Raya Tuffaha

Raya Tuffaha is a Palestinian poet, playwright and librettist based in Seattle. Her 20-minute opera, THE MEETING HOUSE, was commissioned by the Seattle Opera Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab. Her debut poetry collection, TO ALL THE YELLOW FLOWERS (Golden Antelope Press, 2020), was presented the Swarthmore Intercultural Center Award for Artistic Activism and featured in Ms. Magazine. Two years later, she published her chapbook, APOCALYPSE BLUES (fmr. Plan B Press). Other publications include Mizna Online, Phoebe Journal, Asian American Writers' Workshop, and Button Poetry.

Raya is currently researching audience-performer power dynamics in staged violence. She's available for commissioned plays and libretti.

Outside of writing, she works as an actor, fight director, and emerging intimacy...

Raya Tuffaha is a Palestinian poet, playwright and librettist based in Seattle. Her 20-minute opera, THE MEETING HOUSE, was commissioned by the Seattle Opera Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab. Her debut poetry collection, TO ALL THE YELLOW FLOWERS (Golden Antelope Press, 2020), was presented the Swarthmore Intercultural Center Award for Artistic Activism and featured in Ms. Magazine. Two years later, she published her chapbook, APOCALYPSE BLUES (fmr. Plan B Press). Other publications include Mizna Online, Phoebe Journal, Asian American Writers' Workshop, and Button Poetry.

Raya is currently researching audience-performer power dynamics in staged violence. She's available for commissioned plays and libretti.

Outside of writing, she works as an actor, fight director, and emerging intimacy coordinator.
BA Swarthmore College, British American Drama Academy. SAFD AAC.

@rayatuffaha

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Scripts

The Meeting House

by Raya Tuffaha

Cast Size
2
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
horror,
opera,
political

"I was destined for Paradise
by my nature, yet I am left
longing for Egypt,
given a wilderness."

[20 MIN OPERA] Fifteen years after the Salem Witch Trials, Temperance returns to the meeting house to grieve the loss of her childhood best friend. Upon entering, she's surprised to find her twelve-year-old self sitting in the pews, illuminated by moonlight. The confession begins.

This piece was commissioned by the...

"I was destined for Paradise
by my nature, yet I am left
longing for Egypt,
given a wilderness."

[20 MIN OPERA] Fifteen years after the Salem Witch Trials, Temperance returns to the meeting house to grieve the loss of her childhood best friend. Upon entering, she's surprised to find her twelve-year-old self sitting in the pews, illuminated by moonlight. The confession begins.

This piece was commissioned by the Seattle Opera Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab.

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Facing Creation

by Raya Tuffaha

3
Cast Size
3
Genre
fable/folktale,
movement/physical,
tragedy

[10 MIN] The god of the ocean creates a lesson for a greedy fisher, and ends up learning something too.

Inspired by surrealist Belgian painter Rene Magritte's "The Double Secret."

[10 MIN] The god of the ocean creates a lesson for a greedy fisher, and ends up learning something too.

Inspired by surrealist Belgian painter Rene Magritte's "The Double Secret."

SUBJECT

by Raya Tuffaha

Cast Size
2
Genre
drama

[90 MIN] Tara's near Puget Sound for the first time since college, and someone with a familiar face remembered her name. That someone is Vic, who, despite being dead set on winning a local photography contest with his dad's old camera, has no clue where to begin. And they're both gonna be okay. Starting over is easier with a partner who sees you. Right?

SUBJECT is an anti-rom com studying Palestinian American...

[90 MIN] Tara's near Puget Sound for the first time since college, and someone with a familiar face remembered her name. That someone is Vic, who, despite being dead set on winning a local photography contest with his dad's old camera, has no clue where to begin. And they're both gonna be okay. Starting over is easier with a partner who sees you. Right?

SUBJECT is an anti-rom com studying Palestinian American identity, dehumanization, and power.

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The Free

by Raya Tuffaha

Cast Size
25—50
Genre
biography,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
opera,
political,
tragedy

"Whatever storms lie brewing,
wrongs will right.
We begin tonight."

[FULL LENGTH OPERA] Young Sayyida al-Hurra swore revenge after the Spanish Inquisition exiled her family to Morocco. Now, decades later, she’s assembled a crew to cross the Mediterranean and take her country back. She must reach Seville and overthrow the king before her brother can arrest her. If only she trusted her crew...

THE FREE is a...

"Whatever storms lie brewing,
wrongs will right.
We begin tonight."

[FULL LENGTH OPERA] Young Sayyida al-Hurra swore revenge after the Spanish Inquisition exiled her family to Morocco. Now, decades later, she’s assembled a crew to cross the Mediterranean and take her country back. She must reach Seville and overthrow the king before her brother can arrest her. If only she trusted her crew...

THE FREE is a sweeping adventure that follows one woman’s attempt to outrun the past.

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Bella Bateekh in: Out of Mind

by Raya Tuffaha

Cast Size
1
Genre
dark comedy,
experimental,
immersive

[60 MIN] A metatheatrical experience at the overlap of Degas' impressionism and Club Libby Lu (remember that?), this story follows Bella Bateekh, a touring actor/diva who was mistakenly booked to perform at [YOUR performance venue...uh oh]. Despite her best efforts to usurp the past, Bella must confront the physical, as well as larger, metaphorical theatres in which she was raised. "Hostile, hilarious, and...

[60 MIN] A metatheatrical experience at the overlap of Degas' impressionism and Club Libby Lu (remember that?), this story follows Bella Bateekh, a touring actor/diva who was mistakenly booked to perform at [YOUR performance venue...uh oh]. Despite her best efforts to usurp the past, Bella must confront the physical, as well as larger, metaphorical theatres in which she was raised. "Hostile, hilarious, and dramatically brilliant," Bella Bateekh in: Out of Mind is a bold new reconciliation with the future and a compromise with the present.

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