{"id":5094738,"date":"2025-09-26T10:54:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlatinonews.com\/?p=5094738"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:54:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:54:48","slug":"theaterworks-hartford-presents-english-a-deep-dive-into-language-culture-and-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/2025\/09\/26\/theaterworks-hartford-presents-english-a-deep-dive-into-language-culture-and-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"TheaterWorks Hartford Presents “English”: A Deep Dive Into Language, Culture, and Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HARTFORD\u2014This autumn, class is in session. TheaterWorks Hartford celebrates its 40th season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, \u201cEnglish<\/em><\/a>\u201d by Sanaz Toossi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This heartfelt, timely piece is a co-production between TWH and Long Wharf Theater. \u201cEnglish<\/em>\u201d premieres in Hartford on Oct. 2 and runs through Nov. 2, 2025\u2014before showcasing on Southern Connecticut State University\u2019s campus in January 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiences are transported to a classroom in Karaj, Iran, in 2008\u2014where a group of four adults prepare to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). The class\u2019s mantra is \u201cEnglish Only,\u201d which, of course, isn\u2019t followed all<\/em> the time. The play centers on these individuals and their personal reasons for needing a good test score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnglish<\/em>\u2026is a precise study of language\u2019s significance,\u201d stated The Guardian<\/a>\u2019s review in January 2025. \u201cThe 2023 Pulitzer prize winner slyly presents as a comedy about studying a foreign language, but eventually blooms into an evocation of grief and assimilation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iranian-American Director Arya Shahi<\/a> shared that an essential theme of the performance is how language influences identity, growth, and belonging.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a story that is so much bigger than just one demographic\u2026\u201d Shahi told CT Latino News. \u201cIt is a story that applies to anybody that has ever tried to be bilingual\u2026it speaks so beautifully to how our words are like our verbal DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahi highlighted how Sanaz Toossi portrays the people in \u201cEnglish\u201d; how important it is that she shares the stories of five unique, complex, messy people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said, especially in the narrative world and in stories of underrepresented communities, there\u2019s a tendency to clean characters up. There\u2019s an expectation of making people \u201cto be perfect others and representatives.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahi added, \u201cWhat I love about a piece like this is that it does not mention the politics of Iran once. It does not mention the stories that I thought we had to tell as Iranians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Sanaz Toossi tells \u201cthe story of people having to learn language, and the reasons why they\u2019re learning the language slowly bleed into the plot. Those reasons are very personal, and they are very rooted in what these people want for their lives, which I think is the exact way you need to create a piece of art that engenders empathy rather than something that feels like advocacy or feels overtly political,\u201d said Shahi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, when Shahi first heard news of \u201cEnglish<\/em>\u201d winning a Pulitzer, he was in rehearsal for Water for Elephants<\/em>. Despite not knowing playwright Sanaz Toossi or having a chance to read the play yet\u2014he stepped into another room and, overcome with emotion, cried for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was just this really powerful feeling,\u201d Shahi shared\u2014adding that, since he was a kid, he never thought he would see such celebration or esteem over this kind of Iranian representation. \u201cThat\u2019s when the play entered my consciousness and my emotional system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after, Shahi was asked by The Old Globe, where he had previously worked on a few productions, to direct \u201cEnglish<\/em>\u201d. He immediately said yes.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I just realized that this story has a long life,\u201d Shahi explained. \u201cThere is still so much to learn from the text. I think it\u2019s one of the Great American Plays and I don\u2019t say that lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shahi expressed excitement about directing \u201cEnglish<\/em>\u201d at TWH and collaborating with an entirely new cast and crew for this production. He shared that there was a moment, in rehearsal, when two actors realized how their own assumptions about the characters they were playing were changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there are so many interpretations of these characters that could ring true, that the job of what we\u2019re doing here in Hartford, what the job of the creative team is, is to create our version that feels the trustest extension of the people that are involved in this production,\u201d said Shahi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the topic of ethnicity and nationality pertaining to the play\u2019s cast and crew, Shahi emphasized that it\u2019s most important to him that his team creates \u201ca synthesis of diverse viewpoints,\u201d and that\u2019s solely possible when team members can bring their unique backgrounds, identities, and experiences into the production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully, as a director, we can create a space where everyone feels like we are being stretched and they are contributing,\u201d said Shahi. With that said, Shahi is working with a mostly Iranian team\u2014the first time he\u2019s ever worked with this many Iranian individuals on a creative team before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahi also spoke about the play\u2019s creative and stunning score by Iranian sound designer and composer Bahar Royaee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the sound design in this production is absolutely, weirdly, one of the most unique things about this production,\u201d said Shahi, who\u2019s a musician himself. \u201cIt\u2019s really rooted in that question, \u2018As you\u2019re trying to become something else, what happens to the old thing?\u2019 And I am so fascinated by how we can synthesize and distort classic Iranian instruments to sound unidentifiable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cEnglish<\/em>\u201d cast includes: Neagheen Homaifar, starring as Marjan; Sahar Milani as Elham; Afsheen Misaghi as Omid; Pantea Ommi as Roya; and Anahita Monfared as Goli. The crew includes: Sadra Tehrani on set design, Dina El-Aziz on costume design, Mary Ellen Stebbins on lighting design, Bahar Royaee on sound design, and Gregory Jafari Van Acker as the casting director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the performance and purchase tickets at twhartford.org<\/a> or by calling the box office at 860-527-7838. Tickets range from $25 to $70. The show runs for approximately 100 minutes with no intermission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Photos by Julian Barlow<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher\u2019s Notes:<\/em> <\/strong>CT Latino News is proud to partner with TheaterWorks Hartford<\/a> in supporting the state\u2019s Arts and Culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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