Press Release: Pulitzer Prize Winning ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi at Capital Stage (Correction to PWYW Night)

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Capital Stage Presents | Sacramento Premiere

2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner

ENGLISH

by Sanaz Toossi

Directed by Torange Yeghiazarian

January 29 - March 2, 2025

Sacramento, California - January 14, 2025: Capital Stage continues its 20th Anniversary Season with the Sacramento Premiere of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winning Play ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi. ENGLISH is concurrently debuting on Broadway this month. Torange Yeghiazarian, founder of Golden Thread Productions in the Bay Area, will direct ENLGISH making her Capital Stage directing debut. The cast features the Capital Stage debuts of Sofia Ahmad*, Zaya Kolia*, and Leda Rasooli. And features the return of Fatemeh Mehraban (GEORGIANA & KITTY) and Dena Martinez* (AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, MR. BURNS, A POST ELECTRIC PLAY). Performances run January 29 - March 2, 2025. Tickets are available now at capstage.org. (*Member Actors' Equity Association)

THE PLAY

ENGLISH

by Sanaz Toossi

Directed by Torange Yeghiazarian

2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama

2023 Obie Award Winner for Best New American Play

2022 Lucile Lortel Award Winner for Outstanding Play

Sacramento Premiere

January 29 – March 2, 2025

It’s 2008, and four Iranians assemble triweekly in a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class in Karaj, Iran. The students are led by Marjan, an anglophile who abolishes Farsi from her classroom. They translate Ricky Martin and endure major preposition confusion; they discover how to be funny in English and ponder what they will lose in the process. As the class slowly devolves into a linguistic mess, some students cling tighter to their mother tongue while others embrace the possibilities of a new language.

NY TIMES CRITIC’S PICK! “A rich new play… both contemplative and comic, it nails every opportunity for big laughs as its English-learning characters struggle with accents and idioms. But the laughter provides cover for the deeper idea that their struggle is not just linguistic.”

–THE NEW YORK TIMES

PERFORMANCE LENGTH: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes, No Intermission

FEATURING: Sofia Ahmad*, Fatemeh Mehraban,

Dena Martinez*, Zaya Kolia*, Leda Rasooli

*Member Actors' Equity Association

PRESS KIT

THE PLAYWRIGHT

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian American playwright from Orange County, California. Plays: ENGLISH (Atlantic, Roundabout; Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Weissberger New Play Award, Kilroys’ List), WISH YOU WERE HERE (Williamstown/Audible, Playwrights Horizons; Stavis Award). Commissions: Atlantic Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, IAMA Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other: member of Youngblood, member of Lark’s Middle Eastern American Writers Lab, alumna of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group, P73 Playwriting Fellow. Other honors: Steinberg Playwright Award, Horton Foote Prize, Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award. Television: Five Women, “A League of Their Own,” “Invitation to a Bonfire.” Education: M.F.A. from NYU Tisch.

DIRECTOR

Torange Yeghiazarian is a playwright, director, and community-builder working towards enriching the US Theater canon with Middle Eastern voices and aesthetics. In 2024, her translation and stage adaptation of Nizami’s LEILI & MAJNUN premiered at Central Stage, and her commissioned play, THE TUTOR, premiered at the New Conservatory Theatre. A post-1979-revolution transplant from Iran, Torange believes that life is inherently political. Her plays frequently explore the cultural divide with tenderness and humor from an immigrant woman’s perspective. As a director, Torange’s focus has been on new plays, experimenting with Middle Eastern performance traditions, and adaptation of classics. Her theatre work is propelled by the need to build, inspire, and empower community. Torange founded Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East and its global diaspora, and served as its Executive Artistic Director for twenty-five years. She is a founding board member of Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance, the first national organization advocating for MENA theater makers. Torange’s writing has been published in: New Iranian Plays, Performing Iran, Casting A Movement, Salaam. Peace Anthology, The Drama Review, American Theatre Magazine, AmerAsia Journal, Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, and the Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Stage Actors. TorangeYeghiazarian.com