Yussef El Guindi Explained

Yussef El Guindi
Birth Place:Egypt
Nationality:Egyptian, American
Education:American University in Cairo
Alma Mater:Carnegie Mellon University
Known For:Playwright
Notable Works:Back of the Throat (2005)
Movement:Arab American theatre
Awards:Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award
Relatives:Rose al Yusuf (grandmother); Ihsan Abdel Koudous (uncle)

Yussef El Guindi (Arabic: يوسف الجندى pronounced as /ˈjuːsef elˈɡendi/; 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]

Background

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 the age of three, he moved to London and received schooling in the UK and France. In 1982, he received a BA degree 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

Works

"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]
Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatists Play Service and Theatre Forum have published El Guindi's plays.[3]

Plays:

Books:

Translations

Ebtessam El Shokrofy translated Yussef El Guindi's Back of Throat into Arabic. It is published by State Publishing House in 2018.[29] [30] In addition, Abanoub Wagdy produced the translation of El Guindi's Ten Acrobats into Arabic. The translation was published by Anglo Egyptian Bookshop in 2022.[31] [32] Thus, El Guindi's works have hitherto had only two Arabic translations.

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".[33]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Liam . Stack. In Yussef El Guindi's Plays, Personal and Political Are in Bed Together. The New York Times. 9 July 2015. 4 January 2020.
  2. Web site: Yussef El Guindi. Bloomsbury. 4 January 2020.
  3. Anneka. Esch-Van Kan. Amazing Acrobatics of Language: The Theatre of Yussef El Guindi. American Studies Journal. Göttingen University Press. 2008. 4 January 2020.
  4. News: Yussef El Guindi: Staging the Egyptian-American experience. Egyptian Independent. 15 April 2012. 4 January 2020.
  5. News: Yussef El Guindi. Carnegie Mellon University. 1 July 2011. 4 January 2020.
  6. Brendan. Kiley. Yussef El Guindi, Winner of the 2015 Stranger Genius Award in Literature. The Stranger. Index Newspapers. 15 September 2015. 4 January 2020.
  7. Web site: Yussef El Guindi. Broadway Play Publishing. 4 January 2020.
  8. Web site: Yussef El Guindi. New Play Exchange. 4 January 2020.
  9. Web site: Yussef El Guindi. Drama Online. 4 January 2020.
  10. Web site: ACT & Icicle Creek Announces New Play Festival . BroadwayWorld.com. May 18, 2010. May 28, 2010.
  11. Web site: Emily. Haskins. Yussef El Guindi papers, 2000-2017. University of Oregon. 2019. 4 January 2020.
  12. Web site: Past Productions. Golden Thread Productions. 4 January 2020.
  13. Web site: Past Productions. 20 Champions: Yussef El Guindi. 4 January 2020.
  14. Web site: We are thrilled to welcome Yussef El Guindi to our client roster!. Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency. 15 September 2017. 4 January 2020.
  15. News: Fear and paranoia electrify resonant Kafkaesque play . Misha. Berson. . May 27, 2005 . May 28, 2010.
  16. Web site: RSL International Writers. Royal Society of Literature. December 3, 2023.
  17. Web site: Writing an American Story: Playwright Yussef El Guindi. PBS. 25 April 2016. 4 January 2020.
  18. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. 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. 2006. 2007540882.
  19. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Back of the Throat. Dramatists Play Service. 2006. 2007540841.
  20. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes. Dramatists Play Service. 2014. 2007540841.
  21. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World. Dramatists Play Service. 2014. 2016299182.
  22. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Threesome. Broadway Play Publishing. 3 May 2016. 4 January 2020.
  23. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Collaborator. Broadway Play Publishing. 26 March 2017. 4 January 2020.
  24. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Hostages. Broadway Play Publishing. 18 December 2018. 4 January 2020.
  25. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith. Broadway Play Publishing. 5 March 2018. 4 January 2020.
  26. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. The Talented Ones. Broadway Play Publishing. 29 June 2018. 4 January 2020.
  27. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi. Bloomsbury. 10 January 2019. 4 January 2020.
  28. Book: El Guindi , Yussef . Yussef El Guindi. The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi. Methuen. 2019. 2018033036.
  29. Web site: عربي يكتب المسرحيات في أمريكا. صحيفة الخليج. 28 March 2023.
  30. Web site: ترجمة عربية لـ"انطقها خا". جريدة البلاد. 28 March 2023.
  31. https://www.altabah1aloula.com/2022/12/05/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%AC%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A8-%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%86/ Alta Bahla Loula
  32. https://www.elakhbarnews.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%87%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AA/ El Akhbar News.
  33. Web site: Yussef El Guindi. About the Artists. 4 January 2020.

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