Arena Stage Presents Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced

Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, begins performances tonight at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.

Amir, a Pakistani American, is living the American Dream. He is a successful lawyer, living on the Upper East Side with a beautiful wife and a wardrobe of Italian suits. With the promise of becoming a partner at the firm around the corner, it seems like nothing can derail him. But when he hosts a dinner party for an African-American coworker and her Jewish husband, the conversation quickly turns to everything Amir has spent his career trying to suppress. As questions of race, religion, and class bubble to the surface, he is confronted with the struggle between culture and identity.

Timothy Douglas directs Ayad Akhtar’s award-winning play, which features Felicia Curry as Jory, Joe Isenberg as Isaac, Nehal Joshi as Amir, Samip Raval as Abe, and Ivy Vahanian as Emily.

"Ayad Aktar has composed an exacting tale for our turbulent times," says Douglas. "His script demands that I bring forth the lyricism of a clarifying order from the chaos of cultural misunderstanding that is the woven fabric of this remarkable play, while being ever vigilant in spotlighting genuine insight into the complexity of perception in what it is to be Muslim and American."

The creative team includes Tony Cisek (set design), Toni-Leslie James (costume design), Michael Gilliam (lighting design), Fitz Patton (original music and sound design), Cliff Williams III (fight director), and Amber Dickerson (stage manager).

Performances will run through May 29.

For tickets and more information, click here.