Returning to Haifa

Your Contribution Helps!

The west coast premiere of Returning to Haifa is the cornerstone of our 2024 Season for Palestine. We are still raising funds for this production and we could use your support! Join the Go Fund Me campaign hosted by our longtime supporters Mona Masri, Jumana Muwafi, and Hassan Fouda.

Returning to Haifa presents a deeply human portrait of two families, one Palestinian, and one Israeli Jewish, forced by history into an intimacy they didn’t choose. In the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War, with the borders finally open after two decades, Said and Safiyya, a Palestinian couple, return to Haifa in search of the echoes of a home they were forced to abandon during the Nakba in 1948. But are they truly ready for the encounter that awaits them upon their return?

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference. Help us bring this powerful story to the stage for everyone to experience! And don’t forget to get your tickets today!

Potrero Stage, 1696 18th Street, San Francisco

April 12 - May 4, 2024

World Premiere

Golden Thread is thrilled to announce the world premiere of The Tutor, a new play by our founder Torange Yeghiazarian, commissioned and produced by New Conservatory Theatre Center, and directed by Sahar Assaf, our Executive Artistic Director, with a cast of Golden Thread Resident Artists: Deborah Eliezer, Maya Nazzal, Lawrence Radecker. This exciting collaboration between our companies highlights the spirit of artistic exchange and the exemplar of unifying leadership and cooperation.

Things are looking up for Kayvon. He’s just married Baran, a beautiful young Iranian woman, and brought her back to his Bay Area home. But when he asks his lifelong friend Azar to tutor Baran, all three lives begin to unravel as the two women fall into a passionate love affair. A study of preconceived notions and the hypocrisies that drive them, The Tutor is a provocative look at the cost of owning one’s truth.

New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, Lower Level, San Francisco

April 5 - May 12, 2024

West Coast Premiere

11 Reflections: San Francisco is part of a new national series of performance works, Eleven Reflections on the Nation, devised by Andrea Assaf. The project draws on her seminal work, Eleven Reflections on September, an episodic, multimedia performance on Arab American identity, Wars on/of Terror, and “the constant, quiet rain of death / amidst beauty” in a post-9/11 world. In each participating city, the project engages local artists and community members who have been affected by post-9/11 policies to contribute their stories, illuminating our collective experiences since 2001—from the fall of the Twin Towers, to the U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Muslim Ban, and now to the funding of genocide in Palestine.

Created and directed by Andrea Assaf Featuring acclaimed Syrian opera singer Lubana Al Quntar and Turkish composer and violinist Eylem Basaldi

October 4 - 5, 2024