{"id":14010,"date":"2016-06-15T08:14:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=14010"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:30","slug":"draw-the-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=14010","title":{"rendered":"World premiere of \u2018Draw the Circle\u2019 to lead PlayMakers\u2019 2016-2017 lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vivienne
Vivienne Benesch is PlayMakers’ producing artistic director (photo by Alison Sheehy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The world premiere of \u201cDraw the Circle,\u201d written and performed by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and directed by Chay Yew, will lead off PlayMakers Repertory Company\u2019s 2016-2017 season. The play is part of the theater\u2019s topic-driven, PRC2<\/sup>\u00a0second-stage series in which each performance is followed by artist-audience discussions.<\/p>\n

The addition of \u201cDraw the Circle\u201d completes the new season lineup for PlayMakers, the professional theater in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was announced earlier this spring. The one-man show will be presented Aug. 24-28 as the first play in the PRC2<\/sup> series, joining \u201cDe Profundis\u201d (Jan. 11-15, 2017) and \u201cMr. Joy\u201d (April 26-30, 2017).<\/p>\n

\"Mashuq
Mashuq Deen photo by Darcy Courteau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDraw the Circle\u201d is the funny and moving story of a bewildered, immigrant Muslim family who must come to terms with their daughter transitioning from one gender to another. The play is a unique and personal look at universal themes of family, the quest for understanding and one woman\u2019s commitment to unconditional love. It has been described as an \u201ceffortless blend of comedy and intense intimacy\u201d (Stephen Shelley, artistic director of Brooklyn\u2019s BEAT Festival).<\/p>\n

Deen, an award-winning actor\/playwright, has been described as \u201can artist whose work reflects and imagines the national cultural identity.\u201d New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) named him a 2050 Fellow and his plays have been produced and\/or developed by New Dramatists, The Public Theater, NYTW, InterAct Theatre, Page 73, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, BEAT Festival and Berkshire Fringe, as well as colleges and universities across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a series devoted to opening dialogue about the important issues of our time, I could not be more thrilled to have Deen\u2019s \u2018Draw the Circle\u2019 exposing and exploring the very human dilemma at the heart of the hot-button issue of transgender rights and inclusivity,\u201d said PlayMakers Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch. \u201cThis compassionate look at a family\u2019s struggle with their child\u2019s gender transition will be followed each night by a facilitated discussion with our audience, Deen, and various scholars, community leaders, politicians and trans artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing his eagerness to perform at PlayMakers, Deen quoted the poem that inspired the title of his play, \u201cEdwin Markham wrote, \u2018He drew the circle that shut me out, heretic, rebel, thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him in!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Deen went on to add, \u201cI cannot wait to come to the beautiful state of North Carolina, and if I have to draw a circle around the whole, entire state, I\u2019ll be glad to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDraw the Circle\u201d will be performed at 7:30 p.m. nightly and 2 p.m. on Aug. 28 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road. Tickets are currently available as part of the theater\u2019s new season subscription packages. For more information, call the PlayMakers box office at (919) 962-7529 or visit www.playmakersrep.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Performer\u2019s own funny, moving story of a Muslim-American family dealing with their daughter\u2019s gender transition brings a human face to today\u2019s headlines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,72,36,37,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-14010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fine-arts-humanities","tag-carolina","tag-playmakers-repertory-company","tag-unc","tag-unc-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-chapel-hill","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47771,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions\/47771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}