Public Engagement
"Institutions of higher education should play a central role in offering the public direct engagement with leading and emerging and artists."
Photo: Playwright Mohammad Al Attar with Rebekah Maggor during a post-show discussion with students and community members at Rowan University.
I have curated and produced performances, public talks, workshops, and master classes with international artists, scholars and activists at numerous institutions. Most recently I curated and produced the site specific conference "Drama Across Borders: The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary Theatre in Translation" at Cornell University, featuring Elyse Dodgson (Royal Court Theatre) as keynote speaker, and translators, playwrights, directors, producers and scholars from around the world. Other events at Cornell include artist and teaching residencies with playwrights Rama Haydar, Bashar Murkus, and composer Kinan Abou-afach. Each residency included public performances, discussions, and workshops with the artists. At Vanderbilt University I produced “Voices of Revolution,” a campus-wide five-part series that brought together international journalists, scholars and artists to discuss the “Arab Spring.” At Rowan University, as part of the President’s Lecture Series, I organized a residency with Masrah Ensemble’s Doomed by Hope Theatre Series, featuring theatre artists Mohammad Al Attar, Dalia Basiouny, and Eyad Houssami. These performances, classes, and public forums attracted large audiences and garnered enthusiastic responses from both the university and the wider community.