Sarah Fahmy, an assistant professor of the Florida State University School of Theatre, and her ensemble have been awarded a $120,000 National Theater Project award to support the creation and national touring of a new site-responsive performance, “HERitage emBODYment: Re-Storying Egyptian Antiquities.”
Fahmy and her creative partner Nabra Nelson, both theatre makers originally from Egypt and Nubia, have traveled to museums across the United States this summer to develop the satirical piece, designed to be performed in any museum with an Egyptology wing.
“This grant will enable us to use performance to bring our antiquities to life by celebrating Egyptian and Nubian histories and authorship. We are excited to create a piece that is inspired by the artifacts at museums we visit around the country,” said Fahmy. “While it’s very humorous, it’s also deeply rooted in Egyptian and Nubian performance practices and offers a way for us to intertwine our lives and stories with those of our ancestors. We are excited to be in conversation with museum curators, and hope that our performance will support museums’ ongoing research, education, and audience engagement initiatives. We’re really looking forward to sharing this piece with audiences.”
HERitage emBODYment: Re-Storying Egyptian Antiquities was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Foundation.
To learn more about the New England Foundation for the Arts, visit NEFA.org.