Sabria, for all that you've done with and for us. And then finally, Angela, please. Well, I'll just piggyback on what you were saying about Sabria being such a good partner, because she's been an awesome partner for us at Fruitvale Elementary School. We had the play online during the pandemic. We were doing distance learning. And it was amazing. It was great. But then this year, the students are actually at school. And she approached us and said, can we do it in person? And everybody was like, in person, with real people? No one can even understand what this meant. But she made it happen. And I worked with her. And it was just incredible. It was the highlight of the year, because it was the first time that we had had guests on campus. Nobody had been able to come on to our school campus. And so I'll talk about that later. But as a TSA, which is a teacher on special assignment, different things, I'm responsible for doing different things. But this was actually something that I didn't know we were going to be doing. And it just turned out so amazing. So I really want to thank everyone who got that play at our school. Our kids loved it. And it was like the highlight of the year. Nice. Thank you, Angela. Thanks, Angela. And thanks to you and all of the educators working over the past, I mean, generally during challenging circumstances, but particularly in the last couple of years, thanks to educators, tireless efforts to keep our young ones learning and engaged and cared for. Great. Well, I'd like to start with a broad question before moving on to specific questions about fairytale players and this year's production. And it's an open-ended question in any way you'd like to respond. And the question is, from your individual positions as arts, culture, and education professionals, what have you witnessed to be the value of art, especially the performing arts for today's young audiences? So what is the significance of bringing art and cultural education to children in this particular historical moment? So whoever would like to respond, please go. I'll go ahead and start. But it's like, in a way, I think you shouldn't even get me started. I'm going to say like three things and then I'm going to stop because I can talk about this all day long. When I first started teaching, I thought that, and this was years ago, I thought I had to make time for art and I would really work hard and I would pretty much devote Friday afternoons to doing art. And I mean, that was hard then. And that was 20 years ago and I'm looking at it now and it's almost impossible. Like the schools are so focused on test scores and assessments and standardized testing that teachers look at you when you say, you know, art project, like what are you talking about? Like you really have to do art in your classroom or to bring art into your classroom or performing arts or anything that's not like on a standardized test is so difficult. And that's why even I'm not in the classroom anymore, but I work so hard or I try to work so hard to get these kind of things into the into our schools. Because if you just, if someone's not making a concerted effort, it won't happen. Students go the whole entire year. They never see anything. They never do anything that's not like reading and writing. And you know, if they're lucky, maybe some social studies and science. And so, you know, I just feel like it is crucial. I thought it was crucial a hundred years ago. And so it's even more dire now. So that's why this is, you know, people act like it's extra. And I'm like, no, it's not extra. This is, you know, a whole part of your, your, your, your brain, your old part of who you are is just being totally neglected. So I thought it was bad, but now it's even worse. And so it's more important than ever. So that's, I'm going to say, or else I will talk for an hour. Thanks. Thank you, Angela. Yeah, Sara or Sabia. I'll jump in. That was so wonderful, Angela. That's what I was thinking. I was like, you know, here I am at 42 years old, when I was in elementary school, we had music and art at least once a week. And yeah, the more that we focus specifically on certain requirements, then we lose the opportunity for teaching music as math. Or engaging, you know, self expression into PE or whatever it is. So I think it's really important as we learn to renegotiate what we value as a culture here, where we are right now, that we can still make it accessible. That's the main thing is that you don't have to go to a private school with an art teacher to get art. And that's what that's the beauty fairytale players that we get to go everywhere, hopefully. Of course, especially, I feel like teaching art, like I would say, especially through a cultural lens, gives children and young people the opportunity to develop life skills, creativity, confidence, and just the ability to work in like a diverse setting and like, acquiring like team skills, right. So like for art and culture, it helps students learn and appreciate the different things, perspectives and cultures around them. And it, like food, art brings different people together. And the culture, the culture aspect to it is it fosters appreciation, understanding and belonging. So both they, it's a lot of skills and it can be done in a diverse way, like depending on the teacher, like what Golden Thread is doing. Like I, what sat with me, I guess I would say with the students that we work with, especially with our targeted students, they were really excited to have Golden Thread productions there. They were just like, what, are they going to do like IW music? Are they going to be like, it is Turkish music, but they kind of, they felt a lot of connection and they just felt so proud. And it was like, oh, and we love music and I'm in my family, we're always dancing. And one student was like, and I don't think a lot of people see that of us, like Arab or Muslim families that we dance and love music. You know, so it was just amazing. And I do feel like especially in this time, art and cultural education is really, really important, especially during the pandemic, because it is, and that goes on to, don't get me started, I'm going to speak a little bit more about this later on. But it is very important for our emotional health. And it's a vehicle to maintain mental emotional health for sure. Because we've definitely seen with the pandemic and students returning, there was definitely an increase in depression, anxiety. And I've even witnessed that with my own son. He was like, I can't be with my friends. I like he was going through a lot of anxiety and was very withdrawn. And what helped my son was art. He was sit there for hours. And he's, he loves dancing music. His art skills is just incredible. And I think that's what helped him through the pandemic and going back to school. Yeah, related to, to things that you all have said, I attended the virtual conference of the National Organization for Theater, which is TCG. And I attended a panel called TYA, which stands for Theater for Young Audiences, COVID and the Social Emotional Needs of Young People. And one of the many of the many fantastic things that the panelists addressed, one of my main takeaways was how theater educators working with teachers and students right now are learning that after, you know, the past years of a pandemic and ongoing racial injustice, checking off the boxes for meeting XYZ educational standards, although demanded of teachers, but has become much less important than supporting the emotional needs of students, fostering inner and interpersonal relationships. And they even went so far to say quite simply providing students the opportunity to laugh. And I'm sure, you know, Angela and Sabria working so much with students would have a lot to say about that, what you have. But I thought to myself, as I was listening to that comment, like what better play to do that than Nasruddin's Magnificent Journey to Summercons. And so with that, I'd like to move on to discussing Golden Thread Fairy Tale Players and this year's production of Nasruddin's Magnificent Journey to Summercons. I'm just going to give a little overview of fairy tale players and the play. So for those of you unfamiliar in the audience with fairy tale players, we offer a dynamic repertoire of performances specifically for young audiences with plays based on traditions and folklore from the Middle East. We tour original plays in schools, libraries, community centers and cultural events throughout the San Francisco Bay area. Our plays fuse traditional performance styles from the Middle East such as epic storytelling, dance, music, puppetry and circus arts and Comedia de Arte. So this year's production is a new interpretation of a play from the Golden Thread Fairy Tale Players Repertoire, Nasruddin's Magnificent Journey to Summercons, which as I've mentioned is written by Toran Yagyazarian and directed by Sara Al-Kasab. And this visually colorful performance is adapted from folktales centered around the comedic person Nasruddin Hoja, also known across the Middle East as Mullah Nasruddin or Juhah. And he is a wise, full renowned in Central Asia, Turkey, Iran and the Arab world. And the performance follows Nasruddin and his faithful donkey as they travel through caravansarize in Konya and Damascus, where Nasruddin's clever wisdom and propensity for exposing hypocrisy frequently get him into trouble. So I'd like to share some photos from our spring tour, which will also give me the opportunity to give individual shout outs to the production's creative team. And the photos I'll show were taken at an elementary school in San Francisco during our spring tour by photographer Amal Bisharat, who was also our rehearsal stage manager for the production. So Wendy, could you please show image number one? So hello to our actors or players. So because fairytale players plays consist of only two actors who play many roles, we refer to our actors as players. And our two players here are Bedalia Albanese as player one, and Bedalia is on the left. And Leila Modirzade as Nasruddin and player two. And she's there with her donkey on the right. And of course, Sarah is in the center. And Sarah as the touring stage manager is at all of the shows with the players. And so image two please, Wendy. So this photo and the two that follows it are scenery and props designed and painted by Moksar Paki. And actually, Sarah, I was wondering if you could briefly tell us about the props and scenery in this image and the upcoming two images. So this image features the map of the journey that Nasruddin takes from Bukhara to Samarkand. So you can see that it was quite an excessive indirect journey. And that's hopefully illustrated to the students so that they can understand why it's okay to laugh at him because he didn't just go across directly to Samarkand. And we see a little piece of Bukhara village city in the side there. Yes, next image. Thank you, Wendy. And then Sarah, could you? And that is Bukhara city and village square, the small town. And then finally this one. And here we've left Bukhara on our journey with the map. And we are on a journey with Nasruddin with the traveling wheel, which kind of is an astrolabe compass that Badalya player one spins to create kind of a moving effect behind Nasruddin as he travels with his donkey. Thank you, Sarah. Image five, please. And this one here is Badalya doing Sufi spinning, which the cast learned through a workshop with local performing artist Gryganj Lokharara. And then image six, please. Showing some more images. Image seven. This one's great. I love this one. Oh, donkey. And then, Sarah, could you briefly tell us about the scene? I really love the scene. Yeah, so the last one was poor donkey collapsed on the road from being ridden too hard. And then we go to the donkey mechanic, which is an ode to an ode to our our air brethren who are really good at car repair. And they treat donkey as a automobile. The kids love always love that scene the best. Yeah, it's very funny. And I love how the players are able to to pivot between different types of colloquial, colloquial accents. And here they, you know, they take on the accent of a car mechanic. Oh, yeah, Badalya's is from New York. And, and Leila's is like a surfer dude from, yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. And then image nine, this shows a little of our audience from behind at the elementary school. And then image 10 is this photo shows a dance choreographed by Golden Thread resident artist, Lisa Tatiosian, and which with with time permitting it, I'll show a video of this dance a little later in the program. Okay, thanks, Wendy. So, Sarah, you have a long history with very tall players as we've discussed. And we've been very privileged to have you join us this year as the director of the play. I'd love to hear some of the significant moments for you from directing this play and, and also what is for you distinct about this particular play from previous fairy tale player shows? Okay, so I'll start with distinct. I think the thing that's the most different about this show is that there's no like supernatural, there's like no fairy tale part, it's all like human, human interests. There's no like visiting magical bird or whatever. There's always been some kind of like maybe fairy creature, whatever you want to call it. So this one is all, you know, all humans interacting as humans. And I think that that is really important now while we're all learning how to re interact with humans. You're like, what? For me, the what was important about this play aside from like character points is that the script was so like, I mean, all the scripts that I work with for fairy tale players have been written by Torange. And as an actor, you know, you work on your lines and you work on the general story. But as the director this time, I got to see like how simple things become so important. And I think that's also related to the wise fool himself and that it was like written in a way that even if you don't understand it the first time, you're going to understand it the third time. So I think the script writing for Nasreddin was like the like most different thing. And that it didn't, again, it didn't include those mystical elements, which I think is rich and vast in Middle Eastern culture, but is also often, you know, like, oh, we only know about genies or we only know about this or that. So it was cool to just be where people this is a people story. It's definitely folk tale this time. And it's something that's so broad that we found out that, you know, Nasreddin made his way to Southern Italy. And he has a Jifa name is like Juha and everything we got to see how how broad this clown character has, you know, infiltrated, perpetrated whatever throughout all cultures. Yeah, I agree about the script as being this really what can seem very simple, but actually has so many depth so much depth and layer, which is a Nasreddin folk tale quality as it is. And then Torange's expertise that kind of conveying that in a play. And as I contact schools and community centers and libraries, I always get the question, you know, you serve audiences between five and 15 years old. Those are those that's a really huge to groups. Yeah. Yeah. But I feel that this play particularly actually can somebody who is five and 15 can take away it's simple enough of a story that a five year old can enjoy it, but also the depth of the morals of the story and how it how it happens and unfolds can really impact a 12, 13, 14 year old as well, which I think is is a Nasreddin thing, but also, you know, a shout out to script writer, you know, Torange's, you know, work at writing this play. So thanks for that, Sara. And Sambria or Angela, how for you was the experience is in the reception of the play for you personally and and for the students you observed attending the play, were there things that you saw resonating with them? I agree with Sara about I really enjoyed Nasreddin's magnificent journey. It's somewhat con because it was kind of like a depiction of Middle Eastern people communicating with one another and on a human level instead of when you see representation from the Middle East, it's always something either very mystical, like the magic carpet, the genie, or the bad guy in a film. Right. It's never like any normal interaction. Anything in between. Yeah, like it's like they're either so mystical or they're so they're bad. So that's kind of like what I grew up always seeing that depiction play out all the time and that kind of does take a toll on your confidence and how you interact with people in society. Like it just you're a little withdrawn, but like you learn over time that that all those depictions are not true. But I do want to honor you all, Sara and the fairy tale players and Heather and Torange and all that you guys do because we had the wonderful opportunity of having you all come in and do two plays at Allendell Elementary and then at Fruitville, there was two plays performed and then at Lockwood, there's three plays performed. And we did that because we wanted our, you know, school community felt safe, making sure that we're like separating the students by grade level and making sure that the it's the room isn't overcrowded. And the students were really excited. Like for instance, some of our targeted students like are the students we serve, which is a majority of Middle Eastern students. They felt a connection because connection because there were some Arabic words thrown in in the play, like inshallah and stuff. And so they were like, Oh, I know that word. I've seen a lot of like excitement and the students, you know, it takes a toll on their confidence, like they they feel confident. They're seeing a positive representation of Middle Eastern folk tale being played out wide before their eyes. Another thing that I've noticed from some of our students is they really love the costume sauna. Like it gave me very like Turkish Moroccan vibes. And we one of the students that I worked with was like, we kind of wear something like that, because you know, we're originally from Yemen and they're like, it's called Jalabiya. And like, you know, it's very similar, like I wore something similar on aid. So we usually on aid wear traditional clothing. So it was really cool to see that. And then another thing that really resonated with me was Nasruddin, when he was traveling with his donkey, and he was either writing his donkey or walking alongside his donkey, and everyone always had a comment. Everyone always had to criticize him. But it does show you that you just have to be happy if you keep doing what other people want you to do, you're not going to be happy and neither will they'll stop judging you. So that's important message. One of the messages, there are many more messages in there that I felt like even adults can enjoy the play. And it was not just for little kids, because I really enjoyed it. And that was really wonderful to see. I'm going to jump back in there and say, yay, on the costumes. And yes, every time a kid's like, hey, that looks like Egyptian. Is that Egyptian music? I think you're Egyptian. You know, I could just like immediately identifying, you know, when they don't get anything to identify with. And a specific moment, I sorry, I missed that one for you Heather, a specific moment was definitely at Allendale in Lockwood when kids in the front row were so excited while the dance was happening. They were like, literally doing the dance moves while the actors were doing it because they thought that they were so cool. That was like a moment for me. Yeah, and that was all students too, not just the Eric students. Like they were filling the music. Angela, how about you? I would say that one of the things that I just thought was so phenomenal was that it was a folk tale that they did not, that students didn't know already, a lot of students. Because the thing is, they read a lot of folk tales and fairy tales in their English language arts curriculum. I mean, that's like a big thing to start the year off with folks. But it's like the same ones, you know, like we all know, we've heard them a million times. Very Eurocentric ones. I mean, it's super Eurocentric. And so, you know, we had a new, we have a new ELA of English language arts curriculum. And it's more diverse than it has been in the past, but it's still not as diverse and inclusive as it should be. So this was just phenomenal to me just for them to be able to come in and see hear a folk tale or see a folk tale that they have not seen before. That just the newness of it was exciting. And they, you know, they were excited about that. But then again, on the same side of that is that it is kind of familiar. It wasn't some space, a crazy thing that they could not relate to. So it was like, Oh, this is a different culture, maybe, or a culture that I'm not familiar with, but I can relate to it. There are we have so we have many things in common, you know, and so I think it's powerful that it was different, but also the same. So I just, you know, I just feel like that, that was just a huge part of it that they could learn something new, but also feel like this is something that they understood. So that was great. And it's so funny also, Sabrina, that you when you reminded me that we had two different you know, they came twice, you know, they would be two different productions, because we that was not only the first time that we had people come to our school like that, it was the first time that the kids had gotten together in the auditorium like that. And for the first, the kindergartners and the first graders, they've never been to anything like that, because of the pandemic. So I mean, they just could not understand what we were doing in there to begin with. What are we doing on the floor? People are coming. I mean, they were losing their minds. What a right of passage. They were great. Even when the school, we do things together, it was always outside on the on the playground. So this really was like a special, special thing. And so I just, you know, I just really the kids just talked about it for the rest of the school year. So wow, that's fantastic. Well, thanks. It couldn't have been done without Angela's cushion. I was pushing Angela's cushion. We're both. Yeah, thank you both really profoundly. I'm since we're halfway through, I'm just going to add for those in the audience, if you're just joining us, this is no summary, Golden Threads live stream series of conversations with artists who don't fit in a box. And we are in conversation with Sarah Al-Khassab, Sabia Hassan and Angela Norton Tyler about Golden Thread fairy tale players, our theater for young audiences program, and this year's production, Nasreddin's magnificent journey to summer con. And I continue to invite our live audiences to share your questions and comments in the chat for the Q&A portion for the end of our program. And speaking of the kids, I'm going to briefly show a few photos from our Q&A. And then I'd love to hear a little bit more from Sarah. You mentioned the kids dancing, but some of the memorable responses you heard from the students as the touring stage manager conducting the post show Q&A. So Wendy, if you could please show image 11. We're just going to go through these and then now image 12. Raise your hand if you have a question. And image 13. Thank you, Wendy. So Sarah, would you like to share a little bit more about things that you saw in the Q&A? Specific for this show, the Q&A, they always want to know why Nasreddin is played by a female. We're talking about the magic theater, like a practical thing. Like, where's donkey's legs? They are Nasreddin's legs. Why did he die? He didn't die. He just collapsed. He's okay. My favorites were, though, when we asked, you know, the things like the moral of the story, like, why, why do you think Nasreddin fed his code at the end of the show? At the end of the story, you know, and the kids literally got to repeat word for word from the script. Kids that they heard the show one time and they could give us back the script. They said, ah, you can change the code, but you cannot change the man. So they knew right away on the show, aside from the dancing, aside from the like cultural identification, we're like, oh, that looks like what we wear or that music sounds like our music. Or, you know, we know what Baklava is. Just them having so much retention, something that they saw one time. It's not like they watch it over and over and over again. And for them to really be able to give that back to us, like right away. And multiple people wanted to, you know, have the opportunity. Yeah, you can see so many hands raised. Yeah. I mean, there's always the question, you know, there's always one question you're like, there's, they always want to know how old they are, the actors. They always want to know what, where your family is from, which we usually do say. And then my favorite one that Layla really liked was what is your favorite candy? Question for the actors. What's your favorite candy? This is very important. A very important question. Wonderful. Well, I'm going to share an excerpt from our audience survey from this past spring tour. It addresses some of the things that you all have brought up already. And I'll ask us to continue elaborating. So this was written by a teacher at an elementary school in San Leandro, California. And this teacher writes, quote, thank you for coming to our small school. This was one of the most engaging plays I have seen at a school. I learned new words, names of places and walked away with a beautiful story to tell others with a very appropriate moral that applies to us all today. As a 22 year veteran teacher, this is the first time I witnessed a play at a school by actresses of Middle Eastern descent. It warms my heart to see how excited the student from Egypt was to watch the play end quote. So you all address this, but let's continue to address how representation matters, especially for young people. How do you think fairy tale players and this show in particular expand the limited representations about the Middle East? If you have anything more to add that you haven't already? Can I add one thing that's a little bit off topic, just a little bit. I just want to say, Sarah, when you mentioned that the students were able, they had such good retention, and were able to like repeat back the storyline, I thought about how excited their teachers were. And this might seem weird, but okay, so they all year long are prepared for the standardized tests at the end of the year. And one of the things you have to be able to do is answer questions a certain way. You have to be able to answer the question by repeating the question and being able to include information from the text. It's like all year long, they get that drilled into their head. And so when you asked a question to them and they were able to pull information from the play and repeat the question, their teachers were so thrilled. I thought I saw some of those teachers over there crying because it was like you entered in a complete sentence and you used information from the play. I mean, it was exciting. I'm always happy when they could do something that's not necessarily academic, but it does make me super, super happy when they're able to use their academic skills together with art. So I just wanted to let you know that you made the teachers happy. Yeah, and I think that goes to show the value of art, the experiential, multi-modal ways of learning, right? That maybe for some, that type of learning and receiving of knowledge is more effective than sitting and reading a textbook, right? So to think of the multi-ways in which learning happens for different individuals is, I think, really key. And they showed through this experience of the performance, the skills that teachers are trying to do in other places and spaces, right? Because we're also always explaining to them, we're trying to convince them that being able to have a conversation where you can have facts and you can use background knowledge and it makes you a better conversationalist. And it just proved it because I think that the Q&A, the questions that they asked and your response and their response, it just was, it was just at a higher level than I usually see or I've seen in the past. And so it was just, it was a nice opportunity for them to use the skills that I don't know if they really believed were important outside of maybe a standardized test. So I just wanted to add. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for adding that. Yes, I mean, it was so wonderful to be able to get them going in a conversation, especially after they obviously liked the show. So giving them that space, aside from self-identification and what Sabry said about confidence in seeing your culture or a nearby culture or any other culture represented in a positive way. The engagement was really strong for this one. Yeah, and I love the activity guide. You guys always send two weeks in advance so teachers can get students ready for the place so they know all the background information, the history and a lot of activities there. There's a lot of culturally responsive lesson plans and that's what AAYSP lives by. We are here, we promote culturally responsive lesson plans. There was one done by Angela herself and we have teacher partners in our schools who develop these culturally responsive books. They choose a book that is Middle Eastern and they write up a lesson plan and we share those out. We do read alouds and so that's what we live by and we love that we can work with you all and bring you guys on to our district. My answer to the question, because I feel this really touches me in my heart because, and this is why I'm in my role today, because growing up in the early 2000s, I've always seen, I was about seven during 9-11 until I've always seen Middle Easterners portrayed in a very negative way and as I said before, it does take a toll on your your self-esteem and just kind of showing up in the classroom. I remember being like hearing my family like so scared that we were going to go in internment camps and that was always a fear that I had growing up and so I was like, as I got older and more, you know, educated and going into college and learning a little bit more about my history because you don't get to see that in the classroom. You know, there, it's always this winning side that's telling these historical narratives and you only see one side of the story and this is, you know, it's really, it's really beautiful that you guys can shed this positive light on Middle Eastern culture and so like even though some of the stories and plays might be a little mystical, which is cool because that's how we can, you know, relate to our students. That's how our students are drawn to this and it's done in a very, you know, artist cultural manner so it's very wonderful to see that and I believe Golden Thread Productions provides our young scholars with a positive representation of a historically marginalized community, a more realistic perspective instead of overly dehumanizing depictions made in mainstream media and we really love you guys. Thank you, Safia. My heart is fluttering. Thanks for, I mean, your support and, and, you know, the resources you provided to me before developing the educational guides were really extremely helpful as well and so the collaboration, I see this as a collaboration and so that's really fantastic. Thanks for sharing and I kind of have to share my joke, which is I never in my life thought I would do research on donkeys. In addition to the background of Nasrudin and the Silk Road and various components, cultural components of the play, I really enjoyed surprisingly my research on donkeys and, and, you know, they often get the bad rap, right? What an ass. But actually they have, they have, you know, a lot of cultural significance historically in many places, right? But nonetheless, the other thing that I thought I would share too is, you know, I've, in my college classes that I've taught, I've taught an article about how humor has the opportunity to break Islamophobic stereotypes because of the idea that Middle Easterners or Muslims can't take a joke that they're irrationally angry, right? And in fact, what this, what this play does is show that not only do Middle Easterners have a sense of humor, but that actually humor is integral to the kind of cultural, the cultural stories, right? A way to convey cultural morals and values and that it's integral to, to making that culture, right? So, so yeah, well, we have just a couple of minutes before turning to the, the Q&A. I'd like to take a moment to show, it's, it's quite short, the dance that happens toward the end of the play. And Sabria, this is the video that you took. Thank you, Alia. I always have to hold myself from dancing. I know. Sarah, do you want to say anything quickly? That was choreographed by Golden, Golden Thread Resident Artist Lisa Tatiosian. Is there anything else you want to add to that before turning to Q&A? Yes, Sabria, I also have to hold myself from dancing because it would be very clearly distracting since I'm like the back area in view. So I have to just like nod or tap my foot or gently clap. I always love to dance too. And I always love Lisa's dances. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm just looking here in the chat. I do want to share that Sheila DeVitt's staff at Golden Thread says, Sarah, that mug is impressive, silver drinking vessel. My mermaid, Pewter, mermaid. Wow. And then, and then someone in the room named Tracy says theater is such an intensely dynamic and multimodal learning experience. If we used it more even to involving learners in production and performance in classrooms, they would wow the world clearly. Are there any plans along those lines? And, and I'm assuming this is asking if, if fairy tale players is intending to do kind of more hands on workshops and in the classroom or perhaps in other, sorry, my Amazon's being delivered at the moment. In the classroom or in other types of workshops and community centers. It is, it is something that our small theater company hopes to start developing more is more hands on type of theater making with and storytelling workshops with with youth. Not currently, we're a little understaffed for, for making that happen. But hopefully in the long term, it's definitely a question we get a lot. Oh, Tracy's my mom shout out mama. Oh, hey. I did not plant that question, by the way, I'm sure she came up with it by herself. Wow, I see where her, I see where your intellect comes from. And let's see. So we have, unless we have any other questions pop up in the chat. Let's see Q&A. That's still that. So I wanted to circle back as a as my kind of my last formal question circle back to the title of today's No Summary episode. What can the wise fool Nasreddin teach us or what can the wise fool archetype teach us? What is significant for you about the medium of humor as a means for conveying important messages, challenging the status quo, but also breaking stereotypes? I'm going to go for this one. We are so only recently past a time when you couldn't trust any media at all. And we had to get all our media from the clowns. Like, we didn't, I mean, more people watch the Daily Show than they watched the CNN. I'm saying like, it was the only way to get any information. So I think that, you know, when, when the buffoons are running, the clowns are the answer, you know, that's the secret. So a buffoon, a buffoon always has a secret, right? Secret they won't share. And a clown never has any secrets. That's the thing. It's like everything is 100% open. So I think that the clown character being able to come from a place of like, innocent wonder and curiosity is the way to expose the nonsense that we are inundated with. How about, I agree. How about you, Sabir Angela? Is there is, is, do you think humor was just the tone that was needed during this particular time? Or, or, you know, did that bring something specific and special at this time for the students? Well, I was just thinking when we saw the, the clip of them dancing and also the students in the front. I mean, they, we saw the back of their head and they had on masks, but you could just tell that they were smiling and excited and having such a good time. And I mean, I think that's important. School should be fun. And I think, you know, people forget that and that learning while you're laughing, you tend to remember and it's, you're just more open to it. But especially now, I mean, it's been the weirdest after 20 years in elementary schools. This has been the weirdest year ever. It's this past year was even stranger than when we were doing distance learning. And so it's just not the same. It's just not normal anymore. And so just to see them just open and laughing and, you know, dancing, I just think it's, it's just powerful. You know, I just think that whatever the, the story was or the moral was or whatever we wanted them to learn during that play, they were just so much more receptive to it because they were just so happy. So I just think it's just powerful at all times, but especially now. Yeah. So I have a four year old, she's about to turn for next month. So I'm, I'm, I'm inundated with all sorts of quotes and means. But one of them that I, I resonate with me is play is the work of the child. And it may be a Mr. Rogers quote. I'm not exactly sure. But, you know, you know, at four years old, they think, okay, you know, for plays the work of the child, but actually that, that the essence of play should be, you know, five year olds who are starting and doing these standardized tests, they're not any different than a four year old who needs to learn through play, right? So, so I think, you know, things like humor, playfulness, dance, music can provide that essential type of, of learning on so many levels. Sabia, anything you want to add before, before we close? Yeah, I agree. I do believe humor is a secret weapon in communication, helping build bonds and just connecting to our young students. Humor does more than just make these students laugh, but it compels like them to like think critically and think about the conveyed messages through these wonderful plays, especially with Nassaruddin. I love how you can change the coats, but you can't change the man that really sat with me. Because like, you can even see in the play, he's like stuffing his coat, his fancy coat. And it's like everyone's like, why would he do such a thing? He's like pouring a jug of wine and bread and grapes and all this stuff. And it's like, why? And then he just, that wise old fool really had some wonderful messages. You can't judge a book by its cover, right? Another cliche that we can, we can apply as a, as a story to this takeaway. Well, friends, we have come to the end of our time today. And again, my name is Heather Rastavak-Akbarzadeh and I'm the Golden Thread Fairytale Players Program Manager. You can learn more about fairytale players on Golden Thread's website, www.goldenthread.org under the Programs tab. And if anyone in the audience would like to bring or advocate to bring fairytale players to your local school, library, community center or community event, you may contact me directly via email at educationatgoldenthread.org. Huge, huge thanks to my wonderful guests, Sara, Sabria and Angela. It's been such a delight to be in conversation with you. A lot of just really touched by hearing your perspectives. And thank you to Wendy Reyes for technical support. I mentioned before the start of the show that Wendy is like the rock here. And to the rest of Golden Thread's small but mighty team, Sahar, our executive artistic director, Michelle, Linda, Sheila and Naveed. And I'd also like to thank HowlRound for hosting this live stream event. A recording of the session will be available on both HowlRound and Golden Thread's website. And last but not least, many thanks to our audience for joining us today. Happy to have you in the Zoom room with us. All right, everybody. Thanks again to my panelists. Goodbye and take care. Bye. Bye, everyone.