July 10, 2026 – August 2, 2026
Run Time: 90 minutes
Adult language and situations
PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO LATE SEATING FOR THIS SHOW. NO EXCEPTIONS AND NO REFUNDS. THE CATF TEAM WILL GLADLY EXCHANGE YOUR TICKETS.
“Because love will always carve you up eventually.”
Jealous love sears the skin of this darkly comic play like lava seeping down a hillside, inevitable and all-consuming. A chance meeting of a pair of young Arab-Americans framed by their refugee experience and an impossibly rich patroness sets in motion a chain of events that leads to a violent crime. As tensions mount and relationships are shattered, a therapist (who’s grappling with her own marital issues) is hired by the defense to determine culpability. Award-winning playwright and 2025 recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Citation of Excellence Yussef El Guindi explores immigrant lives in plays praised for “insightful, open-hearted…humor, warmth and all-around compassion” (Seattle Times).
Support for this production provided in part by the Laurents Hatcher Foundation
SPONSORED BY Marellen J. Aherne and C.M. & STEPHANIE PARTRIDGE
Refugee Rhapsody is being produced by the Contemporary American Theater Festival as a rolling world premiere. Other partnering theaters include PICT Classic Theatre (PA) and Sound Theatre (WA).
Getting to the Play
2026 – Interview with Playwright Yussef El Guindi
Meet Yussef El Guindi Born in Egypt, raised in London and now based in Seattle, Yussef El Guindi’s work frequently examines the collision of ethnicities, cultures and politics that face Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans. His most recent productions: Hotter Than Egypt at Marin Theatre Company, ACT in Seattle, and at the Denver Center for … Continued
Team
Playwright + Director
Yussef El Guindi
Playwright
Born in Egypt, raised in London and now based in Seattle, Yussef El Guindi’s work frequently examines the collision of ethnicities, cultures and politics that face Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans. His most recent productions: Hotter Than Egypt at Marin Theatre Company, ACT in Seattle, and at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and People of the Book, staged at ACT, and at Urban Stages (NYC). Bloomsbury/ Methuen Drama has published The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi; and Broadway Play Publishing Inc. and Dramatists Play Service have published a number of his other plays. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Citation of Excellence Award, the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, Colorado’s Henry Award, American Blues Theater’s Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Seattle’s The Stranger’s Genius Award, L.A. Weekly’s Excellence in Playwriting Award, Seattle’s Gregory Award and the Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. In 2023, he was selected by the Royal Society of Literature as an International Writer.
Zi Alikhan ‡
Director
Zi Alikhan (he/him) is a queer, first-generation South Asian-American, culturally Muslim theater director. DIRECTING CREDITS: On That Day in Amsterdam (Primary Stages, Drama Desk Nomination-Outstanding Director, Lucille Lortel Nomination-Outstanding Director), Sanctuary City (Pasadena Playhouse, LA Times-‘Best of the Year’), The Band’s Visit (Writers Theatre/TheatreSquared, Chicago Tribune-‘Best of the Year’), You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! (South Coast Rep and Oregon Shakespeare Festival), RENT (Paper Mill Playhouse), Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company), House of India (The Old Globe), Refugee Rhapsody (CATF), Frou Frou (Boston Court Pasadena), Paldem (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Wizard of Oz and Somewhere (Geva Theatre Center), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), A Nice Indian Boy (Olney Theatre Center), and Ragtime (Playmakers Repertory Company). Zi currently serves as the Resident Director of Masquerade in NYC.
Cast
Shelby Alayne Antel*
Emily
Shelby is a Michigan-born, NYC-based actor, photographer, and filmmaker thrilled to be making her CATF debut. Past credits include the world premiere of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room at Quintessence Theatre, “FBI” (CBS), “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” (Hulu), and Dinner in America (Sundance 2020).
Ellena Eshraghi
Sakinah
Ellena Eshraghi is an actor, writer, and filmmaker thrilled to be making her debut with CATF. Theatre credits include HOUND DOG (Ars Nova), Erastes (Wild Project), The Mall The Mall The Mall (The Tank), Wish You Were Here (Yale). Film credits include Mean Girls (Paramount). She trained at NYU Tisch School of The Arts earning a double major in Drama (Atlantic Acting School & Stonestreet Studios) and Dramatic Writing (Screenwriting). Her directorial debut film “My Least Favorite Shape” is currently in post-production.
Jada Alston Owens*
Jenny
Jada Alston Owens, a multidisciplinary artist from New Orleans, makes her CATF debut in “Refugee Rhapsody.” She holds a BFA in Acting from Texas State University and an MFA from University of California San Diego. Theater credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Juliet) at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, “Iron” (Roustabout Theatre Co.), “Blood at the Root” and “Commedia” (Chautauqua Theater Company), “Trouble in Mind” (u/s, The Old Globe), and “To the Yellow House” (La Jolla Playhouse). Film/TV: Law & Order and “Those Who Know”.
Joshua David Scarlett
Richard/Waleed
Scarlett’s happy to being hanging out in WV, working with some cool folks at CATF. Broadway: Death of a Salesman. Theatre: The Cherry Orchard (Sketchbook Theatre). TV: The Equalizer, Law & Order: SVU, House of Cards. NYU Grad Acting.
Revon Yousif*
Fouad
Revon is a first-generation Chaldean American actor from Detroit, Michigan and a graduate of the M.F.A. acting program at Columbia University in New York City. Prior to moving to New York in 2021, Revon lived in Chicago working on productions like FOX’s Empire and Promethean Theatre Ensemble’s Blue Stockings, where he and the cast earned a Jeff Award nomination for Best Ensemble. Revon’s most recent credits include English (Indiana Repertory Theatre), Disclosure Day (Universal Pictures), The Better Sister (Amazon Prime Video), and Divine Blood (Lynx Point Pictures). @revonyousif
Production Team
Afsoon Pajoufar †
Scenic Design
Afsoon Pajoufar is an award-winning New York City–based stage designer. Recent Off-Broadway : Cold War Choir Practice (MCC ), Coriolanus (Theatre for a New Audience), Practice (Playwrights Horizons), Five Models in Ruins, 1981 (Lincoln Center Theater ), and Fuente Ovejuna (Theatre for a New Audience). Opera: Adoration (Beth Morrison Projects/LA Opera), mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] (PROTOTYPE Festival), Lady M (Heartbeat Opera), Word. Sound. Power. (BAM), and Paper Pianos (EMPAC). Additional work has been presented at Bard SummerScape, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, Studio Theatre, Alte Münze (Berlin), and Schauspiel Köln (Cologne). afsoonpajoufar.com
Lux Haac †
Costume Design
Broadway: The Thanksgiving Play. Off-Broadway/NY: Watch Me Walk (Soho Rep); Skeleton Canoe (Lincoln Center); O.K.! (INTAR Theater); Dirty Laundry (WP Theater); Manahatta, Mobile Unit: The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater); Between Two Knees, Number Our Days (PAC NYC); On That Day in Amsterdam (Primary Stages); 53% Of (Second Stage Uptown); Songs About Trains (New Ohio Theatre). Regional: You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! (OSF); The Woman Question (People’s Light); Relentless, Dial M for Murder (Syracuse Stage); For the People (Guthrie Theater); The Wizard of Oz (Geva Theatre); Espejos: Clean (Hartford Stage); LEAR (Cal Shakes). MFA: NYU/Tisch
Venus Gulbranson †
Lighting Design
Venus is a proud Filipino lighting designer based in Brooklyn NY. Broadway: Asst: New York, New York (St James Theatre). International Design and Film: Rituel/Boulez 100 (Philharmonie de Paris). Regional Design select: Lincoln Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The Wilma Theatre, Arena Stage, Nashville Opera, Oklahoma City Rep, New Studio on Broadway. International Lighting Director: Sydney Opera House, Dubai Opera House, Philharmonie de Paris, Müpa Budapest. Venus is a three-time nominee of the Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design. venusgulbranson.com
Sinan Refik Zafar †
Sound Design
Sinan Refik Zafar (Sound Designer). Broadway: English, What the Constitution Means to Me. Off-Broadway: We Had A World (MTC); What to Send Up…, Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons); English [Obie Award], Shhh (The Atlantic); Letters from Max (Signature, Drama Desk and Lortel nom.); Which Way to the Stage, All the Natalie Portmans (MCC); Lunar Eclipse, To My Girls (Second Stage); The Vagrant Trilogy, Cullud Wattah (The Public). Regional: Kennedy Center, Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, Arena Stage, The Goodman, Denver Center, Williamstown, among others. M.F.A. Yale School of Drama. sinanzafar.com
Genevieve Dornemann *
Stage Manager
NYC: Othello (Bedlam); The Tragedy of Coriolanus, The Wild Duck (Theatre for a New Audience); Regional: Sister Act (Ford’s Theatre); A Funny Thing…Forum, HAIR, Sweeney Todd (Signature Theatre); Where We Belong (Folger Theatre); The Mortification of Fovea Munson (Kennedy Center TYA); Songs for a New World (Rep Stage); Evita, Macbeth in Stride (Shakespeare Theatre Company); The Tempest (Synetic Theater); Teenage Dick (Woolly Mammoth); Oyeme, the beautiful, Inside Out (Imagination Stage); The Mousetrap, Into The Breeches!, Pride and Prejudice (The Barnstormers Theatre).
Jake Vollmar
Assistant Stage Manager
CATF: Third season, previously PA for Magdalene and The Happiest Man on Earth. Regional: Tent Theatre, Ozarks Lyric Opera, Springfield Contemporary Theatre. Education: Missouri State University, BFA in Theatre & Dance. Jake is a Stage Manager, Projection Designer, Photographer, and recent transplant to the DMV area by way of Missouri.
McCorkle Casting, Ltd.
Casting Director
McCorkle Casting Ltd. is honored to continue its longstanding relationship with CATF, helping bring together actors, playwrights, directors, and producers in service of powerful storytelling. For more than four decades, the company has cast productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and for film and television, with a commitment to discovering talent and fostering creative collaboration. Credits include Broadway productions such as On the Town, Amazing Grace, End of the Rainbow, and A Few Good Men; Off-Broadway productions including Tribes, Our Town, and Driving Miss Daisy; hundreds of regional theatre productions nationwide; and more than 100 film and television projects for HBO, Showtime, CBS, Disney, Hallmark, BET, and Paramount. Pat McCorkle has received an Emmy nomination and an Artios Award for excellence in casting. www.mccorklecasting.com
Aaron D. Anderson ‡
Fight Director
Aaron is thrilled to be returning to CATF as it is his favorite place to pretend to beat people up. He is an internationally certified fight director who works at theaters around the globe. Favorite CATF shows include Happy Fall; The House of the Negro Insane; Thirst; Chester Bailey; Berta, Berta; The Wedding Gift; Byhalia, Mississippi; Not Medea; On Clover Road; H2O; Heartless; Modern Terrorism; Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah; Barcelona; Captors; Gideon’s Knot; In a Forest Dark and Deep; Ages of The Moon; Lidless; Fifty Words; History of Light; Farragut North; The Overwhelming; Stick Fly; and Pig Farm.
Shea-Mikal Green
Intimacy Director
Shea-Mikal Green is an actor, director, and creator who holds an MFA in Devised Performance from Pig Iron School / University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Credits include work at The Kennedy Center, Studio Theatre, RepStage, Adventure Theatre, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Quintessence Theatre, FringeArts, Cumberland Theatre, and Maryland Ensemble Theatre, where she is a company member. She has developed and performed original work in the U.S. and internationally through residencies such as Cow House Studios in Wexford, Ireland and The Iron Factory in Philadelphia. Green is the Director of the Contemporary Theater Studies program at Shepherd University. www.shea-mikalgreen.com
Naysan Mojgani
Dramaturg
Naysan Mojgani is a freelance dramaturg and Artistic/Dramaturgical Advisor at Round House Theatre. Naysan has worked on new and classic work with theatres around the country, including La Jolla Playhouse, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Theatre Squared, Signature Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Lookingglass Theatre Company, and Arena Stage, and has taught at UC San Diego, George Mason University, and Loyola University New Orleans. Naysan holds a PhD in Theatre & Drama from UCSD, and a BA from Carleton College. He currently lives in New Orleans with his wife and children.
Kirsten Trump
Vocal Coach
Kirsten is a Professor of Theater at Shenandoah Conservatory. Most recently there, she has directed Everybody, She Kills Monsters, and A Dream Play. Kirsten has worked with CATF since its inception, from actor to dialect coach, to educational director to board member, Kirsten’s coaching work includes over 80 plays, and she has most recently worked as a coach for CATF’s Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting by Harmon dot aut, 2024, and Redeemed by Chisa Hutchinson in 2023. In previous seasons, Kirsten has worked on productions of such notable American playwrights as Lee Blessing, Keith Glover, and Catherine Filleaux.
*Actors’ Equity Association
†United Scenic Artists
‡Stage Directors and Choreographers Society