Leila Buck

Leila Buck

Leila Buck is a Lebanese American playwright, actor, facilitator and educator who has lived, performed, and taught theatrical tools to youth, educators, aid workers, UN delegates and others across the U.S., Europe, China, Australia and 11 Arab countries. Her plays include American Dreams (Cleveland Public Theater; virtual tour: The Working Theater, Round House, Marin, Hartford Stage, Salt Lake Acting Co., ASU-...
Leila Buck is a Lebanese American playwright, actor, facilitator and educator who has lived, performed, and taught theatrical tools to youth, educators, aid workers, UN delegates and others across the U.S., Europe, China, Australia and 11 Arab countries. Her plays include American Dreams (Cleveland Public Theater; virtual tour: The Working Theater, Round House, Marin, Hartford Stage, Salt Lake Acting Co., ASU-Gammage and others - Drama League nominee 2021), In the Crossing (developed at the Public Theater, Culture Project, NYTW and the Brooklyn Museum), American Dreams and Arabian Nights (developed at NYTW, selected for BRIC Lab) and Hkeelee: Talk to Me (Mosaic Theater at Arena Stage, & multiple international venues). Currently she is developing the plays Mix & Match under commission from En Garde Arts as a TCG/Fox Fellow, 1001 Nights (A Retelling) commissioned by California Shakespeare Theatre and co-written with Evren Odcikin (2020 Kilroys List), and Carry You (Working Title), commissioned by Noor Theatre.
As artist-in-residence for Wesleyan University’s Doris Duke Foundation Building Bridges grant, she created interactive work about the (mis)representation of Muslims in the U.S., and received the Edgar Beckham Social Justice Award. Her work is featured in American Theatre; TCG’s Finding Home Essay Salon; Stages of Resistance; Innovation in Five Acts; Etching Our Own Image: Voices from the Arab American Art Movement and Four Arab-American Plays. A TCG Fox Fellow, member of the Public Theater’s inaugural Emerging Writers Group and Usual Suspect with NYTW, Leila teaches Participatory Performance and Civic Engagement and Creation and Representation in U.S. Theater at NYU, from which she holds a Master’s in Theatre for Cross Cultural Education. Watch reel here: https://tinyurl.com/skdsx9ez and see Artistic Statement for more links/info :)

Plays

  • AMERICAN DREAMS (digital or in person versions) by Leila Buck
    Cast: 
    6–10
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: immigration, citizenship + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, immersive, political, satire
    Keyword: immigration, citizenship, digital, Game Show, Arab, South Asian, Latinx, interactive, participatory
    American Dreams is an ensemble-driven participatory performance with both in person and digital versions, that imagines a world where the only way to gain citizenship is by competing in a nationally-televised game show run by the U.S. government. Through our most valued and frustrating of democratic processes, audience members choose by majority rule their favorite of three contestants in each of five rounds,...
    American Dreams is an ensemble-driven participatory performance with both in person and digital versions, that imagines a world where the only way to gain citizenship is by competing in a nationally-televised game show run by the U.S. government. Through our most valued and frustrating of democratic processes, audience members choose by majority rule their favorite of three contestants in each of five rounds, culminating in a final vote for their newest fellow citizen. As the game unfolds, audience investment and implication intensifies, blurring the lines between truth and fiction in an immersive, interactive exploration of who and what we choose to believe, and how those decisions shape what it means to be(come) American. www.americandreamsplay.com
  • HKEELEE (TALK TO ME) by Leila Buck
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: immigration, citizenship + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, musical, political
    Keyword: immigration, citizenship, Arab American, MENA, memory, Alzheimer's, language, arabic, loss, family
    Facing the loss of her grandmother’s memory, a Lebanese-American writer-performer attempts to piece together her Teta’s story – and with it, her own. Moving between multiple voices, times and spaces from Beirut to Washington, DC and beyond, HKEELEE explores family, memory, immigration, citizenship, culture, language, love, loss, and re-invention through storytelling, humor, and music - inviting you to engage...
    Facing the loss of her grandmother’s memory, a Lebanese-American writer-performer attempts to piece together her Teta’s story – and with it, her own. Moving between multiple voices, times and spaces from Beirut to Washington, DC and beyond, HKEELEE explores family, memory, immigration, citizenship, culture, language, love, loss, and re-invention through storytelling, humor, and music - inviting you to engage in an interactive exploration of what it means to move between cultures, languages, times, places and identities: What we hold onto, what we let go, and how those choices come to shape who we are as individuals, families, communities, and nations.

    HKEELEE has been performed in English and Arabic at cultural centers and universities across the U.S. and Europe; as part of a State Department Speaker Specialist tour at Zoukak Theatre and Theatre Gemmayze in Beirut, El Teatro in Tunis, and the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah; at the Arab American National Museum; the World Bank, the National Museum of Women in the Arts; the Public Theater’s Under the Radar pitch sessions and the Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival. As part of Ari Roth/Mosaic Theatre’s Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, Leila performed HKEELEE in a limited run at Arena Stage in May of 2016, which was chosen as one of DC Metro Arts’ top six performances that spring.
  • MIX & MATCH by Leila Buck
    Cast: 
    7–9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: participatory, immigration + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, immersive, musical, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: participatory, immigration, Irish American, Middle Eastern American, Arab American, MENA, SWANA, cross-cultural, mixed marriage, mixed identities
    Mix and Match is a theatrical event that invites the audience into the journey of two families – one Lebanese and (mostly) Muslim, one Irish and (mostly) Catholic – being joined in marriage. As guests at the wedding, and witnesses to the families’ struggles before, during, and beyond, audiences are invited to eat, dance and engage in an immersive, interactive exploration of the challenges and joys of connecting...
    Mix and Match is a theatrical event that invites the audience into the journey of two families – one Lebanese and (mostly) Muslim, one Irish and (mostly) Catholic – being joined in marriage. As guests at the wedding, and witnesses to the families’ struggles before, during, and beyond, audiences are invited to eat, dance and engage in an immersive, interactive exploration of the challenges and joys of connecting across all kinds of borders.

    MIX & MATCH is a commission from En Garde Arts (Artistic Director Annie Hamburger), originally directed and developed by/with Tamilla Woodard.

    In May 2019, Mix & Match was invited to participate in “The Gathering,” hosted by The Laboratory for Global Performances & Politics as part of the Cross-Currents Festival. “The Gathering” brought together visionary individuals from around the world whose work exemplified ways that performance is making a transformative impact on critical global challenges, ranging from migration and refugee issues to climate change to political polarization to freedom of expression to the role of the arts on health and well-being.

    In 2020, Leila Buck (Playwright) was selected for a TCG Fox Fellowship based in part on her collaboration with En Garde Arts on this piece.

    After Tamilla had to step back due to her responsibilities at Yale, Leila and director-collaborator Noelle Ghoussaini are revising the project with input from Lebanese theater-maker and Zoukak co-founder Maya Zbib about the developments in Lebanon over the past 2 years. Together they are re-imagining what this piece will be once we are able to be sharing food/drink/physical connection between artists and audiences again.