Critically acclaimed playwright Hannah Khalil and Director Chris White will lead an evening session on dramaturgy and the Playwright / Director relationship. With some focus on My English Persian Kitchen, currently in rehearsal, we will explore the drafting process that led to the current rehearsal draft, considering the steps and questions that allowed the text to develop. There will also be an opportunity for an open Q&A with both of them.
Sharpen your skills or learn new recipes for new play development from these two internationally celebrated artists!
When: Monday, October 26 | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where: The Loft at Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H St. NE, Washington, DC)
Tickets: Available here
Hannah Khalil is an Irish-Palestinian playwright. She was writer in residence at the Globe 2022. In December 2022 her play Hakawatis played at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, while her adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Fir Tree returned to the main stage at the Globe making Hannah the first writer other than Shakespeare to have had her work on in both spaces at the Globe simultaneously. Further work at the Globe includes an adaptation of Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII while A Museum in Baghdad played at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2019/20 making Hannah the first woman of Arab heritage to have a main stage play at the company. Hannah was also a Creative Fellow of the Samuel Beckett Archive for 2021/2022 and was named Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University, Spring 2021. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.
Chris White is a freelance theatre director and practitioner. He is an Associate Practitioner and Director for Royal Shakespeare Company's Creative Learning and Engagement and co-ran the young writer's programme at Soho Theatre. My English Persian Kitchen ran at the Traverse Theatre and Soho Theatre in 2004 in sell out runs to critical and audience acclaim and returned for a British and Irish tour in 2025. Recent directing includes Chippy by Henry Darke in a Cornish tour (Spring 2024), co-writing and directing Wood of Words a new play from the words of Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre RSC (2023), The Lighthouse Keepers Son with Maureen Beattie at the Samuel Beckett Research Centre, Reading University, and Nothing in a Butterfly by Ric Renton at Omnibus.
