Yussef El Guindi

Biography

Yussef El Guindi was born in 1960 in Cairo, Egypt. His key plays include: Hostages (undated), Back of the Throat (2005), 10 Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith (2005), Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (2011), and Threesome (2015). His work has been developed and produced most notably at Portland Center Stage,  ACT Theatre, The Fountain Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Golden Thread Productions and the Mosaic Theater Company. El Guindi has received numerous awards including Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award, Northwest Playwrights’ Competition from Theater Schmeater (Back of the Throat), Best New Play of 2005 by the Seattle Times (Back of the Throat), Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award (Language Rooms), Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award from ACTA (Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World). Raised in London as well as Paris, he received a BA from the American University in Cairo. He received an MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University. Now a Seattle-based playwright, he serves as the Playwright in Residence at Duke University.

Career Highlight

2012 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award.

Back of the Throat

  • Genre: Drama
  • Breakdown:
    • 1M Arab American
    • 1M Muslim/Arab American
    • 2M Anglo
    • 1 to 3 W Anglo
  • Synopsis:
    • Set in post 9/11 New York City, Khaled, a young Arab-American, is interrogated in his apartment by two government agents under the shadow of an unspoken recent “attack” that looms over the play. El Guindi captures how fear allows hatred to overpower rational thought as these agents and their eyewitnesses reconcile with their ever-growing internalized fear.
  • Development/Production History:
    • World Premiere in 2005 in San Francisco at Golden Thread Productions
    • Also produced in Oregon, North Carolina, Alaska, New York City, Chicago and Pasadena.
    • Winner of L.A. Weekly’s Excellence in Playwriting Award for 2006
  • Photos from production:
Golden Thread Productions (2005), From Left: Bartlett, Carl, Khaled, Jean
“World Premiere: Back of the Throat by Yussef El Guindi.” Golden Thread, goldenthread.org/productions/back-of-the-throat/#perfundo-untarget.
Back of the Throat at the Gaslight Theater (2009)
Brown, Dennis. “Ahem! It Comes from Back of the Throat, but the Message Is Clear.” Riverfront Times, Riverfront Times, 3 May 2021, www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/ahem-it-comes-from-back-of-the-throat-but-the-message-is-clear/Content?oid=2453183.
Back of the Throat at the Gaslight Theater (2009)
Brown, Dennis. “Ahem! It Comes from Back of the Throat, but the Message Is Clear.” Riverfront Times, Riverfront Times, 3 May 2021, www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/ahem-it-comes-from-back-of-the-throat-but-the-message-is-clear/Content?oid=2453183.
Golden Thread Productions (2005)
“World Premiere: Back of the Throat by Yussef El Guindi.” Golden Thread, goldenthread.org/productions/back-of-the-throat/#perfundo-untarget.

Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World

  • Genre: Comedy
  • Breakdown:
    • 1 M Egyptian
    • 1 W Anglo (Or non-Arab/Muslim)
    • 2 M Arab/Muslim American
    • 1 W Arab/Muslim American
  • Synopsis:
    • Set in the present in a large American city, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World follows Egyptian cab driver Musa and spitfire waitress Sheri, as an awkward one night stand develops into a charming romance. Their story is accentuated by Musa’s friends – fellow taxi driver Tayyib and roommate and current pilgrim to Mecca Abdallah – who each offer their own perspective on Muslim and American culture. With the premature return of Musa’s fiancé, Musa and Sheri find themselves forced to reconcile with their own relationship to their old world and their new one.
  • Development/Production History:
    • 2011 – ACT, A Contemporary Theatre (World Premiere)
    • 2013 – Center REPertory Company
    • 2020 – Mosaic Theatre Company of DC
  • Photos from production:
Sanam L. Hashemi and Rachel Felstein in Pilgrims Musa & Sheri in the New World at Mosaic Theater DC. (Photo: Christopher Banks)
Demers, Ben. DC Theatre Scene, 27 Jan. 2020, dctheatrescene.com/2020/01/27/review-pilgrims-musa-sheri-in-the-new-world-from-mosaic-theater-a-delightful-romcom/.
Ahmad Kamal as Musa and Rachel Felstein as Sheri in Pilgrims Musa & Sheri in the New World at Mosaic Theater of DC. (Photo: Christopher Banks)
Walker, Jeffrey. “Theatre Review: ‘Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World’ at Mosaic Theater Company.” Maryland Theatre Guide, 30 Jan. 2020, mdtheatreguide.com/2020/01/theatre-review-pilgrims-musa-and-sheri-in-the-new-world-at-mosaic-theater-company/.
Gerrad Alex Taylor as Tayyib, Sanam Laila Hashemi as Gamila, Freddie Lee Bennett as Abdallah, Rachel Felstein as Sheri, and Ahmad Kamal as Musa in ‘Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World.’ Photo by Christopher Banks.
  • Plays
    • Back of the Throat (2005)
    • 10 Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith (2005)
    • Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes (2008)
    • Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat (2008)
    • Language Rooms (2010)
    • Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (2011)
    • Threesome (2015)
    • Collaborator (2016)
    • The Talented Ones (2016)
    • People of the Book (2019)

Reflection on Contribution to Anti-Racist Theatre

Yussef El Guindi, an award-winning Arab-American playwright,  was born in Cairo, Egypt and received his education abroad. This, along with his American citizenship, has resulted in a lot of his works exploring the tension in identity between America and one’s home country, which can be referred to as “transnational belonging.” In the introduction of the published edition of Back of the Throat, El Guindi states:

“A lot of my plays explore that tension: The impulse of the immigrants who want to reinvent themselves and assimilate. But then finding the baggage they brought with them from the ‘Old World’ cannot be so easily discarded. Either because fingers are pointed at them that make them feel very self-conscious of their ‘Old-World’ links, or because they can’t let go.”1

Back of the Throat explores this first reason with a raw, uncensored honesty through the harsh reality that many Arab and Muslim immigrants faced in the shadow of September 11. Pilgrims Musa and Sheri is compellingly unique in its depiction of the immigrant experience in the way it frames assimilation. While other works might villainize assimilation and praise tradition, El Guindi presents a character that voluntarily travels to America to integrate into a new culture, and engages critically with that mindset. Through his works, Yussef El Guindi offers a kaleidoscopic views of the immigrant experience – each with their own perspective on their old worlds and their new ones.

1 Guindi, El Yussef., and Michael Malek Najjar. The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi. Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2019.

Compiled by Macy Mateer, Film, Television and Theatre & History, 2022