Playwriting alumna Rehana Lew Mirza ’07 will present Words We Believe at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 2022 New Works Festival in Saratoga, California. Audiences have two opportunities to see the new show: November 9 and 13, 2022.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award, was founded in 1970 and continues to champion new work. Its New Works Festival showcases new plays and musicals in their early development stages, giving creators an opportunity to workshop their new shows and allowing audiences to provide feedback. An integral part of TheatreWorks’ mission is to foster community around artists as they engage in the creation of new works meant to excite theatre audiences of the future. The festival is a partnership between TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and the Lucas Artists Residency Program at Montalvo Arts Center, which is itself a creative incubator that works to support artists across many disciplines in their development of new work. This year, the festival will be presented in-person for the first time since 2019.
Words We Believe, set in present-day Orange County, California, follows the story of 17-year-old Fitri’s disappearance and her friend Ayan’s search for the truth. Ayan confronts Elaine, an older white woman who might be the mother of the boy with whom Fitri ran away—the same boy who might have sent threatening voicemails to Ayan and Fitri’s mosque. As more characters come in to complicate matters, the search for the truth transforms into a deeper interrogation of friendship and fractured communities. Words We Believe is directed by Aidaa Peerzada.
Rehana Lew Mirza is a Kleban Award-winning playwright. Her plays include: Hatefuck (WP/Colt Coeur), Soldier X (Ma-Yi), Tomorrow, Inshallah (Living Room Theater, Storyworks/HuffPost commission), Neighborhood Watch (NNPN/InterAct commission), and Barriers (Desipina, Asian American Theater Company). Mirza and her husband, Mike Lew, share a Mellon Foundation National Playwright residency administered in partnership with Howlround at Ma-Yi Theater. Under the residency, they’ve co-written The Colonialism Project (La Jolla Playhouse commission) and the musical Bhangin’ It with composer/lyricist Sam Willmott. She is the founder of the award-winning South Asian theatre and film company, Desipina & Co. In addition to her receipt of the Kleban Award, Mirza has received NYPA and HBO Access Fellowships, a CCTP Artist Residency, and a TCG/New Georges Fellowship. Prior to attending Columbia, Mirza received her BFA from NYU Tisch.
