Rasha Elass

Rasha Elass

Rasha Elass is a Syrian-American independent journalist and playwright with over 15 years experience reporting from the Middle East. Highlights of her coverage include that of Syria, in peace time and in war. She was often the only member of the international media based undercover inside government-controlled Syria. Her coverage has appeared in Thomson Reuters, LA Times, National Public Radio (NPR), The World...
Rasha Elass is a Syrian-American independent journalist and playwright with over 15 years experience reporting from the Middle East. Highlights of her coverage include that of Syria, in peace time and in war. She was often the only member of the international media based undercover inside government-controlled Syria. Her coverage has appeared in Thomson Reuters, LA Times, National Public Radio (NPR), The World (PRI / BBC Radio), International Business Times (IBT.com), Al Jazeera America, The National (UAE-based) and Forbes Arabia, among others. Her work includes commentary on life-at-large in the Middle East, including the Iraqi and Syrian refugee crisis, Islamic finance and local culture. She is the recent recipient of the Logan Fellowship for nonfiction at The Carey Institute for the Global Good, and the John S. Carroll Fellowship at The MacDowell Colony. She currently resides in Washington, D.C. and will be publishing a memoir soon.

Plays

  • Haqi the Parrot by Rasha Elass
    Cast: 
    2–3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Murder-mystery, NYU + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: Murder-mystery, NYU, NYC, Manhattan, parrot, Middle East, Pakistan, Penn Station, zoom
    Old-time friends Marwan (Lebanese-American) and Abdul (Pakistani-American) sit down for a match of chess in Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan. On this day, a murder has occurred at Penn Station, causing a total shutdown of trains and the cancellation of Abdul’s travel plans to the Catskills, where he had planned to attend a memorial service for his late wife, Bahar, who was also murdered. Perched on...
    Old-time friends Marwan (Lebanese-American) and Abdul (Pakistani-American) sit down for a match of chess in Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan. On this day, a murder has occurred at Penn Station, causing a total shutdown of trains and the cancellation of Abdul’s travel plans to the Catskills, where he had planned to attend a memorial service for his late wife, Bahar, who was also murdered. Perched on Marwan’s shoulder is Haqi the Parrot, who keeps interrupting the two with what they both dismiss as non-sensical words. But nothing is as it seems when Haqi finally reveals the shocking truth.