Midtown International Theater Festival
Presents

RAGHS

The story of one Iranian girl’s journey to womanhood (based on true events)

Written and Performed by Sohailla Mahjour
Directed and Developed by Pati Amoroso

At The Jewel Box Theater

July 18th @ 7:00PM
July 22nd @ 7:00PM
July 23rd @ 5:30PM

New York, NY, June 26, 2017 – Midtown International Theater Festival will present Raghs, a one-woman play written by Sohailla Mahjour and developed and directed by Pati Amoroso. Raghs, which means “dance” in Farsi, is the story of a young Iranian-American girl who falls in love with an older Iranian cousin. Throughout a series of heartbreaking losses, this naive love carries her from adolescent innocence to womanhood.

“Given our circumstances right now, politically, this story must be brought to as many communities as possible,” say Mahjour and Amoroso. “Middle Easterners and Americans must talk to each other. They must discuss simple things, like falling in love because they all share that emotion. By feeling empathy for the characters in this play, the audience member will be feeling empathy for Middle Easterners everywhere. That is how we believe we can join hands in fighting the segregation that is going on.”

About the Cast

Pati Amoroso is a Brazilian director who first stepped foot into the art world as an actress. At a very young age, she worked under the spotlight in many shoes including Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia!, Chanel in Bark! the Musical and Kayla in the Shady Pines pilot (HIFF).

An NYU alumnus with a vast training in Speech, Method, Fátima Toledo, and Practical Aesthetics, Pati Amoroso was quickly snatched as a director of many original plays. As a huge supporter of women in arts, she proudly directed Mary V, My Life as Morgan, They’ll Be Callin’ Us Witches – to name a few – ALL abundant with strong female characters and ALL written by female playwrights.

As a developer of Raghs, Pati was passionate about steering the hero’s journey into painful paths but never relinquishing opportunities to add humor on every page.

Sohailla Mahjour is an actress, writer and producer with a BFA from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She found her niche for storytelling as a child reenacting Disney movies and imitating her charming Iranian father. Sohailla admires original works of art and has spent her last two years acting, writing, stage managing and producing unique stories for theater and film. Recently she Stage Managed Mary V (Theater For The New City) and Don’t Be Callin’ Us Witches (Radioactive Festival). She has toured Raghs at several venues in NYC (Joes’s Pub at the Public) and California (Azad’s Martial Arts). Sohailla is thrilled to perform Raghs in its 3rd festival this year.

Entering its seventeenth year, Midtown International Theater Festival is dedicated to nurture theater in New York City and beyond. Three times a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall), MTIF offers a safe environment to create and develop unique and innovative theatre that utilizes imaginative, low-tech staging. Learn more about the festival at http://www.midtownfestival.org/.

Raghs will be presented July 18th at 7:00pm, July 22nd at 7:00pm, and July 23rd at 5:30pm at the Jewel Box Theater, 312 West 36th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at http://tiny.cc/RaghsThePlay

For Raghs press inquires, contact:
Anne Luben
annelaurenluben@gmail.com

For general press inquiries, or for Midtown International Theater Festival inquiries, contact:
Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment
646-338-5472 or JMITF2017@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/raghs2017/
http://instidy.com/raghs_a_soloshow
Tweets by Raghs_ThePlay

Written and performed by Sohailla Mahjour, directed and developed by Pati Amoroso, Raghs is a tour-de-force that captures the time in a girl’s life when she most defines herself by her relationships. Mahjour has a fantastic chameleon-like ability to portray the Iranian-American Sarina (loosely based on herself) and her father, her best friend, and her older second cousin (for whom she has feelings) on a blank stage with no costume changes. It is always clear when she has changed character, through her use of different voices, postures, and body language. Her one prop is a scarf, which she changes into a hijab for prayer, drapes as a pashmina as an accessory, or loops around her arms as a backpack for going to high school. “Raghs” is Farsi for “dance”, and Mahjour opens the show with a joyous “WHOOOOOOOO!” as she shows her best friend a raghs, explaining how in Iran people love to dance. Let it be known, Mahjour can dance well, with all the energy of the teenager she is portraying. Sarina has a lot to decide in her life, especially as she is just a teenager, and knowing that any decision she makes will not sit right with one of her two cultures makes it that much harder for her. Wit …Read more