Region Info: Metro Bay Area
Regional VP:
Welcome to Jayne Wenger, our new Regional VP Metro Bay Area! Jayne hosted her first event, the Bay Area Dramaturgy Tea on February 1st, 2026, a gathering of local dramaturgs for a luncheon at her home in Tiburon, CA. It was a great opportunity for local Bay Area dramaturgs to meet, re-establish connections, and get to know one another better. The focus was on developing new relationships and strategies for future shared events, such as group outings to theatre events – including dance, music and new opera – as well as growing the local membership at LMDA. We spilled the tea with one another (without spilling any actual tea), created a group chat for Bay Dramaturgs on Signal, and established a new show recommendation coined “RUN, Don’t Walk.” Then President, now Past President Sara Freeman was able to join the group and speak to attendees about her vision, her work, and moving LMDA and dramaturgy into the future. It was a beautiful and convivial afternoon of delicious tea sandwiches and lovely brews! Stay tuned for future events here in the San Francisco Bay Area….
Latest News
2026
Domestic Activism & Cogs that Refuse to Turn: An Intro to Hannah Khalil’s Blood Fruit
by ReOrient Publications Dramaturg Emily DeDakis
As a dramaturgy team member of the fourth partnership between Golden Thread Productions and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), ReOrient Publications Dramaturg Emily DeDakis contemplates the power of strikes and boycotts while conjuring Henry Street in Dublin – site of Hannah Khalil’s compact, rhythmic masterpiece of a play in ReOrient 2026.
ABOUT EMILY DeDAKIS: Emily DeDakis (she/her) is a writer and dramaturg from the Southeast U.S. now living in Belfast, Ireland. As a dramaturg, she has developed dozens of scripts and performances in her native and adopted homes, including immersive, 24-hour, ensemble/devised, multimedia, verbatim, and dance theatre. Emily writes for theatre, sound art, radio, TV, and contemporary music, and performs voice/text with HIVE Choir and No Hevdem.
“…Both of Khalil’s parents emigrated to London when they were teenagers, and the story and contextual framing of Blood Fruit link her mother’s Irish and father’s Palestinian roots. ‘It’s a story that I heard in Ireland, I don’t even remember when I first heard it,’ Khalil says. ‘But it always stayed with me: that young women could do something that could make such a difference. I’m signed up to the boycott of Israel as the only peaceful method within my grasp of feeling like I’m doing something – well, other than writing plays, obviously. I’m told often by people, ‘no, boycott doesn’t work.’ So I wanted to write something about Mary Manning as a sort of corrective to this idea that boycott shuts down conversation, that boycott is not a positive thing, and that individuals can’t do anything.’”
Click here to read the entire article by ReOrient 2026 Publications Dramaturg Emily DeDakis.
Learn more about ReOrient 2026 here.
Protests and Pet-shares Break Down Borders: A Look at Sepehr Jafari’s Homing Pigeons & Co
by ReOrient Publications Dramaturg Oona Hatton
As a dramaturgy team member of the fourth partnership between Golden Thread Productions and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), ReOrient Publications Dramaturg Oona Hatton uncovers the humor, politics, and heart behind Sepehr Jafari’s Homing Pigeons and Co, receiving its world premiere in ReOrient 2026.
ABOUT OONA HATTON: Oona Hatton (she/her) has been a production and development dramaturg for over two decades. Favorite productions include 11th & Pine, The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, and Arcadia. Oona teaches at SJSU and is co-artistic director of Davis Repertory Theatre, with whom she devises, directs, writes, produces, and, of course, dramaturgs.
“…Jafari, who has studied playwriting in Tehran and San Francisco, encourages us to think expansively about dramatic storytelling, and to question whether traditional approaches are able to capture everyone’s reality. They note that Western theatrical storytelling with its specific structures and styles ‘trains us to experience reality in a certain way. What we view as absurdity might just be another way of experiencing reality.’ As a playwright using incongruity to critique oppressive systems, Jafari is in the company of luminaries including Vaçlav Havel, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Wole Soyinka. As in the work of these artists, Homing Pigeons & Co is full of wit. Reflecting on the play’s lighter moments, Jafari shares, ‘Humor is how I work around traumatic experiences. Being playful around hard emotions is a way to maintain the characters’ dignity.’ While we witness Tina’s and Halan’s victimization, we also recognize them as more than their suffering.”
Click here to read the entire article by ReOrient 2026 Publications Dramaturg Oona Hatton.
Learn more about ReOrient 2026 here.
Marina Johnson and ReOrient play posters, designed by Shams Nelson.
Who Gets to Speak in Palestinian and Iranian Narratives at ReOrient 2026
by ReOrient Publications Dramaturg Marina Johnson
As a dramaturgy team member of the fourth partnership between Golden Thread Productions and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), Publications Dramaturg Marina Johnson takes us inside three ReOrient plays that explore Palestinian and Iranian stories and urgent questions about testimony, censorship, and spectatorship: Camouflage by Ahmed Masoud, Dare Not Speak by Hassan Abdulrazzak, and Regarding Antigone by Banafsheh Hassani.
ABOUT MARINA JOHNSON: Marina Johnson recently graduated with her Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies from Stanford University. Prior to Stanford, Johnson received her MFA in Directing and taught at Beloit College. She recently directed plays and led workshops at El Hakawati (Jerusalem), Al Harah Theatre (Bethlehem), and ASHTAR Theatre (Ramallah). She is currently living in Palestine, working as a director, dramaturg, and trainer.
The plays in this year’s festival approach storytelling about Palestine and Iran in very different theatrical forms. Across these works, the question is not merely what theatre can say about Palestine and Iran, but what it means to speak at all when speech, silence, visibility, and representation have themselves become sites of political struggle. Camouflage begins with fragmentation: its four young Palestinians live in their own cities across the region and demonstrate how forced displacement, siege, and dispossession can produce profoundly different Palestinian experiences. Dare Not Speak shifts from these lived experiences to the problem of representing Palestinian violence onstage while cleverly exposing censorship disguised as artistic neutrality. Regarding Antigone pushes the question further by confronting the audience itself, repeatedly asking why spectators continue watching rather than intervening.
Click here to read the entire article by ReOrient 2026 Publications Dramaturg Marina Johnson
Learn more about ReOrient 2026
LMDA Continues Partnership with Golden Thread in San Francisco
ReOrient 2026 marks LMDA’s fourth collaboration with Golden Thread Productions on their bi-annual ReOrient Festival of Short Plays! As LMDA celebrates its 40th anniversary and Golden Thread its 30th season, the partnership brings together two organizations that value launching new plays and challenging cultural preconceptions through provocative programming and dialogue. Led by LMDA Treasurer and Golden Thread Affiliated Artist Nakissa Etemad, LMDA expands the ReOrient 2026 production dramaturgy team of Etemad and Marina Johnson by providing three Publications Dramaturgs: Marina Johnson, Emily DeDakis, and Oona Hatton. They will bring their expertise in new play development and contextualization to write feature articles for audiences that explore the rich narratives and artists of this vibrant festival. We look forward to ongoing partnerships between our two organizations and collaborations between dramaturgs and Middle Eastern theatre artists for generations to come!
Read the first of our three ReOrient 2026 Publications Dramaturg articles above, and check back in October for two more.
Visit Golden Thread’s website to learn more about the festival and buy tickets! (Runs Oct. 9th – Nov. 1st, 2026)
2023
Our LMDA-Golden Thread Partnership: Third Time’s a Charm!
Six short plays. One unforgettable evening.
This year’s ReOrient 2023 Festival marks LMDA’s third collaboration with Golden Thread Productions and the inaugural festival for new artistic director Sahar Assaf. The partnership brings together two organizations that value challenging cultural preconceptions through provocative programming and dialogue, and is curated by LMDA’s Regional VP Metro Bay Area and Festival Lead Dramaturg Nakissa Etemad. The ReOrient Dramaturgy Team consists of a team of professional dramaturgs who bring their expertise in new play development, research, contextualization, and theatre writing. This year’s LMDA partnership augments the team to include a Publications Dramaturg to join the ReOrient Camp & Festival and write a feature article on ReOrient artists and the creative process that brings audiences behind-the-scenes. Be sure to check out the Dramaturgs’ program notes and playwright messages curated by the team in the Festival Program!
In addition to Golden Thread resident artist Nakissa Etemad, the ReOrient 2023 Dramaturgy Team includes Marina Johnson, Vidhu Singh, and Heather Rastovac Akbarzadeh. Visit Golden Thread’s website for more on the 2023 Festival. Click on the links below to read the full articles by ReOrient Publications Dramaturgs.
- ReOrient 2023 Festival Celebrates a Resilient Return Under Sahar Assaf
As a dramaturgy team member of our third partnership with Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Publications Dramaturg Vidhu Singh takes you behind the scenes of this year’s ReOrient Festival of Short Plays.
2019
A Fruitful Partnership Continues
In this 20th Anniversary of ReOrient Festival, Golden Thread celebrates its second collaboration with LMDA, the international service organization dedicated to the support, promotion, and advocacy of the dramaturgy field, holding the belief that theatre is a vital art form with the power to nourish, educate, and transform individuals and their communities, and that dramaturgy is central to the process of theater-making. Married with Golden Thread’s belief in theatre’s ability to transcend cultural and political boundaries and to encourage an active dialogue, the partnership – curated by LMDA’s Regional VP Metro Bay Area and Festival Lead Dramaturg Nakissa Etemad – provides ReOrient with a team of professional dramaturgs who bring their expertise in new play development, research, contextualization, and theatre writing. In return, Golden Thread offers LMDA collaboration with multi-national artists and access to ReOrient’s rich narratives and diverse perspectives from or about the Middle East.
In addition to Golden Thread resident artist Etemad, this year’s Dramaturgy Team includes Emily DeDakis, Laura Espino, Scott Horstein, and Michael Malek Najjar.
Visit Golden Thread’s website for more on the 2019 Festival. Click on the links below to read the full articles by ReOrient 2019 Publications Dramaturgs.
- ReOrient 2019: A Homecoming for Golden Thread Alumni
Feature article by Michael Malek Najjar. This year’s festival cements Golden Thread Productions’ longtime working relationships with Yussef El Guindi, Betty Shamieh, and Naomi Wallace. - Brave New Voices in ReOrient 2019
Feature article by Emily DeDakis. Meet four writers who are brand-new to the festival, all clearly at home in ReOrient, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. - Weaving the Golden Thread at ReOrient 2019 Camp
Feature article by Scott Horstein. The twentieth anniversary of the ReOrient Festival of Short Plays began with an incubation weekend that Golden Thread calls “ReOrient Camp.”
2017
A New Partnership for LMDA and Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco
Think you know the Middle East? Think again!
Running now through December 10, the ReOrient 2017 Festival of Short Plays features an LMDA partnership for the first time with San Francisco-based theatre company Golden Thread Productions. (For tickets and info, please visit goldenthread.org). This alliance brings together two organizations that value challenging cultural preconceptions through provocative programming and dialogue. Curated by LMDA’s Regional VP of Metro Bay Area Nakissa Etemad, LMDA has provided a team of production dramaturgs, Etemad and Anna Woodruff, to collaborate on the plays in script development and research, and publications dramaturgs, Emily DeDakis, Maddie Gaw, and Vidhu Singh, to write feature articles that take you behind-the-scenes of ReOrient, posted on websites and in mailings of both organizations. Click on the links below to read the partnership announcement, the invitation to the dramaturgy panel, and the four articles by ReOrient Publications Dramaturgs.
- ReOrient in SF with LMDA & Golden Thread Productions
Announcement of our first partnership on ReOrient 2017 Festival of Short Plays. - Are You Ready to ReOrient?: A Festival Overview by Vidhu Singh
Publications Dramaturg Vidhu Singh takes you behind the scenes of ReOrient and highlights the importance of Golden Thread in the American theatre. - Being in the Room: Transatlantic Collaborations in ReOrient 2017
Publications Dramaturg Emily DeDakis interviews Sevan K. Greene and Hannah Khalil to discuss their plays, playwriting careers in the U.K., and past experiences with Golden Thread. - Playwright and Dramaturg Tackle Manar a Third Time in ReOrient 2017 Festival
Publications Dramaturg Emily DeDakis interviews Sevan K. Greene and Hannah Khalil to discuss their plays, playwriting careers in the U.K., and past experiences with Golden Thread.
