Tuesday, March 29, 7pm
444 Days
by Torange Yeghiazarian
In 1979, 72 Americans were held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. Against the backdrop of this real event, Golden Thread Artistic Director Yeghiazarian imagines Laleh, a young Iranian revolutionary, who is thrown together by fate with an American attaché. Twenty-five years later, as Laleh must face the illness of her daughter in an American hospital; the man that changed her life appears again. Will they be able to overcome years of hostility, broken promises, and distrust?

Tuesday, April 26, 7pm
The Owl Girl
by Monica Raymond
Two families in an unnamed country both have keys to the same house. Prize-winning poet and playwright and Jerome Fellow, Monica Raymond asks, what happens when they try to live in it together? The fathers play historical chess; the mothers cook together; the lovers dare to imagine a future; and war mad children play doctor and murder. But when one girl's dreams of flight are (literally) shot down, betrayals and realignments occur which make us question our very definition of peace.

Monday, May 23, 7pm
The Cry of the Reed
by Sinan Ünel
A Turkish-American journalist and colleague are kidnapped by a band of insurgents in a war-torn Iraq. Her captors offer her one telephone call—a chance to reconnect with the Turkish mother that abandoned her to take refuge in Sufism in her homeland. Middle East America honorable mention winner Ünel brings ancient history and religion together with the ripped-from-the-headlines portrait of a world at war.

Tuesday, June 28, 7pm
Urge for Going
by Mona Mansour
What do you do when the only way to live is to leave? Jamila, a studious 17-year-old Palestinian girl growing up in a Lebanese refugee camp, feverishly prepares for the university exam that can be her way out of the impoverished world she calls home. Middle East America honorable mention winner and The Public Theater's 2009 Emerging Writer fuses global politics with the intimacy of family life in this searing and funny new play.

**World Premiere**
Night Over Erzinga
by Adriana Sevahn Nichols

September 15 through October 9
South Side Theatre, For Mason Center, San Francisco

Ardavazt and Alice build a new life in the U.S. in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide but the past comes to haunt them in very different ways. Inspired by the playwright’s family history, this tender epic spans generations and countries in a fluid and magical narrative that will be scored with original music by Bulgarian composer, Penka Kouneva; and directed by internationally-acclaimed Hafiz Karmali.  “How did my grandfather lose two families in one lifetime but not lose his heart?” was the question that began Adriana’s two-year journey to develop Night Over Erzinga, the inaugural commission of the prestigious Middle East America Award.

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**West Coast Premiere**
Language Rooms
by Yussef el Guindi

November 10 through December 4
Thick House, Potrero Hill, San Francisco

Ahmed is a shining example of the American Dream, working as a translator in a Homeland Security detainment facility. Soon after his big promotion, his loyalty is called into question as the job and the office politics take a turn for the absurd. A dark comedy that explores themes of identity and misguided patriotism, Language Rooms is another gem from Yussef el Guindi (Back of the Throat, Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes), one of the most important dramatic voices in the U.S. today, and this year's Middle East America winner.

**United States Premiere**
Rumi X 7
conceived and directed by Hafiz Karmali

November 2011
Islamic Cultural Center, Oakland

From the internationally renowned director that brought us Island of Animals in 2006, here is another enchanting performance of ancient texts infused with dynamic staging and stunning visuals.