Yussef El Guindi

Yussef El Guindi (born 1960) is an Egyptian-American playwright. He writes full-length, one-act, and adapted plays on Arab-Muslim experience in the United States. He is best known for his 2005 play Back of the Throat and has been called "the most talented Arab American writer of political plays."[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Yussef El Guindi
Yussef El Guindi (Ann-Margaret Johnson Photography)
Born1960 (age 60–61)
Egypt
NationalityAmerican
EducationAmerican University in Cairo
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
Known forPlaywright
Notable work
Back of the Throat (2005)
MovementArab American theatre
AwardsMiddle East America Distinguished Playwright Award

Background
El Guindi studied at the American University in Cairo.

Yussef El Guindi was born in 1960 in Egypt. His grandfather was director Zaki Toleimat, grandmother actress Rose al Yusuf, and his uncle writer Ihsan Abdel Koudous. At age three, he moved to London and received schooling in the UK and France. In 1982, he received a BA from the American University in Cairo. In 1983, he moved to the United States and received an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. He then moved to Seattle, Washington, where in 1996 he became a US citizen.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][11]

Career

El Guindi became associated with Chicago's Silk Road Theatre Project (now Silk Road Rising), which produced three of his plays in quick succession. He became playwright-in-residence at Duke University, where he also taught playwriting for seven years.[3][7][8][11]

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, interest in Arab American theatre grew.[6] In 2005, his play Back of the Throat premiered, confronting anti-Arab sentiment in the US, and received notice from theatres, press, and academia.[1][2][3][9]

Formerly literary manager in the early 2000s, El Guindi became an artistic associate at the Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco in the 2010s.[7][8][11][12][13][14] In 2018, he also became a Core Company playwright member of ACT Theatre (Seattle).[7][8]

Theatres that have produced El Guindi's plays include: The Fountain Theatre (Los Angeles), Furious Theatre Company (Pasadena), Artists Repertory Theatre (Portland), Portland Center Stage (Portland), ACT Theatre (Seattle), The Wilma Theater (Philadelphia), and Mosaic Theater Company (Washington DC). James Faerron has designed sets for his plays.

Awards
The Artists Repertory Theatre (Portland) showed El Guindi's plays The Talented Ones during its 2016–7 season
  • 2004: Northwest Playwrights' Competition from Theater Schmeater for Back of the Throat[15]
  • 2005: Best New Play of 2005 by the Seattle Times for Back of the Throat[14]
  • 2006:
  • 2009: M. Elizabeth Osborn Award from ACTA for Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat[2][16]
  • 2010:
    • Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award[2][5][14]
    • Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award for Language Rooms
  • 2011:
    • Gregory Award for Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World[2][14]
    • Footlight Award for Best World Premiere Play from Seattle Times for Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World[14]
  • 2012: Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award from ACTA forPilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World[2][16][11]
  • 2015:
  • 2016: Santa Barbara Independent Indy Award for The Talented Ones

Works
Cover of the 2019 book The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi (Bloomsbury)

"Guindi's works focus on themes of the immigrant experience, cultural and political climates, and current issues facing Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans."[11] El Guindi himself says that his plays may "pick Arab American or Muslim American characters... but they are essentially immigrant stories."[17] In analyzing his work, Anneka Esch-Van Kan wrote:

Language in El Guindi’s plays is the basis of any construction of reality. While language as a general capacity to speak and as a system of signs is the basis of all distinctions, the differences between several languages play an important role as well. The language one speaks determines one’s perspective on the world, and the translation of meaning from one language into another never works out with complete clarity.[3]

The Dramatist's Play Service and Theatre Forum has published El Guindi's plays.[3]

Plays:

  • Hostages and Finishing School (undated)[3]
  • Back of the Throat (2005)[16][14]
  • 10 Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith (2005)[16][14]
  • Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes (2008)[16][14]
  • Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat (2008)[16][14]
  • Language Rooms (2010)[16][14]
  • Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (2011)[16][14]
  • Threesome (2015)[16][14]
  • Collaborator (2016)
  • The Talented Ones (2016)[14]
  • People of the Book (2019)

Books:

  • Such a beautiful voice is Sayeda's and Karima's city (2006)[18]
  • Back of the Throat (2006)[19]
  • Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes (2014)[20]
  • Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (2014)[21]
  • Threesome (2016)[22]
  • Collaborator (2017)[23]
  • Hostages (2018)[24]
  • Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith (2018)[25]
  • The Talented Ones (2018)[26]
  • The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi (2019)[7][8][27][28]

Miscellaneous

Actor-director Orson Welles, director Howard Hawks, and writer William Faulkner visited El Guindi's family home.[6]

Sometimes his name is transliterated from Arabic into English with the surname hyphenated: "Yussef El-Guindi."[16]

See also

References
  1. Stack, Liam (29 July 2015). "In Yussef El Guindi's Plays, Personal and Political Are in Bed Together". New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  2. "Yussef El Guindi". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  3. Esch-Van Kan, Anneka (2008). "Amazing Acrobatics of Language: The Theatre of Yussef El Guindi". American Studies Journal. Göttingen University Press. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  4. "Yussef El Guindi: Staging the Egyptian-American experience". Egyptian Independent. 15 April 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  5. "Yussef El Guindi". Carnegie Mellon University. 1 July 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  6. Kiley, Brendan (15 September 2015). "Yussef El Guindi, Winner of the 2015 Stranger Genius Award in Literature". The Stranger. Index Newspapers. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  7. "Yussef El Guindi". Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  8. "Yussef El Guindi". New Play Exchange. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  9. "Yussef El Guindi". Drama Online. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  10. "ACT & Icicle Creek Announces New Play Festival". BroadwayWorld.com. May 18, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  11. Haskins, Emily (2019). "Yussef El Guindi papers, 2000-2017". University of Oregon. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  12. "Past Productions". Golden Thread Productions. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  13. "Past Productions". 20 Champions: Yussef El Guindi. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  14. "We are thrilled to welcome Yussef El Guindi to our client roster!". Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  15. Misha Berson (May 27, 2005). "Fear and paranoia electrify resonant Kafkaesque play". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  16. "Yussef El Guindi". About the Artists. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  17. "Writing an American Story: Playwright Yussef El Guindi". PBS. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  18. El Guindi, Yussef (2006). Such a beautiful voice is Sayeda's and Karima's city : two one-act plays / by Yussef El Guindi ; adapted from the short stories by Salwa Bakr. Dramatists Play Service. LCCN 2007540882.
  19. El Guindi, Yussef (2006). Back of the Throat. Dramatists Play Service. LCCN 2007540841.
  20. El Guindi, Yussef (2014). Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes. Dramatists Play Service. LCCN 2007540841.
  21. El Guindi, Yussef (2014). Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World. Dramatists Play Service. LCCN 2016299182.
  22. El Guindi, Yussef (3 May 2016). Threesome. Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  23. El Guindi, Yussef (26 March 2017). Collaborator. Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  24. El Guindi, Yussef (18 December 2018). Hostages. Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  25. El Guindi, Yussef (5 March 2018). Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith. Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  26. El Guindi, Yussef (29 June 2018). The Talented Ones. Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  27. El Guindi, Yussef (10 January 2019). The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi. Bloomsbury. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  28. El Guindi, Yussef (2019). The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi. Methuen. LCCN 2018033036.
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