This Is Who I Am
Separated by continents, an estranged father and son reunite over Zoom.
From their respective kitchens in Ramallah and New York City, they recreate a cherished family recipe and struggle to bridge the gap between them, one ingredient at a time. Told through the intimacy of a video call, with humor and humanity Amir Nizar Zuabi’s new play explores the unpredictable nature of grief and the delicacy of family connection across geographical and generational divides.
Cast
Ramsey Faragallah+ (Father)
Yousof Sultani+ (Son)
Creative Team
Mariana Sanchez (Scenic Designer)
Dina El-Aziz^ (Costume Designer)
Reza Behjat^ (Lighting Designer)
James Ard (Sound Designer)
Ido Levran (Video and Streaming Systems Designer)
Rachael Danielle Albert (Livestream Manager)
Joseph Haj (Dramaturg)
X Casting (Casting Director)
Special Thanks to Nadine Ezzie and Rosette Ezzie
Commissioned by The Play Company (NYC) and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC).
^ Member, USA // + Member, SAG
+ Bios
Evren Odcikin (Director) is a theater director, writer, and arts administrator with a deep commitment to bringing underrepresented stories and voices to the American stage. He serves as the Associate Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is a founding member of the MENA Theater Maker Alliance steering committee, a founder of Maia Directors, and a resident artist at Golden Thread Productions. A celebrated new plays director, he has worked with NYTW, Geva, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, The Lark, Kennedy Center, InterAct (Philadelphia), Cleveland Public Theatre, Magic Theatre, Golden Thread, and Crowded Fire. As a writer, he is under commission with Leila Buck to create 1001 Nights (A Retelling) for Cal Shakes. Recognitions include a 2016 “Theatre Worker You Should Know” feature in American Theatre Magazine; a 2015 National Director’s Fellowship from the O’Neill, NNPN, the Kennedy Center, and SDCF; and a 2013 TITAN Award from Theatre Bay Area. odcikin.com
Amir Nizar Zuabi (Playwright) is an award-winning Theatre writer & Director and the Artistic Director of ShiberHur, and served as Associate Director of Young Vic London (2009-2017). Zuabi is also a member of Union of Theatres of Europe (UTE) for artistic achievement, an artistic advisor for the Palestinian National Theatre, and an alumni of Sundance Theatre Lab. Writing and directing credits include: I Am Yusuf and This Is My Brother, In the Penal Colony, Alive From Palestine, Oh My Sweet Land (PlayCo NYC, Young Vic/ Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne), The Beloved,(co produced by ShiberHur/Young Vic) Three Days of Grief, West of Us the Sea, Mid Spring Musical, Asmahan, and Grey Rock. He also created 3 full length dance pieces with collaborator Samar King - Dry Mud, Against A Hard Surface, and Last Ward. Directing credits include Samson and Delilah (Flanders Opera, Antwerp) Jidarriya by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (Edinburgh International Festival, Bouffes du Nord and World Tour). Forget Herostratus, le Mallade Imaginer, War or More, Sneeze, Deep Sorrow, Fall Tale, When The World Was Green, Lanterns Of The King Of Galilee, Taha the Publisher. Zuabi was the first Middle Eastern director to be asked to direct for the Royal Shakespeare Company where he directed Comedy of Errors. Recently Zuabi has created Grey Rock for La Mama, New York (currently on tour) and is writing new plays for the Riksteren in Stockholm and for the prestigious National Theatre London, as well as was recently appointed Artistic Director of a cross brooder cultural festival produced by Good Chance Theatre (Stephen Daldrey, Tracey Seaward, and David lan).
Ramsey Faragallah (Father) is an actor, a writer, & teacher. Onstage he has appeared at the Kennedy Center, The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, Rikers Island and other minimum and maximum security prisons, Yale University, Sundance, The McCarter, The Culture Project, Williamstown, Hartford Stage, Red Bull, New York Stage & Film, The New Vic (London) and theaters throughout Europe and Australia. His many television appearances include recurring and guest star roles in Tommy, Bull, Mozart in the Jungle, Taken, Madame Secretary, The Black List, Homeland, the Law & Order trifecta, & thirteen seasons with David Letterman. He has appeared in the films of Sidney Pollack, Sidney Lumet and several films of Woody Allen. Voice over work for Radio Lab, This American Life, Playing on Air, NOVA, Random House, Penguin and others. Ramsey studied with Ms. Stella Adler, is a member of The Actors Center and is enthusiastically dedicated to restoring, driving & racing vintage automobiles.
Yousof Sultani (Son) is thrilled to be making his Woolly Mammoth, PlayCo, Guthrie, A.R.T and OSF debuts! He was most recently seen on stage in A Thousand Splendid Suns at Arena Stage in DC. Other credits include: And Then There Were None (Drury Lane) Photograph 51 (Court Theatre), Heartland (InterAct Theatre), Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley and Guards At The Taj (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), The Doppelgänger: An International Farce and The Fundamentals (Steppenwolf Theater), United Flight 232 (House Theatre), Disappearing Number and Inana (TimeLine Theatre), Othello (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), The Hundred Flowers Project (Silk Road Rising). Film credits include Glass House. Television credits include “The Brave” (NBC), “Empire” (FOX) and “Chicago Fire” (NBC). Yousof received his BFA in Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University. He will be dedicating his performance to his father, Wahid Sultani.
Mariana Sanchez (Scenic Designer) is a scenic designer with a background in architecture originally from Mexico, based in the New York area. Some of her credits include: Anatomy of a Suicide (The Atlantic Theater), Marys Seacole (LTC3), Fade (Primary Stages), Troy, Winter’s Tale (The Public), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr), Oh My Sweet Land (Play Company). Regional: Manahatta, War (Yale Repertory), The Copper Children, Manahatta, The River Bride, All’s Well That Ends Well (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Mojadav (St Louis Rep), The Niceties (Geva Theater), Fetch Clay, Make Man (Dallas Theater Center), Skeleton Crew (Baltimore Center Stage), The Wolves, Fade (TheaterWorks), Peter Pan* (Yale University) among others. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and B. Arch. from National Autonomous University in Mexico City.
Dina El-Aziz (Costume Designer). Off-Broadway: I Thought I Would Die But I Didn’t (The Tank) Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Hypokrit Theatre/NYTW Next Door) The Russian and The Jew (Anna & Kitty Inc/The Tank), Dead Are My People (Noor Theater/NYTW's Next Door); Field Awakening (Corkscrew Festival); Alternating Currents (The Working Theater); Other theatre: PssyCck Know Nothing, News Of The Strange, Marjana and the Forty Thieves, Pay No Attention To The Girl (Target Margin Theater). Regional: 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (The Guthrie); Noura (The Old Globe); Yasmina’s Necklace (Premiere Stages); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Pay No Attention To The Girl (Target Margin Theater/Spoleto Festival); We’ve Come to Believe, The Corpse Washer, How to Defend Yourself (Actors Theatre of Louisville/43rd Humana Festival), Heartland (Geva Theatre Center). Film: Roommates (Short); Keiko’s Hands (Short); Jihadi Street (Short); Shift (Short); *Prisoners of War (Short). JS Seidman Award.
Reza Behjat (Lighting Designer) is a NYC based lighting designer who was born and raised in Iran where he worked with some of the prominent directors for several years. Reza received the Knight of Illumination Award for Nina Simone: Four Women in 2019. Off-Broadway: Disclaimer (Public Theater- UTR), Veil Widow Conspiracy, Henry VI, Hamlet. Regional and others: Gianni Schicchi (Michigan Opera Theater), Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (Baltimore Center Stage), Noura (Guthrie Theater), Queen (Geva Theater), Native Son (PlayMakers Rep), Everybody Black, The This Place (Actors Theater of Louisville), Nina Simon: Four Women (Alabama Shakes), The Roommate (Long Wharf Theater), Guards at the Taj (Central Square Theater, MA), Notes of the Strange, Yogibogeybox (Target Margin), Waiting For Godot (New Yiddish Rep), Dead Are My People (Noor Theater), Whore from Ohio, Labor of Life (New Yiddish Rep), This Is The Color (New Georges), Fillx7 (The Flea Theater).
James Ard (Sound Designer) is a San Francisco-based designer, noisemaker, mechanic, broadcast artist, and theatre vagrant, who composes soundscapes & music for humans, dogs, parrots, and bicycles. Recent credits include Nine Parts Desire at Portland Center Stage, Utopia with Cutting Ball Theater, Exit Strategy at Aurora Theater Company, and the ReOrient festival with Golden Thread Productions. Ard is an occasional Podcast Coordinator at SF Sketchfest, and Resident Artist with both Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire Theater.
Ido Levran (Video and Streaming Systems Designer) is so excited to join the team! He has been engineering and programming video on & off Broadway and around the country. And for the digital realm adapted and implemented structures to produce and stream multiple theatrical performances of different kinds. Some credits include – Broadway: Jagged Little Pill, Be More Chill, All My Sons, Lifespan Of a Fact, The Band’s Visit (Programmer); The Columnist (Asst. Designer). Off-Broadway: All the President’s Men (The Public Theater); Troilus & Cressida (Shakespeare in the Park); Second Chance (Asst. Proj. Designer, The Public Theater); Completeness (Asst. Proj. Designer, Playwrights Horizons); Shen Wei Dance Arts (Projections Director). Regional & Tours: Blue Man group National Tour (Programmer), I Dream (Asst. Proj. Designer, Opera Carolina); 45 Plays for 45 Presidents (MRT), Frankenstein (Dallas T.C.), Among others.
Rachael Danielle Albert (Livestream Manager, she/her) is thrilled to return to Woolly Mammoth, after having stage-managed Botticelli in the Fire (2018), Describe the Night (2019), and Fairview (2019). Regional: Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Junk, Native Gardens, A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, The City of Conversation (Arena Stage); Bright Star, She A Gem (Kennedy Center); The Wolves (Studio Theater); Seize the King, Up Here, Ether Dome (La Jolla Playhouse); The Odd Couple, Sylvia, Souvenir (New London Barn Playhouse); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). Founding member: Oakland Theater Project (California). MFA: University of California, San Diego. BFA: University of Michigan. Proud AEA member.
Joseph Haj (Dramaturg) is the Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theater, where he has directed The Glass Menagerie, Cyrano de Bergerac (his own adaptation), Romeo and Juliet, Sunday in the Park with George, King Lear, South Pacific, Pericles, and West Side Story, which was the highest-grossing production in Guthrie history. Prior to joining the Guthrie in 2015, he served as Producing Artistic Director at PlayMakers Repertory Company. As a director, Haj has worked at theaters across the U.S. and directed projects in a maximum-security prison, rural South Carolina, the West Bank, and Gaza. He received an M.F.A. from The University of North Carolina before beginning a career in acting and working with many internationally known directors. He was named one of 25 theater artists who will have a significant impact on the field over the next quarter-century by American Theatre Magazine, and he is the recipient of the 2000 NEA/White House Millennium Council Grant awarded to 50 American artists, 2014 Zelda Fichandler Award (SDCF), and 2017 Rosetta LeNoire Award (AEA). Haj lives in Minneapolis with his wife Deirdre, who is the director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. They are the proud parents of Samantha, an undergraduate at Smith College.
Victor Vazquez, CSA (Casting Director, he/him/his) is the founder of X Casting NYC, a member of the Casting Society of America, and a 2020 Theater Communications Group (TCG) Rising Leader of Color.
Dear Friends,
This project originated last May from our shared commitment to the work of Amir Nizar Zuabi, and our determination to make new theatre during the pandemic. We love Amir's plays because he writes with extraordinary honesty, empathy, humour and love. We commissioned him to write this play specifically for the digital platform we have right now. He embraced that challenge completely and wrote the story of two characters, a Father and his Son, meeting on video chat with the hope of overcoming their estrangement.
An extraordinary team of artists and technicians, led by director Evren Odcikin, have gone all in with us to make this show safely and beautifully. Actors are performing from their kitchens, designers and production staff are working remotely to deliver kits containing set pieces, props and tech equipment to their doors. We're joined by a distinguished group of producing partners from across the country, as eager to connect with artists and audiences as we are: Diane Paulus and Diane Borger at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Joseph Haj at Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and Nataki Garrett at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, along with their respective brilliant teams.
Online performance can never replace theatre as we've known it. But online experiences are what we have right now, and we need them too. Amir's play is about a Dad and a Son who seek to connect while separated by thousands of miles and years of simmering conflict. And we seek to connect you with these artists at a time when we can't be together in the same space in the way we're accustomed to. We're creating LIVE performances digitally every night, to get as close as we can to that living, breathing essence of theatre that we all love.
We're so glad you're here in this shared virtual space with us. Thank you for joining us in this experiment! Please let us know what you think!
MARIA MANUELA GOYANES
Artistic Director, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
KATE LOEWALD
Founding Producer, PlayCo
Thank you to our
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+ PlayCo
PlayCo (Kate Loewald, Founding Producer and Robert G. Bradshaw, Managing Director) is an Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway theater. PlayCo produces adventurous new plays from the U.S. and around the world, to advance a dynamic global experience of contemporary theater and expand the voices and perspectives represented on U.S. stages.
Now celebrating its 20th year, PlayCo has produced 37 new plays from the United States, Central and South America, Europe, Russia, South and East Asia, and the Middle East. PlayCo’s distinctive international programming links American theatre with world theater, American artists with the global creative community, and American audiences with a whole world of plays. Previous productions include Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’ Recent Alien Abductions, Lee Sunday Evans’ New York Times Critics’ Pick production of Stefano Massini’s Intractable Woman: A Theatrical Memo on Anna Politkovskaya, the sold-out run of Amir Nizar Zuabi’s critically-acclaimed Oh My Sweet Land, Guillermo Calderón’s Villa, Christopher Chen’s Caught (Obie Award for Playwriting, 2017), Maria Milisavljevic’s Abyss, Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Worsham’s The Wildness, debbie tucker green’s generations, Aya Ogawa’s Ludic Proxy, Antonio Vega’s The Duchamp Syndrome, and more.
PlayCo's office space on the island known as Mannahatta (Manhattan), and the rehearsal and performance spaces we use throughout New York City, are located in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people.
+ Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Woolly Mammoth is “the hottest theater company in town” (Washington Post); priding itself on developing, producing, and making theatre that disrupts conventional processes and stimulates transformative experiences. For almost four decades, Woolly has held a unique position at the leading edge of the American theater, earning a reputation for staying “uniquely plugged in to the mad temper of the times” (New York Times). The co-leadership of María Manuela Goyanes (Artistic Director) and Emika Abe (Managing Director) is supported by a core company of artists that holds itself to a high standard of artistic excellence. Woolly is relentless in its desire to take risks, experiment, innovate, interrogate, and create a radically inclusive community. Located in Washington, DC, Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples.
Woolly Contributors & Funders
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company remains more dedicated than ever to the evolution of the American theatre and we could not produce ground-breaking new plays and world class artistry without our fearless family of donors. We would like to thank the following contributors who made gifts of $500 or more from November 25, 2019 through November 25, 2020. For a full list of our generous patrons please see our website here. Thank you!
Thank you to our sponsors!
+ American Repertory Theater
American Repertory Theater Donors
+ Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater Donors
Thanks to our sponsor!
+ Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Led by Artistic Director Nataki Garrett and Executive Director David Schmitz, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals, and world-premiere plays and musicals. OSF’s play-commissioning programs, which include American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, have generated works that have been produced on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. The Festival draws attendance upwards of 400,000 to more than 800 performances annually and employs 400 to 600 theatre professionals. In 2020, OSF launched O!, a new online platform featuring performances, groundbreaking art, and mind-expanding discussions that you can experience at home from anywhere in the world.
OSF invites and welcomes everyone, and believes the inclusion of diverse people, ideas, cultures, and traditions enriches both our insights into the work we present onstage and our relationships with each other. OSF is committed to equity and diversity in all areas of our work and in our audiences.
OSF’s mission statement: “Inspired by Shakespeare’s work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory.”
Thank you to our Oregon Shakespeare Festival Donors!
