Sanaz Toossi

Sanaz Toossi

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include Wish You Were Here (Williamstown Audible 2020; Playwrights Horizons 2022) and English (Atlantic/Roundabout 2022; Weissberger New Play Award; Kilroys’ List 2019). She is currently under commission at the Atlantic Theater (Launch commission; Toulmin grant), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South...
Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include Wish You Were Here (Williamstown Audible 2020; Playwrights Horizons 2022) and English (Atlantic/Roundabout 2022; Weissberger New Play Award; Kilroys’ List 2019). She is currently under commission at the Atlantic Theater (Launch commission; Toulmin grant), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, IAMA Theatre and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). Sanaz is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow and a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award. MFA: NYU Tisch. TV: 5 Women; A League of Their Own. Sanaz is a proud child of immigrants.

Plays

  • Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Iran, friendship + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: Iran, friendship, war, Iran Iraq war, immigration
    It’s 1978 and protests are breaking out all across Iran, encroaching on this suburb where a tight-knit circle of friends plan weddings, trade dirty jokes, and struggle to uphold a sense of normalcy. But as the revolution escalates, each woman is forced either to join the wave of emigration or face an equally uncertain future at home. With breathtaking humanity and cutting wit, Wish You Were Here chronicles a...
    It’s 1978 and protests are breaking out all across Iran, encroaching on this suburb where a tight-knit circle of friends plan weddings, trade dirty jokes, and struggle to uphold a sense of normalcy. But as the revolution escalates, each woman is forced either to join the wave of emigration or face an equally uncertain future at home. With breathtaking humanity and cutting wit, Wish You Were Here chronicles a decade of life during war, as best friends forever become friends long lost, scattered, and searching for home.
  • English by Sanaz Toossi
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Iran, English + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: Iran, English, Farsi, immigration, language
    It's 2009, and four Iranians assemble triweekly in a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class in Karaj, Iran led by anglophile Marjan, who abolishes Farsi from her classroom. As the class slowly devolves into a linguistic mess, some students cling tighter to their mother tongues while others embrace the possibilities of a new language. As the students translate Shakira songs and endure major...
    It's 2009, and four Iranians assemble triweekly in a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class in Karaj, Iran led by anglophile Marjan, who abolishes Farsi from her classroom. As the class slowly devolves into a linguistic mess, some students cling tighter to their mother tongues while others embrace the possibilities of a new language. As the students translate Shakira songs and endure major preposition confusion, we are left with questions of how to be funny in another language and what we lose before the migration takes place.

Recommended by Sanaz Toossi

  • Mingus by Tyler English-Beckwith
    15 Jun. 2020
    “ This play is so good— always a step ahead of you, deeply engaging, so elegant in construction and content. I find something new every time I read it. Love this play. ”
  • Patty by Julia Specht
    9 Nov. 2019
    “ A hilarious and insightful play about belief, myth and who gets to have faith. Love this play! ”