Andrea Assaf

Andrea Assaf is a poet, essayist, and widely-produced playwright, director, performer, and cultural organizer. She’s the founding Artistic and Executive Director of Art2Action Inc., and the National Coordinator of the National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation (an Art2Action collaboration with Pangea World Theater). She is currently an Artist-in-Residence and guest faculty at the School of Theatre & Dance, University of South Florida (Tampa). Andrea has served as a consultant with Equity Quotient (EQ), Alternate ROOTS, the Arts & Democracy Project, and more. She is a former Artistic Director of New WORLD Theater (2004-09), and former Program Associate for Animating Democracy (2001-04). Andrea has a Masters degree in Performance Studies and a BFA in acting, both from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She currently serves on the Board of CAATA (Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists), and is a voting board member of Alternate ROOTS. She served on the International Management Committee of WPI (Women Playwrights International, 2012-15), and is a member of RAWI (Radius of Arab American Writers).

Manaar Azreik

Manaar Azreik is a non-binary person who was born in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva to Palestinian, Christian Arab parents. Manaar grew up bilingual in Arabic and Hebrew, and first learned English in a Bedouin elementary school. She became the seven times national Israeli Judo champion, and has had a lifelong journey to reconcile her identities and heritage as a modern Israeli, and accepting herself as a transgender person. She is a soul-centered transformation mentor, leading humanity to a true realization of the divine self through expressive arts including movement, sacred music and soul dancing. Her recent invention is named Transformation by Fire, an organization that offers Healing and Recovery services in natural disaster areas. She is the CEO of Wholistic Solutions and the author of The Practice Of Trust Book.

Amal Bisharat (she/her)

Amal Bisharat (she/her) is a Palestinian American multidisciplinary artist: a theatre director, theatre maker, producer, actor, musician, and photographer. Bisharat holds a BA in Music and Theater from Minnesota State University-Moorhead and for 12 years worked as a director and music director in partnership with San Francisco Unified School District. Bisharat is a grateful recipient of the Theater Bay Area Arts Leadership Residency Grant (2022-2023), Theater Bay Area CA$H Creates Grant (2022), and San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant (2023). Currently, she works with Golden Thread Productions, recently co-producing and directing for their signature program ReOrient Festival of Short Plays (2023), and directing an online reading of The Gaza Monologues by Ashtar Theater (2023). Bisharat is also in the process of creating her first musical, “Mornings in Jenin Musical”, a Palestinian refugee story adapted from the internationally best-selling novel by the same name by Susan Abulhawa. After many years of hiatus from acting, Bisharat is thrilled to be returning to her roots this year to play the role of Safiyya in Golden Thread’s production of Returning to Haifa (2024) by Ghassan Kanafani, adapted for the stage by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi. She is a board member of MENATMA (Middle East North African Theater Makers Alliance) and also serves on the Community Council for Golden Thread’s 2024 Season for Palestine. Bisharat is also a photographer with her own arts-focused photography company, capturing the magic of professional dance, theater, and music performances for groups like Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Sarah Bush Dance Project, and Alonzo King Lines Ballet. Bisharat believes in the transformative power of art and storytelling whether on a stage, in a photograph, or in the stories we tell ourselves.

Sophia Alawi

Sophia Alawi is a first-generation Muslim Moroccan/Italian American actress, singer, songwriter & writer. She has a BFA in Musical Theater from Rider University. She also studied at T’Schreiber, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and The Barrow Group in New York. She’s so excited to be a part of this new musical that uplifts unrepresented Palestinian voices. She won the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for Best Featured Actress – Musical in 2019 for Groundhog Day The Musical and was named one of “Five Standout Performances” in 2019 by the Houston Chronicle for the role of Wendla in Spring Awakening. Regional credits include Sound of Music(Hillbarn Theater) She Loves Me, Merrily We Roll Along & Fun Home (42nd St Moon), As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Groundhog Day The Musical (San Francisco Playhouse), Spring Awakening (Theater Under the Stars), and In the Heights (Playhouse on Park). New York credits include Fat Kid Rules the World, and Emerson Loses Her Mind. TV credits include Law & OrderSVU.

Debórah Eliezer (she/her)

Debórah Eliezer (she/her) is a mixed-identity Arab-Jewish artist, activist, coach, and California fire survivor. Passionate about the power of human transformation, her work focuses on disrupting assumptions about art, human values, the environment, and society. She is the Artistic Director of Aviva Arts, an Associate Artist with Golden Thread, a Mitsui Collective Somatic Jewish Leader Fellow, (Kollel3,) artEquity arts facilitator alumna, and proudly serves on the inaugural MENATMA board. Eliezer has devised numerous world premieres and toured internationally, including writing and performing (dis)Place[d], about Iraqi Jews. As the former foolsFURY Co-Artistic Director, she produced the FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble Theater in SF for 13 years and BUILD digital convenings. Eliezer holds a B.A. Cum Laude in Drama Cum Laude from SFSU, and is a certified Sound, Voice Music Healing practitioner from CIIS, and a certified Kaula Tantra Yoga instructor.

www.avivaarts.org

Mama Ganuush

Mama Ganuush is a disowned, liberated, disabled, Palestinian African, Trilingual Trans drag artist, actor, model, and social justice activist. Mama Ganuush dedicates their work to ending the Palestinian genocide & the liberation from the Israeli apartheid. Mama Ganuush earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and a master’s in philosophy. Mama Ganuush founded House Ganuush, and Heritage Activists & Liberation Artists (HALA) collective.

Yasaman Asgari

Yasaman Asgari is a 27-year-old multimedia artist currently based in San Francisco. She is thrilled to be part of the Mornings In Jenin Musical cast as Sarah. Yasaman recently worked on a local Berkeley production of ‘Women Life Freedom’, a devised drama centered on the recent Iranian uprisings. Yasaman was born in Tehran, Iran, and later immigrated to New York City with her family. She went on to receive her Masters in International Relations from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Her work mainly focuses on culture and identity. She aims to bring marginalized voices to the forefront, dispute harmful stereotypes, and ultimately get people to care about each other.

Zina Pozen

Originally from Ukraine, Zina Pozen grew up in a family of classical musicians, playing piano from a young age. In her house, salty Yiddish sayings, contraband Barry Sisters, Stravinsky and Poulenc, traditional Ukrainian and Moldovan tunes, Utyosov and Dunaevsky weaved their sounds together. After moving to the U.S., Zina fell under the spell of the Eastern European Folklife Center Balkan Music Camps and picked up the accordion to play traditional music. Zina plays klezmer, Moldovan, Ukrainian, Turkish, Armenian, Greek rebetiko, and other styles.

She was a founding member of Seattle’s infamous (and famously fun) Bucharest Drinking Team. In the Bay Area, she plays with Saul Goodman Klezmer Band, Orchestra Euphonos, Metanastys, Yeraz Ensemble, Cabin 19, Moonshine Jelly, Jonnie Pekelny, and friends, and sits in with Balkan Sunday jams.

Outside of music, Zina is a language technologist, training robots to help humans learn human languages.