Oh My Sweet Land

Amir Nizar Zuabi is the artistic director of the Shiber Hur Company and an international associate of the Young Vic Theatre London. His award winning shows have gained new audiences locally in Palestine and also internationally thanks to acclaimed festivals and theatres, drawing new attention to the Palestinian Theatre scene. Zuabi first cut his teeth with Stories Under Occupation for Al Kasabah theatre in Ramallah. The show won the Cairo Theatre Festival and Carthage Festival for Best Production. It toured extensively, presented at the Royal Court London, Tokyo International, Goteborg Festival, Lincoln Center NY and elsewhere. Following this success, Zuabi was invited as a guest director to the Young Vic Theatre in London in 2002, where he directed When the World was Green by Sam Shepard. In 2004 he was invited by the Teatro Collosseo in Rome to direct the play In Prigone con Wittgenstein by Mariano Apria. In 2005, Zuabi staged Jidariyya, at the Palestinian National Theatre based on a poem by Mahmoud Darwish. The show toured extensively in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain and was invited to Peter Brook’s Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris and the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival. In 2009 he premiered Saint-Saëns’s Opera Samson and Delilah at the Vlamesse Opera house in Antwerp.

In 2009, Zuabi founded the Shiber Hur Theatre Company, of which he is the artistic director, and began to collaborate with the Young Vic Theatre London. As part of this collaboration he has directed I Am Yusuf, The Beloved One, and In The Penal Colony as co-productions between his company shiberhur and the Young Vic, all winning  critical acclaim in London and touring internationally. He was the first Middle-Eastern director to be invited to direct in the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he directed a sold-out production of The Comedy of Errors.

He has written 7 published plays I Am Yusuf And This Is My Brother, The Beloved One, With Great Sorrow, Oh My Sweet Land ,Three Days Of Mourn, West of Us is The Sea, and the children’s musical Mid Spring Song, as well as numerous adaptations and devised pieces for stage.

Nadine Malouf (Actor) most recently played the lead role of Laila, in the world
premiere adaptation of Khalid Hosseini’s best-selling novel,

A Thousand Splendid Suns, at American Conservatory Theatre, that then went on to Theatre Calgary, in Canada. She also played the title role in the world premiere of Salomé, written and directed by Yaël Farber, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC [winner of seven Helen Hayes Awards in 2016]. Off-Broadway, Malouf most recently appeared in the world premiere of Ultimate Beauty Bible Page73), This is How it Ends (59E59), The School for Scandal (Redbull Theatre), The Who & The What (LCT3), and Exile (Cherry Lane). Other theatre includes Scorched (Syracuse Stage) and Macbeth (GBS Theatre, RADA). Malouf has developed new work at Sundance Theatre Lab, The Public, Lincoln Center, New York Theatre Workshop, and most recently with Simon McBurney. TV credits include Mysteries of Laura and Odd Mom Out. In the film, Malouf recently played the lead role in the short film Resolutions, which premiered this year at the LA Indie Film Festival; other films include May in the Summer, Shame, and Static Shock. Malouf received her training at Syracuse University and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Mariana Sanchez (Set Designer) is a scenic designer originally from Mexico with a background in architecture based in the New York area. Some of her credits include: Anatomy of a Suicide (The Atlantic Theater) Marys Seacole (LTC3), Fade (Primary Stages), Troy, Winter’s Tale (The Public), Frontieres Sans Frontieres ( Bushwick Starr), Oh My Sweet Land ( Play Company). Regional: Manahatta, War (Yale Repertory), The Copper Children, Manahatta, The River Bride, All’s Well That Ends Well (OSF), Mojada (St Louis Rep), The Niceties (Geva Theater), Fetch Clay, Make Man (Dallas Theater Center), Skeleton Crew (Baltimore Center Stage), The Wolves, Fade (TheaterWorks), Peter Pan (Yale University) among others. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and B. Arch. from National Autonomous University in Mexico City.

Nicole Pearce (Lighting Designer) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Queens, NY. Her work has been seen across the United States, Cuba, England, Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, New Zealand, and Russia. Recent works include The Look of Love choreographed by Mark Morris with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Catch Me If You Can Directed by Molly Smith with Arena Stage, and Children’s Songs by Choreographed by Jessica Lang with American Ballet Theatre. Her installation of 1,000 paintings entitled Tiny Paintings for Big Hearts is open to doctors, nurses, staff, and patients of Elmhurst Hospital in Elmhurst, NY.

Mark Van Hare is a composer and sound designer working in New York City. Recent credits include One Flea Spare at The Sheen Center, Paris! with COMPANY XIV at Irondale Theatre, Anna Christie at The Wild Project, The Wild Party with The Dramatic Association at Yale University, Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods at Portland Stage (Portland, ME), This Time at The Sheen Center, Couriers and Contrabands at The Barrow Group Theatre, and In Fields Where They Lay at the New Ohio Theatre. markvanhare.com

Molly Shea (Stage Manager) Select Theatre Credits: we are continuous (Williamstown Theatre Festival), A Walk On The Moon (George Street Playhouse), Tambo and Bones, BachelorX (Playwrights Horizons) Sing Street (Broadway & NYTW) Notes On My Mother's Decline, Time's Journey Through a Room, Oh My Sweet Land, Villa (PlayCo) Little Women (Primary Stages) This Is The Color Described By The Time (New Georges). Select TV/Film Credits: Tony Awards Ceremony, That Damn Michael Che, Younger, Beat Bobby Flay.