<\/p>\n
Playwright Denmo Ibrahim, left, and director Nabra Nelson give actors feedback during a Golden Thread Productions rehearsal of \u201cA Country Made of Salt\u201d at the Potrero Stage in San Francisco on, Friday, April 10. Golden Thread Productions is the first U.S. theater company dedicated to the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Estefany Gonzalez\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Director Nabra Nelson, right, and playwright Denmo Ibrahim work with actors during a rehearsal of \u201cA Country Made of Salt\u201d at the Potrero Stage.<\/p>\n
Estefany Gonzalez\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Leaders of a theater company dedicated to the Middle East probably get asked more questions about international affairs and politics than most other theater artists do.<\/p>\n
But talk to the three women who\u2019ve led Golden Thread Productions\u00a0\u2014 Torange Yeghiazarian, who founded the company in 1996; successor Sahar Assaf, who took over in 2021 and Nabra Nelson, who came aboard in December\u00a0\u2014 and they\u2019re likely to point out that journalists should be asking those questions of every arts leader, not just the ones at the helm of identity-specific companies.<\/p>\n
A Festival of Palestinian Art: Through Sunday, April 19. $20-$100. Potrero Stage, 1695 18th St., S.F. 415-626-4061.\u00a0https:\/\/goldenthread.org<\/a><\/p>\n As the company was preparing to launch its Festival of Palestinian Art,<\/a> which runs through April 19, the three spoke to the Chronicle\u00a0\u2014 Yeghiazarian and Nelson from the Bay Area, Assaf from Saudi Arabia, to which she relocated in 2024 for family reasons.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Q: As we speak, President Donald Trump is threatening mass destruction of Iran if it doesn\u2019t reopen the Strait of Hormuz by tonight (Tuesday, April 7). For each of you, what is your relationship to consuming news?<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Yeghiazarian: I can\u2019t really tolerate hearing the voice of our elected officials and the language that they use, so I basically read the news. It\u2019s self-preservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nelson: Since I came back to the U.S. when I was 17, I was actually really blown away by how much propaganda is in the news and how different it was than the news I was consuming when I was in Egypt.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Director Nabra Nelson, left, speaks with playwright Denmo Ibrahim during a Golden Thread Productions rehearsal of \u201cA Country Made of Salt.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Estefany Gonzalez\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Assaf: I do try to take breaks, but I\u2019m in the news. I mean, I am in the Middle East right now, with family and friends all over the impacted communities and cities and countries, so I cannot afford not to hear the news. I feel like I need to stay informed. I need to know how to be safe.<\/p>\n To be living in a time where the president of a 250-year-old country is threatening one of the oldest continuous civilizations with annihilation is beyond enraging.<\/p>\n Q: Given all that, how do we go on as artists and, speaking selfishly, those who write about them?<\/p>\n Assaf: I\u2019m surprised that this is not the one topic that we\u2019re talking about in each and every field. I mean the news today\u00a0\u2014 the nuclear escalation\u00a0\u2014 this is the annihilation of all of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nelson: I feel extremely lucky that I\u2019m at a company (where) I know that if I continue to do the work, it\u2019s moving towards justice and it\u2019s centering communities that need to be centered right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n I mean, how can one do work that doesn\u2019t matter right now? I don\u2019t understand. Like, how can you do a classic staging of \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d right now?<\/p>\n Golden Thread Productions Founder Torange Yeghiazarian at the theater\u2019s Potrero Stage in San Francisco on May 19, 2021. Assaf succeeded Yeghiazarian who stepped down from her role after 25 years.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n Yeghiazarian: In the U.S., there is this sort of delusion about separation of politics from the rest of the life. Millions of people voted for these people who are running the country, and we have to take responsibility for that. We can\u2019t be like this Berkeley mindset of, \u201cNo, we are liberal progressives that have nothing to do with what\u2019s happening in the country.\u201d That is not true. Everyone has enabled what is happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n Q: At the same time, Torange, years ago you told me<\/a> that \u201ckneejerk\u201d artistic responses to current events lead to mission drift. Do you still feel that way?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Yeghiazarian: There are historic narratives that aren\u2019t even part of the American psyche, that are not taught in school, that are not discussed in the media. The Middle Eastern perspective\u00a0\u2014 by that I mean people who live in the Middle East\u00a0\u2014 their experience is rarely shared in the U.S. The average American knows almost nothing about life in Lebanon, life in Iran, life in Palestine. Yet our leadership makes decisions that impact the lives of those people, and it\u2019s our vote that enables that.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s happening between the U.S. and Iran right now\u00a0\u2014 it didn\u2019t happen February 28th. That\u2019s not when it started. It didn\u2019t even start in 1978 or 1979. These are stories that a company like Golden Thread has the opportunity to tell, to really dig deeper into.<\/p>\n When you run a theater company, when you\u2019re programming artistic programming, that\u2019s an opportunity. That\u2019s a gift. What do you do with that gift?<\/p>\n Director Nabra Nelson, center right, leads a rehearsal of \u201cA Country Made of Salt\u201d at the Potrero Stage.<\/p>\n Estefany Gonzalez\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Nelson: My background is in community engagement when it comes to theater leadership. You can only do true community engagement with the long-term in mind. You\u2019re not coming in and saying, \u201cYou! Have a relationship with us, and tell us what you need, and let\u2019s do that thing, and then let\u2019s leave.\u201d That\u2019s how community engagement used to be. It was very tokenizing and very hit-and-run.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n (At Golden Thread), community need is integrated into our work as usual, and so we are responsive when we continue our work as usual.<\/p>\n Assaf: I think what Golden Thread is doing is offering a space for healing. And I\u2019m very careful in using that word. I don\u2019t use it lightly, but I\u2019m only allowing myself to use it now because I recently listened to the psychologist Dalia Halabi. She\u2019s speaking about how, when there\u2019s dissonance between your inner world\u00a0\u2014 what you\u2019re living internally\u00a0\u2014 and your surroundings, when there\u2019s that conflict, it really breaks your nervous system.\u00a0<\/p>\n Golden Thread is the space where our internal world and our external world align.<\/p>\n I want to release some of our pressure (to educate) and be like, whatever story our artists want to tell, let\u2019s just do it.<\/p>\n Yeghiazaraian: That dissonance is really eating us from the inside. I remember when the U.S. invaded Iraq, during those war years, I feel like I was like one of those marionettes constantly going, \u201cBut don\u2019t you see this? There are no weapons of mass destruction! Why can\u2019t you see?\u201d I was constantly trying to make people understand that the news is 90% false.\u00a0<\/p>\n Golden Thread Productions Executive Artistic Director Sahar Assaf\u00a0at the theater\u2019s Potrero Stage in San Francisco on May 19, 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n Assaf: I remember dropping my son at preschool and (being) like, \u201cYou\u2019re just leaving your kids, and it\u2019s just so chill, and everyone is so OK?\u201d I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going crazy. I look at children, and all I see is dead bodies of children.\u201d Then I have to go, like, run errands, and people are so oblivious, and you\u2019re looking at images from your country and your people being annihilated.\u00a0<\/p>\n What Golden Thread does is this attunement, this regulation of your nervous system. Everyone is feeling lighter, just because you don\u2019t have to explain yourself.<\/p>\n Q: Sahar, you\u2019ve said that when you were looking for a successor, Nabra was at the top of your list. Why?<\/p>\n Assaf: I felt we want someone to come in and lead with courage and love, not with fear\u00a0\u2014 because we have lots of, unfortunately, leaders leading from a place of fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n Q: Recently I was reading American Theatre\u2019s coverage<\/a> of the five-year anniversary of the \u201cWe See You, White American Theater\u201d<\/a> document that demanded concrete changes throughout the theater industry to advance racial equity. What have you seen change since then, if anything, and where you still feel we have the most work to do?<\/p>\n Yeghiazarian: I would say that we\u2019ve regressed. The perceptions of people\u00a0\u2014 as reflected by our leadership and the language being used politically\u00a0\u2014 we can see that a lot of those gains, a lot of the points that were raised, have been undermined.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nelson: I was so terrified that it would be the flavor of the week, and it was a longer flavor of week for predominantly white institutions, but so much of that drive dissipated.<\/p>\n Director Nabra Nelson makes notes during a Golden Thread Productions rehearsal of \u201cA Country Made of Salt\u201d at the Potrero Stage.<\/p>\n Estefany Gonzalez\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n It was so exciting to be at a large predominantly white institution devoting that energy. For a leader of color, I was like, \u201cYes!\u201d It was giving me energy. But for the folks who were not leaders of color\u00a0\u2014 largely white leaders, male leaders, leaders who didn\u2019t need to think about how their identities contributed to this work on the day-to-day\u00a0\u2014 it was extra work, and it made them tired and stressed.<\/p>\n Assaf: Mid-pandemic, I remember the weekly meetings that artistic directors in the Bay Area were having. It felt really such a communal, beautiful togetherness\u00a0\u2014 until the genocide, I have to say.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve listened to many of those leaders, whom I love dearly and respect, deliver impeccable land acknowledgements, but when it came to acknowledging a genocide that\u2019s being perpetuated with your tax money right now\u00a0\u2014 silence.<\/p>\n The fear is real, right? Cancellation is real. The pressure from the Zionist lobby is real. Losing funding is real. But that\u2019s what makes me feel like the progress that we thought was happening is not real, because if we\u2019re still functioning from that same place, we\u2019re continuing to perpetuate the same systems that led to these tragic events.<\/p>\n Director Nabra Nelson gives actors feedback during a Golden Thread Productions rehearsal of \u201cA Country Made of Salt\u201d at the Potrero Stage.<\/p>\n Estefany Gonzalez\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n If you can really stand on a stage and acknowledge a genocide that happened 200 years ago, and don\u2019t see the hypocrisy of not acknowledging a genocide that\u2019s happening right now, I don\u2019t know what to say about that.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was heartbroken when I reached out to the leaders, and I was like, \u201cThis is Golden Thread\u2019s statement. Would you like to endorse?\u201d Nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then a few months later, I\u2019m like, \u201cLet\u2019s get together and write a joint statement (advocating) ceasefire.\u201d I don\u2019t want you to engage in the complexity of the politics. I just want you to say, \u201cIt\u2019s not OK to murder children, no matter what the problem is.\u201d Nothing.<\/p>\n Then I was like, \u201cI\u2019m just going to keep going. I\u2019m going to do the work, and when people reach out to collaborate, we\u2019re going to collaborate.\u201d Because it\u2019s not time to judge each other, obviously. It\u2019s time to (lead) with a model, with an example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playwright Denmo Ibrahim, left, and director Nabra Nelson give actors feedback during a Golden Thread Productions rehearsal of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[329,839,143,145,144,101,1058],"class_list":["post-266538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-san-francisco","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n