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We Live in Cairo
ABOUT
Book, Music & Lyrics by The Lazours
Choreography & Movement Direction by Ann Yee
Directed by Taibi Magar
2024/25 Season
October 9, 2024—November 27, 2024
The performance runs two hours and thirty minutes with one fifteen minute intermission.
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Understudy
NYTW debut. Select theatre: Spring Awakening (TUTS), Evita, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Groundhog Day: The Musical (SF Playhouse), Sound of Music (Hillbarn Theatre), In the Heights (Playhouse on Park). TV/Film: “SVU.” @sophiaintronaalawi. I am deeply proud to be Arab.
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Amir
Ali is a Moroccan-American actor, singer, musician and creator based in NYC. Fresh off his Broadway debut as Tommy in Des McAnuff and Pete Townshend’s revival of The Who’s Tommy, he has received a Theatre World Award, Jeff Award, an Outer Critics Circle and a Drama League nomination for the role. Recent work includes Paul in the Company 1st National Tour, Haled in The Band’s Visit National Tour and Young Mazin/Yousif in The Goodman’s World Premiere play, Layalina. He recently wrapped filming the short film The Ghost Light (Tiny Viking Productions). You can also hear his voice on the Monkeypaw/Gimlet horror podcast “Quiet Part Loud” produced by Jordan Peele. Originally from Pittsfield, MA, he holds nature, art and community dear. When not performing you can usually find him hiking, gardening, geeking out over jazz, playing guitar and writing music with his songwriting duo Resident Lightweight (debut album coming soon).
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Understudy
NYTW debut. Recent credits: Godspell (Flint Rep), Aladdin (Disney Cruise Lines). Travis is a Syrian-American actor hailing from Michigan. He is so grateful and proud to share this story with the world. Thank yous: Hudson Artists, my family and amazing girlfriend, Chanelle; I love you to the moon and back. @travisdarghali. I am deeply proud to be Arab.
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Hassan
(he/him) NYTW debut. Drew could not be more grateful to be part of this company. Recent credits include: The Queen of Versailles (Pre-Broadway), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (The MUNY), The 2024 MET Gala, Transcendence Theatre Company, Weathervane, etc. Shenandoah University Alum (M.S., B.F.A.) All love! Nothing but it! @DrewElhamalawy @DrewXPhotography
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Karim
NYTW debut. Film/TV: Mean Girls (Paramount), The Outlaws (Amazon Prime), Elsbeth (CBS), and FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), American Idol Season 21 (ABC), Slanted! Enchanted! (Matador Records). Off-Broadway: Hip Hop Cinderella (New Victory Theatre), Slanted! Enchanted! (Sheen Center), Rough Trade (The Public). Additional Projects: Tell Them I’m Still Young (New York Stage and Film), Untitled Hunter S. Thompson Musical (La Jolla/NYSAF), SHOOK (Northern Stage), Pump Up The Volume (ATF), and Purple Rain (New York Workshop). He holds a BFA from Penn State Musical Theatre. He is represented by HCKR and managed by Rochel Saks at SAKS&. Socials: @johneljor / www.johneljor.com
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Layla
NYTW debut! Nadina (she/her) is a proud Egyptian/Colombian actor based in New York City, originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan and cannot wait to share this story with New York and the world. After college, Nadina toured the country starring as Regina George in the 1st National Tour of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls the musical. Upon moving to New York after tour, Nadina performed in the annual Lyrics & Lyricists concert at the 92nd St. Y honoring the late Howard Ashman directed by Christian Borle. Select regional credits: West Side Story (Maria), Cabaret (Sally Bowles), Be More Chill (Brooke), and Tick, Tick… BOOM (Susan). Recent film credits: Voice Toy (Bowsprit Productions), Satellite (Go Be One Motion Pictures), and Spinning (Bowsprit Productions). She is a proud Baldwin Wallace University alum. @nadinahassan www.nadinahassan.com
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Hany
Michael is delighted to make his NYTW debut. Off-Broadway: The Ally (The Public Theater). Other New York credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Most Oppressed of All (Target Margin Theater), and The Wilder Shorts (Lenfest Center for the Arts). Regional: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare on the Sound), Tomorrow Will Be Sunday (Chautauqua Theater Company), Sabra Falling (Pangea World Theater). TV/Film: “Everything’s Trash” (Freeform/Hulu). Michael received his MFA in acting at Columbia University and his BA from Macalester College.
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Fadwa
I am deeply proud to be a Palestinian woman. I am deeply proud to be an artist and ever in service of our humanity. But these days, my faith in our humanity has been shaken. This humanity that allows the Palestinian people, be they a grown man or a newborn baby, to be starved, dehumanized and extinguished. My faith is shaken. But the faith I do have is in our art. This art of theatre which teaches us to find empathy for unimaginable circumstances. From this empathy we are creating this show and the space we will soon share together. May you know me and may I know you. For when we are unknown we may be hated. So may we be known. And when we are known may we be loved. And when we are loved may we allow each other the dignity that is all of our birthright. Stop the genocide. Free Palestine. Free us all.
NEWS
The Memory & The Music
WNYC
Brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour, join Allison Stewert to discuss writing the music, lyrics, and book for the production. Actor Ali Louis Bourzgui, who stars as Amir, a kid who writes an anthem for the revolution, also joins for a sneak peek at the music!
Do You Hear The People Sing?
American Theatre
Playwright and performer Nikki Massoud goes on a deep dive with the team of WE LIVE IN CAIRO, chronicling its journey over the course of more than ten years and exactly how staging Arab joy became a radical act for the creative team.
The NYTW Blog
We Live in Cairo FTC Events
The Lazours and Taibi Magar Talk "We Live in Cairo"
CONTENT TRANSPARENCY
We Live in Cairo engages with the subject of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. In addition to stirring music and complex young characters, it includes strong language and violent imagery of police brutality. The performance contains gunshot sounds, strobe lights, loud music, fog and haze.
If you’d like to speak with someone on our staff for more details, please reach out to LetsChat@NYTW.org
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
We Live in Cairo is produced by special arrangement with Madison Wells Live.
ORIGIN STORY
The world premiere of We Live in Cairo was produced by the American Repertory Theater (Diane Paulus, Artistic Director; Diane Borger, Executive Producer).
We Live in Cairo was presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in 2016.
We Live in Cairo was developed during a residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Music Theatre Conference in 2015 (Preston Whiteway, Executive Director; Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director).
We Live in Cairo was developed, in part, at SPACE on Ryder Farm.
We Live in Cairo was developed in part during a New York Theatre Workshop residency with the Theater Department at Dartmouth College, in collaboration with Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts in 2018.
SPECIAL THANKS
Sharif Afifi, Abubakr Ali, Waseem Alzer, Layan Elwazani, Jakeim Hart, Dana Omar, Gil Perez-Abraham, Parisa Shamir
Addie Gorlin, Robert Duffley, Eli Schildkraut, Noor Theatre, Anne Morgan, Omar El Okdah, Tarek Massoud, Irv Plotkin, Mark Lunsford, Diane Borger, Diane Paulus, Omar Robert Hamilton, Frank Bradley and the students in the American University in Cairo theater department, Kathleen Bell and the students at Sharjah Performing Arts Academy, Sultan Al Qassemi, Jeanine Tesori, Bill and Mamak LoPinto, Madeline Foster Bersin, Emel Mathlouthi, H. Sinno, Hadi Eldebeck, Mohamed Araki, Naseem Alatrash, Ramy Essam, Bengisu Gokce, Ghassan Sawalhi, Samar Haddad King, Kai Harada, George Abud, Fouad Dakwar, Michael Korie, Dramatists Guild Foundation
Ahmed Hassan, Oliver Wilkins, Joel Carillet, The 858 Archive
Bios are provided by each artist. Where opinions are expressed, they represent individual views. We ask everyone attending an event to read and embrace the NYTW Core Values. If you’d like to tell us about your experience at NYTW, email us at LetsChat@nytw.org.
