A Conversation with Yussef El Guindi and John Langs

Edited by McKenna Deen, Digital Content and Communications Manager 

As ACT continues its mission of creating bold new works, we wanted to check in with our Core Company Member playwright Yussef El Guindi. We are proud to be the company Yussef calls home and are thrilled to celebrate his success.  

Those who have been coming to ACT for a while will probably know that we have produced five of Yussef’s plays since 2011. Yussef’s relationship with ACT started when he met Artistic Director Emeritus Kurt Beattie. The duo went on to present the world premiere of Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World in 2011, which won the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award for $25,000. ACT also produced Ramayana in 2012 (co-written with Stephanie Timm) and Threesome in 2015. More recently, two of Yussef’s plays that were world premieres at ACT have been published: People of the Book (2019) and Hotter Than Egypt (2022), hot off the press (pictured below). 

John: Would you share how ACT has played a role in your journey as a playwright? 

Yussef: When you stepped into the role as Artistic Director, I wasn’t sure what to expect, since usually when someone new comes in, they want to bring their own writers, but you invited me to be part of the Core Company after our first meeting.  

I can truly say that being at ACT furthered my career. I had achieved some prominence nationally with some of my other productions, but ACT took me to the next level. It was very important for me to have a theatre, especially a local theater, that was open to my work. You can only sustain “I love writing” up to a certain point. You need to know someone will catch the play when you put it out into the world.  

Part of the journey of every playwright is finding the right platform to showcase your work. A couple of smaller theaters around the country, and locally, had been instrumental in giving me the confidence to keep going. But ACT was the first big LORT theater to take an interest in my plays. Having ACT say “We want you and your voice” turbo-charged my output. The material began to pour out. Having ACT in my corner is important for me psychologically because I know there’s at least one theatre that is open to considering my work. 

John: Collaboration has always been a strong point in your work. Can you share a memorable collaboration experience you had with our team at ACT? 

Yussef: Writing can be an isolating task. With novels and short stories it’s just you, and later the editor. With screenplays, it sometimes happens that the script is taken off your hands and other people come in to continue its journey.  It’s essentially just a blueprint, a starting off point. You give it up and someone else builds the house.   

On the other hand, a play is the house. You’ve built the essential structure. Which allows others to now enter and be a part of the building process. It comes to life in the hands of costume designers, actors, composers, set designers, directors, lighting technicians, and others.   

One of the most exciting moments of each production for me is that first design meeting — seeing the sets and ideas presented that will animate the play. I remember when we were in production for Hotter Than Egypt, I saw “the head” (see below) come down on the set, with the lighting and music attending its descent, and I just thought “wow.” It was more than I had hoped for. 

John: Hotter Than Egypt, after premiering at ACT and traveling to Marin (Theatre Company), won the New Play Award in Denver Colorado (after being presented at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts). Could you talk about that experience?  

Yussef: I was thrilled when A) the play was nominated, and B) it won! One never expects, or even thinks of awards when writing (my goal, or prayer with a finished draft is always “please don’t let this play suck.”) But after the long and sometimes grueling process of getting a play ready and up on its feet, a recognition of this kind is very much appreciated. 

John: As someone deeply connected to the local Seattle community, how do you see your work resonating with our audience members and their experiences? 

Yussef: I think certain regions have certain sensibilities. When you go see different plays in different cities, you absorb the overall sensibilities of audiences, reactions, and critics. I have been watching plays all throughout Seattle for many years and even though I’ve been watching the plays, I’ve also been observing the audiences.   

As a playwright, often unconsciously, even when I am not making a conscious effort to take note of their reactions, I’ve been ingesting the reactions of Seattle audiences and getting a sense of what does and doesn’t work for them. Even though I don’t write specifically for the Seattle audience, my personal sensibilities have been shaped by them. My creative self, to a significant extent, has been shaped by my three decades in the Northwest. 

John: Could you share more about the award you just won? 

Yussef: I was elected to be a Fellow at the Royal Society of Literature in the UK.   

This is the detail on their website that tickles me: “Newly elected Fellows are formally inducted at the RSL’s annual summer party, when their Fellowship is announced publicly. While the President introduces them, they are invited to sign their names in the Roll Book. Received in 1825 when the RSL received its Royal Charter, the Roll Book is a unique literary document, including the signatures of Fellows over two centuries. New Fellows sign the book using a famous writer’s pen. They can choose from George Eliot’s, Lord Byron’s or Jean Rhys’ pens; Andrea Levy’s, Arnold Wesker’s or T.S. Eliot’s fountain pens; or Charles Dickens’ quill.”   

I’m not sure if this was a pre-Covid ritual, or what’s changed, but if it’s still a thing…what pen (or quill) to choose!  

John: Refugee Rhapsody will anchor the second year of ACT’s New Work Northwest Festival (dates and plays to be announced this spring.) Could you tell us how a reading of a play with the actors and an audience helps your process? 

Yussef: The general process involved in workshopping a play is essentially about hearing the play read out loud and adjusting according to how the play sounds and flows after the actors first embody your characters. I transition from the private space of the play in my head to the play made flesh by actors.   

It’s always a bit of a shock. Even though I’ve heard this play read before a couple of times (via Artists Rep in Portland), it’s still not settled, and many changes may occur during the ACT workshop.   

The audience is the final player in the realization of a new play. Along with the actors, the audience informs me, and others, about what is and isn’t working. 

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The next big thing for Yussef is taking People of the Book to New York City to play Off-Broadway this fall with our own John Langs once again at the helm as director. Yussef and John are both eager to build the show at Urban Stages and are excited to present this masterful work to New York audiences.  

We are incredibly grateful that Yussef is one of our Core Company members and look forward to our future collaborations.