1st Edition
Arabs, Politics, and Performance
This book is a ground-breaking collection on contemporary Arab theatre.
Through three sections discussing occupation and resistance, diaspora, migration, and refugees, 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.
Part 1 Identity and Resistance
1. Historiographical Conundrums in Palestinian Theatre Research
Samer Al-Saber
2. The Iraqi Home/Land under Siege: House as Metaphor in Abdul Razaq Al-Rubai’s A Strange Bird on Our Roof
Amir Al-Azraki and James Al-Shamma
3. Palestinian Theatre: Alienation, Mediation, and Assimilation in Cross-Cultural Research and Practice
Gary M. English
4. Across Borders and Thresholds: Shakespeare’ Othello and Hamlet in the Arab World
Khalid Amine
5. The Maghreb on the American Stage: The "Barbary Wars" in Post-Independence US Theatre
Jeff Casey
6. Censorship and Creativity in Syrian Theatre: Saʾdallah Wannous’ A Soirée for the Fifth of June, The King’s Elephant, and The King Is King
Samar Zahrawi
Part 2 Diaspora, Migration, and Refugees
7. Strategies of Resistance: Arab American Dramatic Devices in the Battle Against Anti-Arab Stereotypes
Roaa Ali
8. Postmemory Nostalgia in Service of Nationalism
Bart Pitchford
9. ‘Can Everyone Hear Me?’: Arab Digital Performance and Border Crossing on UK Stages
Faisal Hamadah
10. Arab Voices on the European Stage: Between Fact and Fiction, Memory and Imagination
Sarah Youssef
11. Arab Muslim Stand-up and North American Religious Identities
Margaret Aziza Pappano
12. The Predicaments of Production: Public Discourse, Artistic Process, and Audience Response in Contemporary Arab American Theatre
Hala Baki
Part 3 Nationalism and Belonging
13. Stable Instability: Performing National Identity in Amman
George Potter
14. Globalisation LIVE! Arab Performance as Corporate Goodwill?
Yasmine Marie Jahanmir and Hassan Hajiyah
15. Sharjah Desert as a Site-Specific Theatrical Venue
Hadia Mousa
16. The Manifest Absence of Religion in Modern Egyptian Drama: The Case of Alfred Faraǧ
Daniela Potenza
17. Arabs/Muslims on American Stages: Foils for American Adventurism
Michael Malek Najjar
18. From the Karagoz to Ragi: Nasser as the Patron of an Indigenous Egyptian Political Theatre
Samy Selim
Biography
Roaa Ali is Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Manchester, UK.
George Potter is Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Walter G. Friedrich Professor of American Literature at Valparaiso University, Indiana, USA.
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.
