Digital Guide to Theatre in the Middle East Launches

Professor Marjan Moosavi has created a new guide to MENA theatre in the 21st century

On July 30th, Golden Thread Productions, in collaboration with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University and the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, hosted the launch of the first and only searchable database in the field of MENA Theatre. The Digital Guide to Theatre of the Middle East: 21st Century Volume (DGTOME) was created by Roshan Institute professor Dr. Marjan Moosavi. Dr. Moosavi presented the DGTOME and spoke about the transnational collaboration of experts and artists that led to the emergence of this pioneering archival project. The presentation was followed by a roundtable discussion with Arts Professor Catherine Coray, playwright Adam El Sayegh, and stage director Pirronne Yousefzadeh, moderated by Golden Thread Productions’ Executive Artistic Director Sahar Assaf and Samer Al Saber, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at Stanford University. The discussion centered on the intersection of digital humanities research and MENA theatre and how DGTOME debunks the scarcity narrative of MENA playwrights and MENA stories.