LOVING WHILE MUSLIM: IRANIAN-AMERICAN MUSLIM COMEDIENNE BRINGS TABOO-BUSTING SOLO SHOW TO LOS ANGELES

For Immediate Release
Contact: Zahra Noorbakhsh
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 510-847-0911

“All Atheists Are Muslim”
written and performed by Zahra Noorbakhsh
directed by Lisa Marie Rollins
developed with W. Kamau Bell
http://www.ZahraComedy.com
$12 Tickets available at http://hollywoodfringe.org/

Makes its LA premiere at The Hollywood Fringe Festival June 10, 15-17 and answers the question “Can Zahra have her Atheist and stay Muslim too?”

“Noorbakhsh’s show seeks to skewer stereotypes as much as it elicits laughs from them.” – The San Francisco Chronicle

“Delightful! Funny, moving, and, above all…Universal.” –The Daily Californian

- New Yorker Magazine dubbed AAAM a “Highlight” of the NYC International Fringe Festival, 2011

- Time Out New York placed it in the “Top Ten” of “must see” Fringe shows from the NYC International Fringe Festival, 2011.

Los Angeles, May 21, 2012 – The third annual Hollywood Fringe Festival will feature the acclaimed one-woman show about loving while Muslim in America, “All Atheists Are Muslim” by writer and performer, Zahra Noorbakhsh, from June 15th through the 17th, and a preview show on June 10th. Tickets are $12 for all four shows at The Complex Theater (6476 Santa Monica Boulevard. Los Angeles, CA).

The theatrical work is based on a true story from the Zahra Noorbakhsh’s life: a young Muslim woman’s decision to move in with her Atheist boyfriend against the wishes of her Iranian-born parents—and thousands of years of religious doctrine. Noorbakhsh asks, “Can Zahra have her Atheist and stay Muslim too?”

“People have a lot of opinions about who Muslim women are and the oppressive, horrible lives we lead. What we don’t hear are the voices of Muslim women themselves, much less voices that are funny,” says performer Zahra Noorbakhsh.

Dubbed a “highlight” by The New Yorker magazine, and one of Time Out New York’s “Top Ten must see” Fringe shows of the New York International Fringe Festival in 2011, this one-woman show is an insightful and hilarious exploration of faith, gender roles, and family that encourages all audience members to find their inner Muslim.

The San Francisco Chronicle raves, “Noorbakhsh’s show seeks to skewer stereotypes as much as it elicits laughs from them.”

“What her show really does is challenge perceptions about Islamic Muslims, in a funny way that we can all connect to,” says Zahra Biloo, Executive Director, Counsel on American Islamic Relations.

“All Atheists Are Muslim: You may be more Muslim than you think!” is written and performed by Zahra Noorbakhsh, directed by Lisa Marie Rollins and developed with W. Kamau Bell. For show information and to purchase tickets go to http://zahracomedy.com and http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/901.

ABOUT THE PERFORMER
ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH is a writer, actor, solo-performer and stand-up comedian.
She is a contributor to the New York Times-reviewed anthology of essays, “Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women”(2012). Though she began as a stand-up comic, her love of impressions, characters and storytelling drew her into the world of theater and ultimately solo performance. Since 2007, under the direction of W. Kamau Bell of the Solo Performance Workshop in San Francisco, Noorbakhsh has penned several shows, including: All Atheists Are Muslim and Hijab & Hammerpants, another bi-cultural comedy about her coming of age. Noorbakhsh is a graduate of the UC, Berkeley (2006) in Theatre & Performance Studies.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
LISA MARIE ROLLINS is writer, performer, playwright and director., and the recipient of a James Irvine New Works Grant, a Zellerbach Family Foundation and a City of Oakland Cultural Arts Individual Artists Grants. She is the Artistic Director of Third Root Productions and has supported multidisciplinary theater, film and performance work for the past 10 years. She is the original co-producer of the acclaimed W. Kamau Bell Curve. Her own hit solo show, Ungrateful Daughter: One Black girls story of being adopted into a White family… that aren’t celebrities will make its New York debut at the New York Fringe Festival in August 2012.

DEVELOPED WITH:
W. KAMAU BELL will star in his own late night comedy series, Totally Biased, on the FX Network, executive produced by Chris Rock. He is one of the fastest rising socio-political comics in the United States. Kamau is best known for his critically acclaimed solo show The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour, which was a Time Out NY critic’s pick in the 2010 NY Comedy Festival and a comedy pick in The Guardian during his 2011 run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

For more information or an interview for the artist, please contact Zahra Noorbakhsh at [email protected] or 510-847-0911.
HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS AVAILABLE AT ZahraComedy.com/press
SEE BELOW FOR FULL BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PERFORMER

PERFORMER BIOGRAPHY:
ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH is a writer, actor, solo-performer and stand-up comedian.
Noorbakhsh is a graduate of the UC, Berkeley (2006) in Theatre & Performance Studies. Though she began as a stand-up comic, her love of impressions, characters and storytelling drew her into the world of theater and ultimately solo performance. Her work in solo performance began in 2007 under the direction of W. Kamau Bell of the Solo Performance Workshop in SF. Under the direction of Bell, Noorbakhsh has penned several shows, including: All Atheists Are Muslim and Hijab & Hammerpants, another bi-cultural comedy about her coming of age.

Noorbakhsh has appeared in several festivals, including the Solo Performance Workshop Theatre Festival, the SF Theatre Festival, UC Berkeley’s Iranian Norouz Festival, and will be performing All Atheists Are Muslim at the Int’l. NYC Fringe Theater Festival. She is one-third of the troupe, DISoriented, a trio of Asian American women, performing solo pieces, sketches, and vignettes, nationwide. Noorbakhsh is a member of the Iranian-American Writer’s Association, with chapters in SF and NYC, and a contributor to the anthology, “Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women”(2012).

As a stand-up comic, she has performed with international acts: Maz Jobrani from the “Axis of Evil” Comedy Tour, and Shazia Mirza from NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” In 2009, representing UC Berkeley at the Aspen National College Comedy Competition presented by Rooftop Comedy, Noorbakhsh and her team won the grand prize as finalists. Her stand-up has toured nationally with the “Five Funny Females” Comedy tour.

Noorbakhsh enjoys participating in and organizing outreach programs that bring theater and filmmaking into the everyday academic curricula of elementary school students. She has worked in partnership with educational programs throughout the Bay Area, and heads her own non-profit venture called, Theater-In-Academics. www.ZahraComedy.com