FESTIVAL OF NEW SWANA PLAYS
After months of workshopping new plays together, our Midwestern SWANA Playwright Incubator Cohort Is ready to present SIX new plays in this exciting festival. Directed by Sherrine Azab, these plays range from political dramas to psychological thrillers to fairytale adaptations to everything in between.
Our festival is the culmination of our second SWANA Playwright Incubator Cohort, which selected seven Midwestern playwrights from a competitive applicant pool, who met for several months to develop exciting new work.
📆 June 6-7, 2026
📍Open Book Performance Hall | 1011 S Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN
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FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
1 PM | Homebodies
by Zainab Hussein
The airspace is closed. The U.S. State Department advises Americans to draft their wills and leave immediately. In a house on the border of Iraq and Iran, a mother and her daughters are stuck in the place they come from. These three women must decide if a way out ever exists for anyone.
4 PM | Painting in Public
by Novid Parsi
Ali, an Iranian American data worker, and Betty, a Black American visual artist, are both reeling from loss when they find each other and fall in love. But can their love endure when Betty learns that Ali's ethnicity sometimes mysteriously changes?
7 PM | Birthright Palestine
by Sana Wazwaz
After protesting a Zionist group’s “Birthright Israel Trip”--a government funded trip to Israel for Jewish students–Aida Shalabi and her university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter become victims of a massive Zionist smear campaign, and are suspended for alleged anti-semitism. But this semester, SJP returns from suspension, and now, Aida's heart is set on returning somewhere else–to organize the first ever Birthright Palestine trip. Birthright Palestine follows a group of Palestinian-American students on a quest to return to their precious homeland, against an extensive Zionist campaign to keep them away.
SUNDAY, JUNE 7TH
1 PM | How to Lose a Prince in 10 Paintings
by Kayla Karnesky
How to Lose a Prince in 10 Paintings is a theatrical adaptation inspired by the Palestinian folktale “Abu Jameel’s Daughter.” When Rida, a young woman who feels unseen in her own home, makes a dangerous bargain to become beautiful, she suddenly finds herself at the center of royal attention. Brought to the palace and courted by Prince Alwan, Rida must navigate a world that values her appearance more than her voice. As the kingdom projects its expectations onto her, a trio of Sisters watch from the shadows, weaving fate and mischief. Through a series of striking "paintings" Rida’s story unfolds...revealing the cost of silence and the power of being truly heard.
4 PM | Going for a WALK with the BOYS
by Alexander Attea
The boys are going for a walk. They plan to have a chill day at the lake, drinking beers, throwing frisbee, sitting around a fire, classic stuff. They need this trip, too -- one of them has recently gone through a breakup, another is struggling with work, another has just announced that he can see the future. When a mysterious dead creature appears in their cooler, the trip takes a dark turn. As they continue deeper into nature and things get even stranger, the boys are forced to confront their relationships, their past, and the structure of their identities.
7 PM | The Tenants
by Zeyy Fawaz
A couple’s life starts to change in bizarre ways when another couple rents their studio next door. What starts as strange becomes flat out claustrophobic for both the actors and the audience in a surreal game of toying with normal social conduct. There are two types of audiences for this play; those who like psychological thrillers and those who know what this is actually about.