A Muslim American Drama: To heal and bring us together!

"Art can heal and art can be a bridge that brings cultures together", says Wajahat Ali, a Pakistani American playwright, in a recent TV interview about his play entitled "The Domestic Crusaders."

In her NY Times column, Laurie Goodstein does a good job describing the background and theme of Wajahat’s play. It seems as far-reaching in its goals as its content is deeply personal, culled directly from the playwright’s own family drama.¹

Very few dramas about the contemporary Muslim experience in America have made it to the stage. Muslims from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have been slow to embrace writing and acting, which was not considered a viable profession by the older immigrant generation. Mr. Ali and the actors in “The Domestic Crusaders” are among a younger group interested in mining their experiences for theater. These are dramas not about terrorism or war, but about the cultural cacophony that ensues when you drop three generations of a Pakistani family into Silicon Valley.

Hopefully, his play which opened last Friday, September 11, at the Nuyorican Poets Café² in New York City, does some healing especially of the virulence that still pervades among us and brings together families caught in a similar cultural cross-fire.

¹Laurie Goodstein, "A Pakistani-American Family Is Caught in Some Cultural Cross-Fire", New York Times
²Nuyorican Poets Café, New York City