Announcing: MENA Theater Makers Fund Awardees

The historic funding initiative, first of its kind, provides unprecedented and significant investment in MENA theater in the U.S. The 18 exceptional theater organizations awarded showcase the regional and stylistic diversity of MENA artists and organizations. Awardees are all US-based, serve MENA artists and audiences, and have a budget of less than $500,000. Each will receive $30,000-$45,000 general operating support over two years with additional funding available for each organization to award to MENA artists working in their local communities.

July 4, 2026 — Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA), the national advocacy organization amplifying the voices of MENA theater makers, announces a major landmark in its service to MENA artistic communities and the larger American theater. The MENA Theater Makers Fund, the first of its kind for MENA artists and organizations, awards $30,000-$45,000 in general operating support to 18 exceptional U.S.-based theater organizations with budgets under $500,000. MENA Theater Makers Fund is made possible with the support of The Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Wellbeing in the Arts Initiative, and in partnership with the National Arts Regranting Partners.

MENATMA Board Chair Denmo Ibrahim, playwright, actor, and author, celebrates this moment: “One of the great privileges of serving as MENATMA’s Board Chair is witnessing the extraordinary work happening across our field. At a time when many artists and cultural organizations are facing significant challenges, this cohort reminds us that SWANA theatre is vibrant, resilient, and alive with possibility. These awardees are telling stories, building institutions, creating opportunities, and nurturing communities in ways that will shape our field for years to come. We are honored to support their work and celebrate the imagination, leadership, and generosity they bring to our shared future. We cannot wait to see what grows from this next chapter.”

The 18 awardees were selected by an external peer panel from 45 applicants received through a national application process. MENATMA is deeply thankful to the panel of five established MENA artists and leaders who reviewed the applications and recommended the awardees: Fatima Al-Rasool (Former Public Programming Coordinator, Arab American National Museum), Inji Kamel (Middle and High School Program Manager, Urban ArtWorks), Jamil Khoury (Founding Executive Artistic Director, Silk Road Cultural Center), Handan Ozbilgin (Associate Artistic Director, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center), and Pirronne Yousefzadeh (Associate Artistic Director, Playwrights’ Center).

The selected organizations feature diversity across all metrics — serving different communities across the United States, stylistic focus from new works, traditional arts, dance theater, ensemble generation, to community advocacy and well-being, and feature an ethnic diversity with organizations that serve specific MENA identities as well as broad missions that include MENA artists and stories. Organizational histories span five to thirty years, and many are women-, immigrant-, and queer-led.

A Host of People, Detroit, MI

Art2Action, Inc., Tampa, FL

Aviva Arts, San Francisco, CA

Body Watani Dance Project, Minneapolis, MN

Boom Arts, Portland, OR

Central Stage, Richmond, CA

Chicago SWANA Collective, Chicago, IL

Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA), National

Dance Elixir, Oakland, CA

Flying Carpet Festival, San Francisco, CA

Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, CA

Hakawati, Los Angeles, CA

LubDub Theatre Co, New York City, NY

New Arab American Theater Works, Minneapolis, MN

Noor Theatre, New York City, NY

Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble, Seattle, WA

Uprising Theater, Chicago, IL

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, Brooklyn, NY

“For the first time, the US-based MENA theater community is launching an award program for us, and designed by us,” adds Torange Yeghiazarian, founding Board member of MENATMA and Board Liaison for the National Arts Regranting Partners. “It is a privilege to support our theater organizations, many of whom have long been underfunded. Much more is needed but this is a significant first step in acknowledging the accomplishments and contributions of our community thus far, and to support our growth and sustainability into the future.”

MENA Theater Makers Fund is made possible with the support of Alternate ROOTS, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), First Peoples Fund, and The Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Wellbeing in the Arts Initiative and in partnership with the National Arts Regranting Partners.

ORGANIZATIONAL BIOGRAPHIES:

MENA Theater Makers Alliance amplifies the voices of Middle Eastern and North African theater makers and expands how stories from and about our communities are told on U.S. stages. We will take space, make opportunities, champion artists, and build relationships with other marginalized communities and allies to build a more vibrant American theater. menatheater.org

A Host of People is a multi-racial Detroit-based ensemble theater company creating original work that celebrates imagination, complexity, and the synthesis of seemingly disparate elements—at once epic and intimate, political and personal, poetic and approachable. AHOP exists to create aesthetically rigorous, intellectually challenging theater that is warm, welcoming, and inspiring to people from all walks of life. We choose our subject matter and themes carefully with an eye to stories, topics, and aesthetic approaches that will be equally thrilling to the most adventurous theater fans as well as those with less exposure to the form. This is how A Host of People moves people: we play with the light and the dark; the head and the heart. ahostofpeople.org

Art2Action creates, develops, produces, and presents original theatre, interdisciplinary performances, artistic interventions, and progressive cultural organizing. We support artists of color, including MENA/SWANA artists, women and queer/trans-identified artists, and creative allies in the creation of contemporary work. We are dedicated to cultural equity and aesthetic innovation, artistic quality and community impact. Founded in 2010 by Lebanese American theater maker Andrea Assaf, we inspire the movement of ideas, and people, from art to action. art2action.org

Since 2021, Aviva Arts’ mission is to promote growth and transformation through liberatory arts practices. We center intersectional narratives that deepen relationships to self, community, and the natural world. Our arts and wellness programs draw from MENA traditions, including circle gatherings, shared meals, and spirited dialogue.Aviva Arts fosters intergenerational exchange and collective meaning-making by centering lived experience and cultural knowledge while strengthening visibility, dignity, and self-representation. avivaarts.org

Body Watani Dance Project specializes in embodied research rooted in SWANA and Palestinian dances and storytelling, manifesting as interdisciplinary and experimental performance, movement engagement, and community/public activations. Our artistic research is grounded in a personal, cultural, political, and ancestral compass that centers Palestine and its surrounding lands. bodywatani.com

Boom Arts imagines new social and political possibilities through performance. boomarts.org

Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA) envisions a strong, sustainable AANHPI, SWANA, MENA, and Mixed Race theater community that is integral to national culture – evocative of our past, declarative of our present, and innovative toward our future. Through coalition building and self-advocacy, we advance our field through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and a commitment to social justice, artistic diversity, cultural equity, and inclusion. We remain steadfast in solidarity with the self-determination, human rights, and collective liberation of our artists and the communities we serve. caata.net

Founded in 2008, Central Stage is a multi-faceted performance space and community arts hub founded and operated by Iranian theater artists of different ethnicities and cultural heritage. We foster a thriving community by providing the space and the support to enable open un-curated artistic expression. Our mission is to facilitate dialogue and promote community-building through the arts. We are continuously enriched by new waves of artists and art-lovers who bring new aspirations to our community. We see the ever-growing Iranian diaspora as an infinite source of creativity and expertise, and welcome the many generations of Iranian immigrants to consider Central Stage a home-away-from-home. centralstage.org

The Chicago SWANA Collective is a group of artists and organizations that support and promote South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists by presenting culturally specific performances, plays, installations, and events that represent the SWANA and SWANA diaspora experience and promote the work of SWANA artists and makers in Chicago and beyond, creating spaces for our stories on our terms.

Founded in 2003, Dance Elixir (DE) supports and produces collaborative, multidisciplinary projects with local and international reach, under the vision of artist Leyya Mona Tawil. ELIXIR has emerged as one of few US organizations that specifically presents experimental live art from an Arab-American perspective. ELIXIR produces work in the form of live interdisciplinary performance, in a manner that supports local and international discourse and cultural empowerment. Our primary platform is Arab.AMP. Launched in 2017, Arab.AMP is a growing community of worldbuilding artists from the Arab/SWANA diaspora. Through hybrid art, performance, and music, Arab.AMP artists are meeting the uncertainty and disconnection of our world by imagining futures rooted in connection to land, lineage, and belonging. Arab.AMP events are live and experimental—and shaped in relationship with each host community—serving as invitations into liberatory practice for artists and audiences. danceelixirlive.org

The Flying Carpet Festival brings world-class arts and profound beauty directly to conflict-affected regions where they are most critically needed. Operating as a mobile artist residency, the initiative serves children and creators alike, fostering a symbiotic environment where both groups deeply need each other to heal and thrive. Through collaborative workshops and spectacles blending music, theater, circus, and technology, this mutual exchange empowers vulnerable youth to reclaim childhood joy while providing global artists with deep, purposeful meaning in their creative process. flyingcarpetfestival.org

Golden Thread Productions, founded in 1996, is the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East. We produce passionate and provocative plays from or about the Middle East that celebrate the multiplicity of its perspectives and identities. We are a developmental catalyst and vibrant artistic home to artists at various stages of their career. We bring the Middle East to the American stage, creating treasured cultural experiences for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. goldenthread.org

Hakawati uses storytelling and performance heritage as tools for cultural continuity and perceptual expansion. Rooted in the rich storytelling traditions of West Asia, we create original works that explore memory, migration, identity, and belonging while cultivating empathy, holding complexity, and strengthening connections across cultures, generations, and communities. hakawati.org

LubDub Theatre Co is an NYC-based company of artists animating stories of science, magic, and myth, with a particular focus on climate emergency and earthly repair. lubdubtheatre.com

New Arab American Theater Works is a Minnesota based community, grass roots, arts and cultural organization that develops and presents original theater, music, art and cultural work for, by, and about SWANA & Muslim Americans. We fill a void in the local and national scene where Arab and Muslim American artists lack voice and opportunities to present our own stories. newarabamericantheaterworks.org

Noor Theatre is an Obie Award-winning company dedicated to supporting, developing, and producing the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern, Southwest Asian, and North African (MENA/SWANA) descent. As New York City’s only theatre company with this mission, Noor provides an essential home for MENA/SWANA voices — developing and amplifying their work for diverse audiences, countering harmful stereotypes, and ensuring that our communities are represented and celebrated in the larger theatre ecosystem. We are committed to providing an artistic home for artists where they can find support throughout their creative process— from inception through development. noortheatre.org

Founded in 2019, Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble is the first Iranian theatre company based in Seattle. We named our ensemble Seda—which means “voice” in Persian—because we believe that every person has a voice, and every voice deserves to be heard. We produce theatrical and educational programming by and for Iranian and non-Iranian immigrant and refugee communities whose stories and perspectives are often overlooked. We believe that awareness and understanding through the arts can transform perspectives, foster empathy, and bring people closer together. In a world where dominant voices often shape public discourse, theatre offers a powerful space to be seen, heard, and understood. Through storytelling, imagination, and live performance, Seda amplifies the experiences and voices of immigrant communities while creating opportunities for dialogue, connection, and belonging. sedatheatre.com

Uprising Theater is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Our mission is to uplift the voices of historically marginalized communities through the performance of theater and the use of films that focus on Palestinian, Levantine, North African, and BIPOC communities. Uprising seeks to take back our narrative, which has historically been told through the lens of Islamophobia, Orientalism, and anti-Palestinianism. Uprising is the only MENA theater company with its own physical theater in Chicago. We prioritize plays and films that present the Palestinian and MENA experience to the public and we connect Palestinian and MENA communities to other marginalized communities. We are telling our stories on our own terms. uprisingtheaterchicago.com

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT) creates invigorating performance and education programs that expand access to - and promote understanding through - the arts. Founded in 2005 by Samar Haddad King, YSDT has a repertoire of 30+ original works performed across NYC, regionally, and abroad in 21 countries across five continents. Since 2011, the company has worked transnationally between NYC and Palestine, and is committed to uniting diverse artists and audiences in the creative process, rooted in the belief that art should be liberating, transformative, and accessible to all. ysdt.org