Dramaturgy
English at the Goodman Theatre (2024)
In the 2023/2024 season, I worked as the dramaturg on Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play English under the direction of Hamid Dehghani. I contributed to our production process through in-the-room dramaturgy and audience engagement materials and programming. (Learn about our team here!)
Leaning on my own identity as a part of the Iranian diaspora, I centered care and culture across my dramaturgical resources.
In the rehearsal hall
Digital dramaturgy dashboard, an interactive and collabotative Padlet for team research and resources
Dramaturgy packet
Dramaturgy bulletin board
Yasmin included an interactive activity as the focus of their dramaturgy bulletin board. Actors were invited to reflect on the pull their characters felt between their English selves versus Iranian selves. The board also features research across history and culture. The team was invited to post photos of their ancestors and elders as a reminder of our own personal roots.
Audience engagement
Playbill essay
Preshow discussion:
Press:
“Goodman Theatre’s ‘English’ Explores Humor And Hardship In Learning New Language: The Pulitzer-winning play made its Chicago debut Friday with an all-Iranian cast. Its story hits close to home for director Hamid Dehghani.” (Leen Yassine, Block Club Chicago)
“It’s so special to be in a room with other Iranians and Persians. Because it’s not just about the script but the moments in between rehearsals when we’re taking breaks [and] sharing cultural snacks in our rehearsal room or checking on our parents in those moments, or sharing stories,” Mikhaiel said.
“Goodman Theatre’s English reminds us that we’re more than our words: Sanaz Toossi’s story of four Iranians prepping for the TOEFL resonates with director Hamid Dehghani.” (Boutayna Chokrane, Chicago Reader)
Like the characters in English, [Hamid] Dehghani quickly realized that the TOEFL was no easy feat. He initially thought he’d ace the exam in six months but found himself postponing it for three years. “I forgot why I was even learning English because I was so obsessed with taking the exam,” he says, recalling how he didn’t sleep the night before because he was so stressed. “Your life depends on that exam. I always felt I was alone, but when I read Sanaz’s play, I said, ‘Oh my god, this is also true for everyone else.’”
“Goodman's sublime 'English' explores political, economic, religious motivations for learning new language: Subdued in tone but fully engrossing and deeply moving, the play has twists that surprise and a lot of humor.” (Steven Oxman, Chicago Sun-Times)
Dehghani, his design team, and this superb cast make every moment of the production dramatically active, sharp, clear, strikingly real, and altogether relatable. The play has twists that surprise, a lot of humor, and an extraordinary depth of human insight.
Photos by Liz Lauren
