Written and directed by Ghina Fawaz
Columbia University School of the Arts presents ألف ليلة وليلة The Thousand and One Nights, a directing thesis production by current student Ghina Fawaz.
Many years ago, a story was stolen from the land of people who named the stars. In this adaptation of ألف ليلة وليلة (The Thousand and One Nights), this epic tale is reclaimed as an act of resistance. A bitter King betrayed and consumed by vengeance, takes a new bride each night, only to execute her at dawn—until the brilliant and courageous Scheherazade steps forward. For 1001 nights, she weaves a tapestry of tales, awakening the King’s humanity and transforming his heart. Through oral tradition, poetry, puppetry, movement, and music, this production blends Arabic folklore with contemporary stories, confronting the realities of colonialism and celebrating the resilience of Indigenous communities around the world.
Showtimes
Thursday, February 6 @ 8pm
Friday, February 7 @ 8pm
Saturday, February 8 @ 2pm
Saturday, February 8 @ 8pm
Sunday, February 9 @ 2pm
Run Time
2 hours and 45 mins with a 10 minute intermission.
Content Warning
This production includes narrative descriptions of violence, death, discrimination, and colonialism.
Featuring
Karma Alami - Scheherazade
Mark Yowakim - King Shahryar
Lour Yasin - Dunyazad/Musician Hakawati
Eli Crenshaw-Smith - Hakawati
Shayan Hooshmand - Hakawati
Anahita Monfared - Hakawati
Nicole Ponce - Hakawati
Anuka Sethi - Hakawati
Mikael Gemeda-Breka - Hakawati
Aidan Lord - Musician Hakawati
Danielle Breitstein - Musician Hakawati
Kiran Thawardas - Musician Hakawati
Production Team & Crew
Director Ghina Fawaz (current student)
Dramaturg Begüm Inal ‘23
Producer Xiaoyu Mai (current student)
Production Stage Manager Qixuan Sun (current student)
Stage Manager Matthew Valunas (current student)
Stage Manager Diana Chen (current student)
Company Manager Nick Gurinsky (current student)
Cultural Consultant Waseem Alzer
Composer Utsav Bhargava
Music Director Aidan Lord
Scenic Designer Jackson Key (current student)
Costume Designer Dante Gonzalez
Lighting Designer Steele Whitney
Props & Puppets Designer Emma Ruth Mathews
Season Operations Manager Zachary Hedner (current student)
About the Director
Ghina Fawaz (Director/Playwright) is a Lebanese-American director and artist pursuing her MFA at Columbia University. Her work explores the intersections of art and activism through folklore, fairytales, and ethnographic research to amplify underrepresented voices and nurture creative resistance. For her thesis, Ghina is honored to be directing and adapting ألف ليلة وليلة (The Thousand and One Nights) as an act of resistance, blending folklore, poetry, puppetry, and hakawati storytelling to confront colonialism and celebrate global resilience. Her past work includes Antlers, developed after interviewing Lebanese people about war and occupation, spun resilient oral histories into a fantastical theatrical journey through puppetry; her Three Sisters adaptation reimagined Chekhov’s characters as refugees trapped in an airport, eternally awaiting their flight to Moscow that never comes; and Moonwake, developed with collaborators Dr. Hilary Cooperman and Tiara Ashurt through interviews with BIPOC+ college students, crafted an interactive site-specific performance exploring racial trauma and microaggressions at predominantly white institutions. Furthermore, Fawaz has directed works by Meg Ledford (Conservation of Matter), Andrew Reid (Here, Time Feels So...), and Dacyl Acevedo (From One Token to Another). She looks forward to developing her new play, Watermelon Boy, as a Student Artist in Residence at the Barnard Movement Lab this Spring.