Women And Comedy In Solo Performance PDF Download

The events of September 11, 2001 compelled playwrights of Arab or Arab American background to adjust their narratives and to include discourses which interpreted as well as challenged misconceptions surrounding their own culture. Political incidents such as 9/11 produced a shared response from Arab American playwrights wherein women playwrights recognized a need and a responsibility to adequately represent their own personal stories, bodies, and histories through performance. I address the visibility, responsibilities, and historical contributions of Arab American women playwrights and performers post-2001. I explore how the theatrical works of playwright and performer Betty Shamieh, playwright and solo performer Heather Raffo, and stand-up comedian Maysoon Zayid reclaim and reconstruct the cultural and historical interpretations of Arab American women. Shamieh writes plays that contain historical and political themes in order to expose assumptions about Palestinian women. Raffo uses solo performance to relay social, political, and cultural issues representative of Iraqi women. Zayid explores stand-up comedy to address her Palestinian identity as well as her experiences living with cerebral palsy. All of these forms of performance essentially create and serve as pivotal foundations of the Arab American theatre movement. I argue that Shamieh, Raffo, and Zayid dramatize, renegotiate, and challenge reductive historical narratives of the Arab American woman and the representation of her body in post-9/11 politics.