As promised in the program, here are the bios of the participants:
Ibrahim El-Husseini Comedy of
Sorrows
marks Ibrahim El-Husseini’s eighteenth play. Born in Sharkeya, Egypt in 1970,
El-Husseini studied theatre arts at the prestigious Arts Academy in Cairo.
Today he is known not only for his plays, but also for his poetry and theater
criticism. His plays have been produced in Cairo and the
Egyptian provinces, as well as in Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, the United Arab
Emirates, and Iraq. In his dramatic writing, he experiments with the
juxtaposition of heightened and colloquial text, music and poetry to explore
the themes of freedom and social justice. He has won numerous awards including
the Egyptian Higher Council for Culture award for his plays The Final
Days of Akhenaton, Tattoo Birds,
and The Piper, the Egypt’s Writers
Union Award for Museum of Human Organs,
the Gomhourya Newspaper Award for Garden
of Assassins, and the Mohamed Taymour
Award for Theatre Creativity for Seduction.
He has also written several short films and was co-founder and General
Editor of the weekly newspaper Our
Theatre. He has written essays and criticism for newspapers in Egypt as
well as the Awan newspaper in Kuwait,
where he received the Saad Al Sabah Award for theatre criticism.
Translator,
Mohammed Albakry
A native of Egypt, Dr. Mohammed Albakry is
Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Middle Tennessee State
University. He is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to Morocco to
research language policy in North Africa. His research and teaching interests
are in the areas of corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, Anglophone Arab
literature, the stylistics of literary translation, and language and identity
in Africa and the Middle East. He has published peer-reviewed articles in English World-Wide, The Journal of Language & Literature, Middle Eastern Literatures, The
International Journal of Arabic-English Studies, and others. He received
his B.A. and M.A. Certificate from Alexandria University, Egypt, his M.A. from
the University of Massachusetts, and his Ph.D. from Northern Arizona
University.
Translator,
Rebekah Maggor
Rebekah Maggor is a playwright, translator,
director, and actress. She received her MFA through the American
Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University, her BA from Columbia
University, and studied Arabic at Alexandria University in Egypt. Her work has
had readings and productions at the American Repertory Theater, the New York
Theater Workshop, the Old Vic in London, the Segal Theatre Center, and the
Huntington Theatre Company. She has received commissions and fellowships
from the Huntington Playwriting Fellows, the Catalyst Collaborative @ M.I.T., the
Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Middle Eastern Theater Project, and the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She has taught at Harvard University,
Vanderbilt University, and is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theater
and Dance at Rowan University.
Tracy
Cameron Francis is a director and
interdisciplinary artist based in New York and originally from Portland, OR.
She has directed and developed work with Red Bull Theatre, New York Theatre
Workshop, Williamstown Theatre Festival, LaMama Umbria (Italy), NY Arab
American Comedy Festival, CultureHub (Lamama), Martin Segal Theatre, Monarch
Theatre Co., NY International Fringe, Falaki Theatre (Egypt), Alwan For the
Arts, International Wow, EBE Ensemble-among others. She has assisted
directors Sam Gold, Josh Fox, and Gia Forakis, and shadowed the director on
HBO’s True Blood. Select
credits include: Broken Heart Story
(Ingenue Theatre), The Screens (Red
Bull Theatre *staged reading), The Maids (Curious Frog Theatre*Backstage
Critics pick), Psalms of a
Questionable Nature (NY Int. Fringe Festival), A Marriage Proposal (Falaki Theatre, Cairo, Egypt), Eating Skeletons (Hudson Guild Theatre),
800 HelpUwrite (4th St. Theatre), El Sebou (Alwan for the Arts), and Now Means Yesterday (W Hotel Union Sq.).
She has a strong interest in international work and has directed new
plays from Egypt, Uganda, Japan, Uruguay, Pakistan and Iraq. Francis also
devises interdisciplinary performance works merging dance, video and installation
in site-specific locations. She has been invited to present on international
diplomacy and performance at conferences in Georgetown University, Brown
University, and LaMaMa ETC. Core member of Theatre Without Borders, artistic
director of Hybrid Theatre Works, and associate member of SDC. B.A. Fordham
University Lincoln Center.
Lindsay Benstead (Ph.D. 2008, Public Policy and Political
Science, University of Michigan—Ann Arbor) is Assistant Professor of Political
Science in the School of Government at Portland State University, where she
teaches courses on Middle East and North African politics and research methods.
Her working book project, entitled Legislative Connections: Why Diverse Patterns of
Parliamentary Clientelism Stabilize Authoritarian Governance in Arab North
Africa, examines the relationship
between regime type and the structure of patron-client relationships, bringing
these insights to bear on understanding how legislatures strengthen
authoritarian regimes and how political transition affects the durability and breakdown of
patronage networks. Professor
Benstead also examines gender-related dimensions of electoral politics, public
opinion, and survey methodology in the Middle East. One of her projects seeks
to understand why popular perceptions of women as good political leaders vary
across Middle Eastern societies and assesses whether gender quotas affect
popular support for gender equality. Professor Benstead is also working
on several papers assessing the impact of interviewer gender and religious
dress on attitudes in Moroccan social surveys.
Ebbe Roe Smith* (Hafiz) appeared in Sam Shepard’s Action, Angel City and Suicide in B Flat, directed by the author at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco, and in the American premiere of Curse of the Starving Class at the New York Public Theatre. In Los Angeles, he was in Marlene Meyer’s Etta Jenks, Len Jenkin’s Gogol, Steven Berkoff’s Metamorphosis, and Methusalem, with the Actor’s Gang. At Portland Center Stage, he appeared in Glen Berger’s O Lovely Glowworm, Itamar Moses’ Celebrity Row, Jordan Harrison’s Act A Lady, Fin Kennedy’s How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found, and Christmas Carol, The 39 Steps, Christmas Story and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. At Portland Playhouse he played Roy Cohn in Angels in America.
Paul Susi (Yusuf) has appeared with Cerimon House, Northwest Children’s Theater, Working Theatre Collective, Contagious Theater, defunkt, Profile Theater, Teatro Milagro, Hand2Mouth, and The Forgery. Paul has appeared regionally and internationally with Berkeley Repertory Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Vermont Stage Company and Stacja Szamocin (Poland). Paul works as a youth counselor at several local nonprofit organizations serving homeless, recovering, post-incarcerated and adjudicated youth, including New Avenues for Youth, Janus Youth Programs, DePaul Treatment Centers, Hooper Detox, and PlayWrite, Inc. Last summer, Paul created, produced and performed (On Holding On), a solo work about the Iliad, sex crimes, and incident reports. This summer, Paul has been awarded a RACC grant to create All At Sea, a collaborative ensemble piece about conquistadors, immigration, housing bubbles and falling in love.
Vin Shambry* (Niqrazan) was most recently seen in King Hedley II and Ma Rainey´s Black Bottom (Portland Playhouse), One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest (Portand Center Stage), (I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi and Superior Donuts (Artists Repertory Theater), Songs for a New World (Stages! and Miracle Theater), and two Oregon Children´s Theater productions. Broadway credits include Tom Collins in Rent and John in Miss Saigon. He has toured nationally with Rent, Miss Saigon, Honk, and Big River. In 2007 Vin was awarded the Audelco Award for Best Actor in a Play for Black Man Rising, and in 2011 he won three Portland Drammys for lead actor, lead musical actor, and musical ensemble. Vin has a BFA in musical theater from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
Lava Alapai (Doha) Lava Alapai is an actor, playwright, and director from Honolulu Hawaii. Lava was last seen in in Portland Playhouse’s The Brother/Sister Plays and received a Drammy award for her direction of Oregon Children’s theatre’s Locomotion. Lava was also a founding member of Many Hats Collaborations for whom she wrote and acted in Mutt, was technical director and designer for Restroom and Break, then Open, and dramaturg for their first rockopera Find Me Beside You. Locally performed with Stumptown Stages in RENT, defunkt, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Tears of Joy Theatre, wrote Blue Line for Vertigo’s 24hr play festival, and acted in Portland Center Stage's JAW festival reading of Adam Bock's The Thugs. She was also a featured puppeteer on the national tour of Jim Henson's Bear in the Big Blue House as Treelo. Alapai has done movies and television in Los Angeles and holds an M.F.A in acting from California Institute of the Arts.
David Seitz* (Sargeant) has appeared onstage recently at Portland Playhouse in productions of After Ashley, Mauritius (also directed), Fiction, Missing Pieces and Gem of the Ocean. In addition to regional work at The Old Globe, American Players Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and numerous Shakespeare festivals, he has appeared locally with Stark Raving Theatre, Oregon Stage Company and Classic Greek Theatre.
Joe Gibson (Mansur) has had an active year appearing in film, TV, and stage here in Portland. He is a recent transport from New York City via Houston, Texas, and is currently an Acting Apprentice at the Portland Playhouse. Joseph is delighted to find such an active, engaged, and supportive arts community in Portland.
Angela Bolaños (Nada) has appeared in the Teatro Milagro productions Rosalba y los llaveros and Te llevo en la sangre, as well as Stepping Out Theatre’s The Little Prince. She has appeared in the films Tinderbox and Unhuman and in two television commercials with Univisión Portland. Angela studies visual arts at Portland State and theatre with area instructors Antonio Sonera and Nelda Reyes.
*Appears Courtesy Actors’ Equity Association
