1st Edition
Arabs, Politics, and Performance
This book is a ground-breaking collection on contemporary Arab theatre.
Through four sections discussing occupation and resistance, migration and refugees, religion and secularism, 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
Biography
George Potter is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Walter G. Friedrich Professor of American Literature at Valparaiso University.
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.
Roaa Ali is a Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Manchester.
