Monsters have long been feared by, well, everyone. After all it’s only normal to be afraid of the dark… or more specifically, what‘s lurking unseen in the dark. In honor of Charise Castro Smith’s new horror play Feathers and Teeth I began exploring some of the creepiest creatures famous for terrorizing cultures across the world.…
Learn about the five characters in Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced below! Amir: Amir is the central character in Disgraced. Amir’s family is of South Asian origin, but he was born in the United States and firmly identifies as an American. He is a successful corporate lawyer and lives in a lush apartment on New York City’s…
Ayad Akhtar’s globally-minded drama Disgraced was certainly timely when it premiered in early 2012. And in light of subsequent events, from the advances of ISIS, to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, ...
In the opening moments of Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced, we see an intimate image: Emily, a young, white artist, is sketching her husband Amir, a well-to-do Pakistani American lawyer. Emily reveals the idea for this new sketch was inspired both by a minor run-in with a racist waiter the night before, as well…
Goodman Theatre believes that theater is more than a play or a place: it is an inspiring, expansive lens on the world that can profoundly engage communities and expand minds. Goodman programs promote literacy and learning, inspire self-confidence and empowerment — and effect positive change in society. The new Alice B. Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement at…
Disgraced, by playwright, novelist, screenwriter and actor Ayad Akhtar, premiered in Chicago in 2012 at American Theatre Company. The play then went on to New York’s Lincoln Center Theater, subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize and later transferred to Broadway, where it earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Play....
It begins innocuously enough. A young, upwardly mobile Wall Street attorney (and lapsed Muslim) and his beautiful, idealistic (and Caucasian) artist wife are throwing a small dinner party for a similarly successful couple, a Jewish art curator (who’s about to feature his hostess’ paintings in a new show) and his African American wife, another rising…
In a world in which many things (including plays) are easily categorized, Charise Castro Smith’s Feathers and Teeth is a delightful anomaly. At first glance, it’s a dark parody of such late ‘70s family sitcoms as The Brady Bunch, replete with shag carpeting, lacquered hairstyles and uneasy family dinners. Beneath its chrome-and-plastic surface, though, the play…
In Disgraced, Chicago-based actor Behzad Dabu portrays Abe, the 22-year-old nephew of successful Manhattan lawyer Amir. Abe’s request for his uncle to assist a local imam facing legal trouble sparks the tumultuous events of Ayad Akhtar’s drama. The Goodman production of Disgraced will mark a homecoming of sorts for Dabu, who also played Abe in…
