LAYALINA
Photography by Liz Lauren
“…Layalina is a masterclass in generational storytelling… Zebari weaves this story as if he were an artist at the loom”
-New City Stage
In 2003, newly-wed Layal and her family prepare to immigrate from Baghdad, Iraq, to a Chicago suburb. Seventeen years later, Layal’s life looks unimaginably different from what she had envisioned two decades prior, as she and her siblings explore queerness, face their grief, and discover what it takes to make home in a new place. Layalina examines how families fall apart—and find each other again—amidst turbulent global and social change.
Nominee, BEST NEW WORK, Chicago Jeff Awards
Production History
World Premiere
Goodman Theatre (March, 2023)
Directed by Sivan Battat
Workshop Production
Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival (December, 2021)
Directed by Sivan Battat
Public Reading
National Queer Theatre’s Criminal Queerness Festival (June, 2021)
Directed by Sivan Battat
Workshop Residency
Mt. Trmeper Art Center w/ National Queer Theatre (April, 2021)
Directed by Sivan Battat
Workshop & Virtual Pubic Reading
Goodman Theatre’s Future Labs (Jan, 2021)
Directed by Azar Kazemi
Press
Chicago Reader— “Loss and joy” by Kerry Reid
Chicago Reader— “Tales of our nights” by Boutayna Chokrane
Chicago Reader — “The real stories of a queer SWANA family” by Ata Younan
Podcast interview— “Two Person Echo Chamber” by Mitch Schaeflein and John Anton
New York Times — “At a Queer Theatre Festival, the Plays Are Brazenly Personal” by Sarah Bahr
Al Jazeera— “World premiere play spotlights US Assyrian diaspora community” by Yasmeen Altaji
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