Golden Thread Productions’ Potrero Stage In-Person Return!

Golden Thread Productions returns to in-person performances at Potrero Stage with the World Premiere of Adam Ashraf Elsayigh’s Drowning in Cairo, April 8-May 1, 2022. Directed by GTP Executive Artistic Director Sahar Assaf, the production features Amin El Gamal, Wiley Naman Strasser, and Martin Zebari. The play was originally presented and partially developed as part of Golden Thread’s New Threads Reading Series in 2018. For tickets ($15-$100), visit Events for Golden Thread Productions.

It is May 2001 in Cairo. Moody, Khalid, and their servant Taha are on the Queen Boat, a gay nightclub docked on the Nile. When an unexpected police raid results in the arrest and public humiliation of the attendees, the lives of these young men are altered forever. Adam Ashraf Elsayigh’s debut production weaves budding romances, class differences, and familial expectations into a loving portrait of three men who all struggle to rebuild their lives against all odds.

Adam Ashraf Elsayigh (Playwright), he/him, is an Egyptian playwright, dramaturg, and theater maker living in New York. Through his writing and producing, Adam interrogates the intersections of queerness, immigration, and colonialism. Some of Adam’s plays include Memorial, Jamestown/Williamsburg, The Marginalia, and Drowning in Cairo. Adam is a fellow at Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and a Co-Founder and former Co-Producer of The Criminal Queerness Festival. Adam’s work has been seen at IRT Theater, Dixon Place, Golden Thread Productions, and The NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center. When he’s not frantically drafting a new play or producing a theater festival, you can probably find Adam running on the GWB, volunteering, or planning his next charcuterie brunch. Adam holds a BA in Theater with an emphasis in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from NYU Abu Dhabi and is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting at Brooklyn College.

Sahar Assaf (Director), she/her, is Golden Thread’s Executive Artistic Director. She is a Lebanese stage actor, director, translator, and producer. Before joining Golden Thread, Sahar taught theatre at the American University of Beirut where she co-founded the AUB Theater Initiative with playwright and English Professor Robert Myers. Her work at the Theater Initiative includes translating and directing Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding in a site-specific promenade performance and co-translating, co-directing, and starring in Shakespeare’s King Lear at al-Madina Theater in Beirut, the first production of Shakespeare in Lebanese colloquial, The Rape and Rituals of Signs and Transformations by Sa’dallah Wannous, Watch Your Step: Beirut Heritage Walking Tour which was a site-specific devised work on the Lebanese civil war. Sahar is a strong advocate of documentary theatre and recently conceived and directed Meen El Felten, an immersive documentary play on sexual assault and No Demand No Supply, a hybrid documentary play about sex trafficking and prostitution. She is a member of Lincoln Center Director’s Lab (2014), co-founder and artistic director of Directors Lab Mediterranean (2019), and a Fulbright alumnus with an MA in Theater Studies from Central Washington University (2011). Drowning in Cairo is Sahar’s directorial debut at Golden Thread Productions.

About Golden Thread Productions

Torange Yeghiazarian founded Golden Thread Productions in October 1996 with the help of most excellent friends and family members: Maria Zamroud, Termeh Yeghiazarian, Gen Hayashida, and Kamshad Kooshan. Our name is inspired by the myth of Ariadne who offered Theseus a ball of golden thread to guide him out of the labyrinth.

Since then, Golden Thread Productions has worked diligently to probe and celebrate the Middle Eastern culture and identity in all its complexity. Made up of artists from all over the world, the company exemplifies Theatre’s ability to transcend cultural and political boundaries and to encourage an active dialogue. Golden Thread Productions’ commitment to in depth exploration and understanding is imminently important. This is true now more than ever given the volatility of our relationship with the Middle East and the global ramifications of our decisions influenced by our understanding of the region.

Golden Thread Productions’ debut production was Operation No Penetration, Lysistrata 97! The classic Greek antiwar comedy was adapted to a Middle Eastern setting where Palestinian and Israeli women unite to force men into signing a peace treaty. Since then the company has continued to creatively present challenging social issues on stage: Karim Alrawi’s Deep Cut, exploring the universality of human rights (2001), Nine Armenians by award-winning playwright Leslie Ayvazian (2002), Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat (2005), examining the loss of civil liberties in the aftermath of the PATRIOT Act. Golden Thread’s first internally developed production, The Love Missile was an original anti-war musical collaboratively created by Hal Gelb, Janaki Ranpura, and Torange Yeghiazarian, with original music by Johannes Mager, which explored the dilemma facing a Middle Eastern immigrant scientist who is asked to develop the weapons that will be used against her own nation. Among our early collaborating artists were Laura Hope, Ali Dadgar, Carol Ellis, and Manijeh Mohamedi.

For more information or to reserve tickets, visit https://goldenthread.org/productions/drowning-in-cairo/.