Q&A Session (Department of Theatre & Drama)
ABOUT LEILA BUCK
Leila Buck is a Lebanese American writer, performer and teaching artist. Her award-winning solo show, ISite, about growing up between the U.S. and the Arab world, toured the U.S., Europe and China for more than ten years, and is published in Four Arab American Plays (McFarland Press). Her second play, In the Crossing, about her experience in Lebanon with her Jewish husband during the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006, and the challenges of telling that story on her return, was first performed in the Public’s New Work Now! 2006, and developed with support of Silk Road (Chicago), The Public Theater, Culture Project, and New York Theatre Workshop. As an actress Leila's most recent work includes the off-Broadway production and international tour of the critically-acclaimed AFTERMATH, based on the stories of Iraqi refugees (Drama League nomination), and the American premiere of SCORCHED by Wajdi Mouawad (Barrymore Award). A teaching artist for more than a decade, Leila has performed and conducted workshops on storytelling and drama for cross-cultural engagement at conferences, universities, schools and cultural centers across the U.S. and around the world, including as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy using theater to address tensions between Muslim immigrants and the wider population in Denmark. She was a founding member and education director of Nibras Arab-American Theater Collective, Artistic Director of Nisaa Arab-American Women’s Collective, and a writer and performer for the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. For more information, see www.leilabuck.com.
