Sivan Battat is an Iraqi-Jewish theatre director, cultural worker and educator. Sivan has worked at numerous theaters across NYC and elsewhere, including with the Atlantic Theater, Ars Nova, MCC, NYTW, Audible Theatre, Studio Theatre, Mosaic Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theater, the Shakespeare Theatre, the Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa and more. As a cultural organizer, Sivan works with NYC-based Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), most recently creative directing the first ever JFREJ Mimouna, a celebration of identity & ritual led by members of the Mizrahi/Sephardi Caucus. Sivan trained at the Moscow Art Theater School, and attended Wesleyan University. Sivanbattat.com

Amahl Khouri is a queer transgender Jordanian documentary playwright and theatremaker based in Berlin. Khouri is the author of several plays, including She He Me (Kosmos Theatre, Vienna 2019), ICH BRAUCHE MEINE RUHE (Politik im Freien Theater Festival, Munich 2018) and No Matter Where I Go (Beirut 2014). Khouri is also a part of the Climate Change Theater Action and their play Oh, How We Loved Our Tuna! was read internationally as part of the initiative. Khouri was a selected playwright at the Arcola Global Queer Plays (London 2018) and the Lark hotINK international play reading series (NYC, 2015). Khouri was a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab (NYC, 2013) and was the recipient of a Rosenthal Emerging Voices fellowship for poetry from PEN USA (Los Angeles, 2007). Khouri’s work has been published in several U.S. journals, as well as Global Queer Plays (Oberon Books 2018), Skrivena Ljubav (Samizdat 2018) and International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer anthology (Palgrave,2016). Khouri’s work will also appear in the upcoming International Queer Drama Anthology published by Neofelis Verlag in 2020.

Hashem Hashem is a queer poet and performer based in Beirut, Lebanon. He has been part of feminist and queer organizing in Lebanon and the MENA region since 2009. Hashem holds a BA in Media Studies, and an MA in Gender & Sexuality Studies from SOAS, University of London. He has performed his poetry at different venues in Lebanon, Belfast, Mexico City and Kathmandu. In 2017, together with Baladi dancer Alexandre Paulikevitch, Hashem wrote and performed The Last Distance, a performance about queer embodiment and language. Currently, Hashem hosts a weekly poetry section, Bouyout, on Hammam Radio. His first poetry collection, Class Hatred, will be published in September 2020. Blog: https://hashembeirut.wordpress.com. Instagram: @hashem.beirut 

Pooya Mohseni is an Iranian-American actor, writer, filmmaker & Transgender activist. She’s co-producer/star/writer of “Transit “, a short film about love between a trans woman and a cis man, coming in 2020. Her stage performances  include “Our Town” in Pride Plays, dir Jenna Worsham, “Hamlet” in Play On Shakespeare festival, dir Ellen McLaughlin, an award winning one woman show “One Woman”, in United Solo at The Theatre Row, dir Joan Kane, “Galatea”, dir Mo Zhou for the WP Pipeline festival, “The Good Muslim” dir William Carden at EST. She has guest starred on season 21 of “Law & Order: SVU “ dir Mariska Hargitay, “Falling Water” on USA and “Madam Secretary”. Represented by Headline Talent Agency.