PUBLICATIONS
ARAB STAGES: Drowning in Cairo Performance Review
November 2022
Drowning In Cairo’s powerful throughline of the encounter of teenagers leads to complex relationships, and ends in trauma, triumph, and tribulations. It emerges forcefully as the characters attempt to reconcile their existence with the functional preferences of familial circumstances, and the Egyptian state apparatus.
Memorial to be Presented for Alliance Theatre's 2022/23 Season for the Kendeda Festive
April 13, 2022
The Alliance is pleased to announce the finalists of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition.
SF CHRONICLE: Review: Golden Thread’s ‘Drowning in Cairo’ overstuffs sensitive depiction of gay love triangle
SF EXAMINER: ‘Drowning in Cairo’ about gay rights in Egypt and universality of repression.
April 6, 2022
Looking back on the development process, Elsayigh, on the phone from NYU in Manhattan — where a newer play of his, Memorial, is about to open at Tisch School for the Arts — he says that Drowning in Cairo has changed enormously over the years...
ARAB STAGES: Drowning in Cairo Performance Review
November 2022
Drowning In Cairo’s powerful throughline of the encounter of teenagers leads to complex relationships, and ends in trauma, triumph, and tribulations. It emerges forcefully as the characters attempt to reconcile their existence with the functional preferences of familial circumstances, and the Egyptian state apparatus.
Memorial to be Presented for Alliance Theatre's 2022/23 Season for the Kendeda Festive
April 13, 2022
The Alliance is pleased to announce the finalists of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition.
SF CHRONICLE: Review: Golden Thread’s ‘Drowning in Cairo’ overstuffs sensitive depiction of gay love triangle
SF EXAMINER: ‘Drowning in Cairo’ about gay rights in Egypt and universality of repression.
April 6, 2022
Looking back on the development process, Elsayigh, on the phone from NYU in Manhattan — where a newer play of his, Memorial, is about to open at Tisch School for the Arts — he says that Drowning in Cairo has changed enormously over the years...
In spring 2022, Bay Area theater returns — for real this time
March 16, 2022
“I remember googling ‘Gay Arab novel’ as a preteen and finding no literature about queer people from where I grew up,” playwright Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, who was born in Cairo and grew up in Dubai, said in a statement.
When People's Stories are Honored
Nov 3, 2021
Mahia te Aroha is working with Arianna and Adam, who are based in NYC, in a spirit of cooperation.
Victims' Christchurch terror attack stories told on New York stage
November 2, 2021
A play using the verbatim stories of five people affected by the Christchurch terror attack has debuted on a New York theatre stage.
Golden Thread Production to present World Premiere of Drowning in Cairo
October 7, 2021
Adam Ashraf Elsayigh’s Drowning in Cairo, originally presented and partially developed as part of Golden Thread’s New Threads Reading Series in 2018.
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center Will Present Workshop Production Of The New Verbatim Play, Memorial
September 28, 2021
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center is presenting a workshop production of the new verbatim play Memorial.
April theater: three world premieres, sketch comedy and the Edwardian Ball
March 21, 2022
Assaf has been, among other things, an investigative journalist. She told me last year, “My own curiosity and interest in testimonies and personal stories makes me today a big advocate of documentary theater.”
Observing Between Worlds: A Conversation with Adam Elsayigh
August 13, 2021
"We sat down with New York based Egyptian playwright, dramaturg, and producer Adam Ashraf Elsayigh to discuss his migration story and to learn about his art.
At a Queer Theater Festival, the Plays Are Brazenly Personal
June 22, 2021
Dima Mikhayel Matta has written about her home city before with language like “In Beirut, the streets smell of jasmine and coffee, and the morning call to prayer mingles with church bells.”
The Talkback Podcast: "A Criminal Queerness Roundtable" with Guests Adam Odsess-Rubin, Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, Victor I. Cazares, Dima Mikhayel Matta, and Martin Yousif Zebari
June 18, 2021
Joining me once again are the Producers of the National Queer Theater's Criminal Queerness Festival - Adam Odsess-Rubin and Adam Ashraf Elsayigh.
AFAC Announces Eighteen Performing Arts 2020 Projects
August 27, 2020
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – AFAC has announced the selection of eighteen projects from seven Arab countries for its 2020 Performing Arts grant program.
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center Will Present Work-in-Process Presentation of the New Verbatim Play MEMORIAL
February 4, 2020
Conceived by Arianna Stucki, and co-written by Stucki and playwright Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, Memorial is a verbatim play that centers the experience of survivors of the mosque shootings that occurred on March 15, 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand.
ReOrient 2019: National Convening of Middle East and North African Theatre Artists
November 12, 2019
I spoke in a panel on "Artistic and Administrative Mentorship in the MENA Community" organized by my dear mentor, Catherine Coray and facilitated by Roberta Levitow.
The Queer Arabs Podcast, Episode 40: Interview with Adam Ashraf
November 30, 2018
Adam has been creating plays that give voice to the issues that queer Egyptians have faced.
Drowning in Cairo: An Interview with Egyptian Playwright Adam A. Elsayigh
November 1, 2018
“My narrative imagines these three characters who grew up together and were going on this boat and were very excited to be in this queer space for the first time, and how getting arrested on this boat impacts the rest of their lives,” said Elsayigh.
Drowning in Cairo in New Threads' Festival Press Release
June 5, 2018
Golden Thread’s popular staged reading series returns, introducing four vital new plays to the Bay Area.