This book is a ground-breaking collection on contemporary Arab theatre.
Through three sections discussing occupation and resistance, diaspora, migration, and refugees, and nationalism and belonging, this study provides nuanced responses to the contested points of intersection between Arab culture and the West, as well as many of the major concerns within contemporary Arab theatre. The collection draws together scholars from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the United States who write about Arab theatre and the representation of Arabs on European and American stages. It introduces concerns in contemporary Arab theatre, the regions in which Arab theatre is performed, and the issues with representations of Arabs onstage.
This volume will be of great significance for those interested in expanding the range of global, postcolonial, African, Asian, or diasporic theatre that they study, teach, or stage.
Editor’s Preface & Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction: Ted Ziter Section I: Identity and Resistance 1. Samer Al-Saber Title: Historiographical Conundrums in Palestinian Theatre Research 2. Amir Al-Azraki and James Al-Shamma Title: The Iraqi Home/land under Siege: House as Metaphor in Abdul Razaq Al-Rubai’s A Strange Bird on Our Roof 3. Gary M. English Title: Palestinian Theatre: Alienation, Mediation, and Assimilation in Cross-Cultural Research and Practice 4. Khalid Amine Title: Across Borders and Thresholds: Shakespeare’ Othello and Hamlet in the Arab World. 5. Jeff Casey Title: The Maghreb on the American Stage: The “Barbary Wars” in Post-Independence US Theatre 6. Samar Zahrawi Title: Censorship and creativity in Syrian theatre: Saʾdallah Wannous’ A Soirée for the fifth of June, The King’s elephant, and The King is king. Section II: Diaspora, Migration and Refugees 7. Roaa Ali Title: Strategies of resistance: Arab American dramatic devices in the battle against anti-Arab Stereotypes 8. Bart Pitchford Title: Postmemory Nostalgia in Service of Internationally Induced Nationalism 9. Faisal Adel Hamadah Title: ‘Can Everyone Hear Me?’ Arab Digital Performance and Border Crossing on UK Stages 10. Sarah Youssef Title: Arab Voices on the European Stage: Between Fact and Fiction, Memory, and Imagination 11. Margaret Pappano Title: Arab Muslim Stand-up and the Evolution of North American Religious Identities 12. Hala Baki Title: The Predicaments of Production: Public Discourse, Artistic Process, and Audience Response in Contemporary Arab American Theatre Section III: Nationalism and Belonging 13. George Potter Title: Stable Instability: Performing National Identity in Amman 14. Yasmine Jahanmir Title: Globalization LIVE!: Arab Performance as Corporate Goodwill 15. Hadia Abd El-Fattah Ahmed Title: Sharjah Desert as A Site-Specific Theatrical Venue 16.Daniela Potenza Title: The manifest absence of religion in Modern Egyptian Drama: The case of Alfred Faraǧ 17. Michael Malek Najjar Title: Arabs/Muslims on American Stages: Foils for American Adventurism 18. Samy Selim Title: From the Karagoz to Ragi: Nasser as the Patron of an Indigenous Egyptian Political Theatre Index
Roaa Ali is Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Manchester, UK. George Potter is Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Walter G. Friedrich Professor of American Literature at Valparaiso University, Indiana, USA. Samer Al-Saber is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at Stanford University, USA. He is a member of the faculty at the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.
