Actress Ivy Vahanian, a founding member of a Santa Barbara theater group called The Producing Unit, is excited to be presenting Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-winning drama Disgraced, which hits Center Stage Theater on September 28.
The timely play centers such themes such as Islamophobia and the identity of Muslim-American citizens. It takes place during a dinner party with four people from very different backgrounds, and things get heated as their discussion turns to politics and religion.
Vahanian is no stranger to the powerful drama. She starred last year on Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage in a successful production of this play that was directed by Timothy Douglas, and then toured universities and high schools in China. “Over 20,000 Chinese people came to see the play,” she says, explaining that specialists in U.S.–Middle East Relations, American studies, Islamic studies, and other experts joined the cast for post-performance panel discussions. “Seventy-eight percent of people in America have not met a Muslim person,” she explains. “Immigration is a huge part of our country.”