The following is a selection of publications that have been produced by members of the Theater Initiative. The publications engage with theater in a variety of ways, many contributing to scholarship on theater and the Middle East.
"From Cairo to Camaguey: Ibn Daniyal's The Shadow Spirit, Sarduy's Cobra, and Rojas's Celestina as the Bawd Between the Arab World and Latin America"
Study of continuity in theatrical and literary traditions from medieval Cairo to 20th-century Cuba. By Robert Myers. Comparative Literature. (Forthcoming, 2019).
A collection of four plays, four essays, and two interviews. Co-translated and co-edited with an introductory essay by Robert Myers and Nada Saab. Yale University Press. (Forthcoming, 2019).
A collection of five plays written by Levantine playwrights. Co-translated with essays by Robert Myers and Nada Saab. Brill. (In press, 2018.)
A close consideration of political theater by Sahar Assaf. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, published by MIT. 2017
A 2003 stage play by Robert Myers about British actress and writer, Fanny Kemble, and her visits to American plantations. The opening monologue spoken by escaped slave, William Jackson, was published in Monologues for Actors of Color, edited by Roberta Uno. Routledge. 2017.
An article about Lebanese author Issam Mahfouz's style and language drawing influence from the Theatre of the Absurd and from the politics of his time. By Robert Myers and Nada Saab. PAJ, by MIT. 2015.
A collection of Four, English-translated plays by Syrian playwright Sa'dallah Wannous that span three decades of his career. Edited by Marvin Carlson and Safi Mahfouz with an inroduction by Robert Myers. Includes Rituals of Signs and Transformations, translated by Myers and Nada Saab. Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Publications. 2014.
This article argues that much of the play's novelty and aesthetic power derive from aspects of Shakespeare, principally Measure for Measure, and from motifs, lexicon and ritual theatricality derived from Sufism as aesthetic form and religious practice. By Robert Myers and Nada Saab. Theatre Research International, published by Cambridge University Press. 2013.
A treatment of several American theatrical pieces from between the 18th and 20th centuries, and their complicated portrayals of 'East' and 'West' on stage. Written and Presented by Robert Myers. Published in the conference proceedings of “Connections and Ruptures: America and the Middle East." 2010.
Inspects gender constructs within the stage directing
profession, and theater as a space that allows fluid interactions between
femininity and masculinity. By Sahar Assaf. Al-Raida Journal.
2008