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Hit Play About Muslim American Gets Staged Reading At Arab American Museum, Two Other Michigan Venues
Playwright/attorney/new media journalist Wajahat Ali (Goat Milk Blog) made waves in 2009 when The Domestic Crusaders broke box office records during its Off Broadway premiere at New York’s famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe. When it appeared in the pages of McSweeney’s in 2010, it became one of the first plays about Muslim Americans to be published.
Now Ali, who is part of an emerging Muslim American arts scene in San Francisco, is bringing his play to Michigan for staged readings at the Arab American National Museum (7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9), Michigan State University (Feb. 8) and Grand Valley State University (Feb. 10). The readings, directed by Lynn Lammers and produced by Dr. Salah Hassan, are free and open to the public.
The Domestic Crusaders focuses on a day in the life of a modern multi-generational Muslim Pakistani American family who convene at the family home to celebrate the 21st birthday of the youngest child.
Against the backdrop of 9/11 and the subsequent scapegoating of Muslim Americans, tensions rise and sparks fly among the six eclectic family members, culminating in an intense family battle as each “crusader” struggles to assert and impose their respective voices and opinions, while still attempting to maintain and understand that unifying thread that makes them part of the same family.
“This play is brilliant. Moving. Shapely. Clever. Funny.”
–Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison
“Wajahat Ali is a major new voice in American literature. His play is to Muslim American theater what A Raisin in the Sun is to African American theater.”
–Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Mitch Berman
“The Domestic Crusaders is what all high art aspires to do – spotlight complicated truths and contradictions without offering easy answers.”
–Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle
This event is presented in collaboration with the Michigan State University Migrations of Islam project.