Ramzi Salti's Arabology

REORIENT THE WAY YOU SEE THE MIDDLE EAST WITH GOLDEN THREAD PRODUCTIONS (SEP. 10–OCT. 4) ReOrient Festival presents eight fully-produced short plays in two repertory series, including award–winning Iraqi-British playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak’s U.S. debut, new works by Middle East America winners Yussef El Guindi and Mona Mansour, as well as world premieres by emerging voices like Nahal Navidar. ReOrient Forum (Oct. 3 and 4) includes panels and presentations featuring artists, activists, and scholars from around the world. Festival includes a Fairytale Players Double Bill:  Two family-friendly short plays inspired by Middle Eastern fables presented in one afternoon.  Music lovers can enjoy Syrian-American soprano Saousan Jarjour’s reminagining of Arabic folk songs. “The annual cavalcade of short plays about the Middle East that has itself provided, in addition to a dependable variety of aesthetic pleasures, crucial space for public consideration and dialogue.” –Rob Avila, San Francisc

The Arabian Shakespeare Festival is presenting 4 Short Plays created with inspiration from one of Shakespeare's Sonnets or the Poetry of Sidi Abderrahman el Mejdub and Abeliziz Al Magrouhi (arab poets from the same period). Actors and directors will put the play up with well under 10 hours of rehearsal! New works written by Barry Eitel, Elmaz Abinader, David Graham and Deema Shehabi. For more info and tickets, see http://m.bpt.me/event/1582798

Oud Master Ramy Adly will be in concert at the Kennedy Center on August 28th, at 6pm,  His performance aims at highlighting the Oud instrument  and the way it has always featured within the canon of Arabic/Middle Eastern music.