2025-2026 Midwest SWANA
Playwright Incubator Program
Introducing the 2025-2025 Midwest SWANA Playwright Incubator Program!
New Arab American Theater Works Playwright Incubator Program is our a playwright development program for SWANA (Southwest Asian/North African) or Muslim playwrights. This program brings together a cohort of early to mid career playwrights for half a year of bi-monthly workshops and new play development. The program will culminate in a showcase for a public audience.
After a competitive national application process, we've selected a robust cohort of Midwestern SWANA playwrights, who will spend half a year workshopping powerful new plays. The public showcase will take place in Spring 2026 (Dates TBA)
Our playwrights hail from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Minnesota; representing multiple SWANA nationalities including Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and Palestine.
Through this program, our playwrights will...
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Receive thorough, culturally supportive feedback about their works
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Have their work showcased in a public reading with SWANA inclusive casting
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Share artistic space with fellow SWANA writers engaging with similar barriers and cultural experiences. ​
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Meet the Playwrights
2025-2026 Midwest SWANA Playwright Incubator Cohort
Alexander Attea
Illinois | Lebanese American
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Alexander Attea is the Artistic Director of Avalanche Theatre and the Creative Director of the Fine Arts Building & Studebaker Theater. He is also a playwright, actor, musician, and artist. His plays have been performed across 15 states, including with Bramble Theatre, Silk Road Cultural Center, The Plagiarists, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre, Three Brothers Theatre, Bower Theatre Ensemble, the International Museum of Surgical Science, and others. He has held residencies with Mackinac State Historic Parks and Three Brothers Theatre. More at AlexanderAttea.com.
Zeyy Fawaz
Michigan | Lebanese American
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Zeyy is an actress and vocalist who speaks five languages and sings in more than ten. A community organizer and activist, Zeyy weaves her advocacy into her artistic expression. Her body of work spans film, television, theater, commercial, and voiceover productions. A firm believer in art as a powerful political tool; Zeyy is committed to centering activism in her work, contributing to numerous productions that spotlight pressing social justice issues. In addition to holding a degree in the arts, she earned a master’s in International Relations and Development, with a concentration in Languages and Diaspora Studies. It is this unique intersection of diplomacy and artistry that informs and propels her creative and professional pursuits.
Zainab Hussein
Michigan | Iraqi American
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Zainab Hussein is a writer born in Basra, Iraq and raised across Iran, Yemen, and Syria; then Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio. She received her M.F.A. from the Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine, where she taught in the Composition and Fiction programs. She is a MacDowell Fellow and lectures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Denmo Ibrahim
Wisconsin | Egyptian American
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Denmo Ibrahim (she/her) is an American playwright, actor, and theatre educator of Egyptian descent. Her plays include Arab Spring (Finalist: O’Neill, Princess Grace Award), BABA (Winner: Theatre Bay Area “Best Original Script”; SFBATCC “Best New Play” & “Best Solo Show”), and A Country Made of Salt (Winner: Legacy Playwrights Award; Civilians R&D Lab). Her work has been produced or developed by Audible, Round House Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Capital Stage, Noor Theatre, Golden Thread, and others. She holds an MFA from Naropa University and a BFA from Boston University. denmoibrahim.com
Kayla Karnesky
Illinois | Palestinian American
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Kayla Karnesky (she/her) is a Palestinian American playwright and actor from Livonia, Michigan, and a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Playwriting. Her work has been featured through Columbia’s showcases, including Playwrights Aloud (a series highlighting new 10-minute plays), One Acts Aloud, the One Act Play Festival, the 24-Hour Playfest, and the New Musical Workshop, as well as with Chicago Dramatists. Her debut full-length play, Percentages (2022), premiered at Columbia. Her second play, Ramallah, a deeply personal story inspired by her grandparents’ immigration from Palestine, earned her a place in the New Horizons Play Festival in Atlanta. She is currently developing How to Lose a Prince in 10 Paintings and adapting the Palestinian folktale Abu Jmeel’s Daughter for the stage.
Novid Parsi
Missouri | Iranian American
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Novid Parsi’s plays have been produced or developed by theaters including Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Boise Contemporary Theater, Golden Thread Productions, The New Group, Playwrights Foundation, Queens Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, Silk Road Rising, and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Novid has been named a MacDowell Fellow, two-time winner of the Ashland New Plays Festival, winner of the Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative, and Relentless Award honorable mention recipient. A son of Iranian immigrants, Novid was born in New York and raised in Texas. He has degrees in literature from Swarthmore College and Duke University. Novid and his husband live in St. Louis.
Sana Wazwaz
Minnesota | Palestinian American
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Sana Wazwaz is a Palestinian American writer, theater artist, and musician. Her writing has been seen in Hayden's Ferry Review, Water~Stone Review, Overtly Lit, The Ghassan Kanafani Arts Anthology, and at the Colorado College Fine Arts Center. Her creative nonfiction essay, "How to Say 'Survival' in Latin" was nominated for Best American Essay 2025. Sana is a two-time member of New Arab American Theater Works' Playwright Incubator Program, where her debut play, "Birthright Palestine," was developed and subsequently performed in the 2023 Playwright Showcase. In addition to writing, Sana is also a long-time member and associate instructor of the Yalla Drum Ensemble. She holds a BA in English with a creative writing concentration from Augsburg University.