Who
When
Where
Written, Directed & Performed by Andrea Assaf
Art2Action, Inc
Collaborating Musicians:
Eylem Basaldi, Violinist
April Centrone, Percussionist
Lubana Al Quntar, Vocalist
Eleven Reflections on September is a spoken word and multimedia performance on the Arab American experience, Wars on/of Terror, and “the constant, quiet rain of death amidst beauty” that each autumn brings in a post-9/11 world. The poems, accompanied by an all-women music ensemble, progress from lyrical to abstract and broken as they span the fall of the Twin Towers, the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the beginning of the Arab Spring, the revolutions and conflicts now sweeping through Western & Central Asia.
Eleven Reflections on September was originally commissioned by Pangea World Theater’s Alternate Visions Festival, and the New York premiere was produced by La MaMa, both with the generous support of the Princess Grace Foundation.
Media design by Pramila Vasudevan | Sound design by Owen Mustafa Henry & Keegan Fraley | Stage Manager, Kacey Stamats
About Andrea Assaf
Andrea Assaf is an acclaimed performer, writer and director, and the founding Artistic Director of Art2Action, Inc. First commissioned in 2011 by Pangea World Theatre, Assaf’s Eleven Reflections on September has toured both nationally and internationally throughout the United States, Mexico, and Poland at such venues as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, The Apollo WOW Festival, and La MaMa in New York City. Assaf is a recipient of the 2014 Princess Grace Foundation Special Projects Award, and a 2010 Princess Grace Fellowship/Gant Gaither Theater Award for Directing. She received a National Performance Network (NPN) 2011 Creation Fund award for Outside the Circle, co-written with Samuel Valdez and co-commissioned by Pangea World Theater, El Centro Su Teatro, and the Esperanza Center for Justice & Peace. Assaf is a published poet and writer and holds a masters degree in Performance Studies and a BFA in Acting, both from NYU. Through Art2Action, Inc, she is the National Coordinator of the Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation (in partnership with Pangea World Theatre). Formerly, Assad served as the Artistic Director of New WORLD Theater (2004-09), and Program Associate for Animating Democracy (2001-04). She currently serves on the board of CAATA, Alternate ROOTS, and is a member of RAWI (Radius of Arab American Writers).