(14 min, 59 sec)
Written by Jamil Khoury
Directed by Anne Jacques
Release Date
September 11, 2012
Premiere Venue
Pierce Hall at The Historic Chicago Temple Building, 77 W Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602
"The Balancing Arab" tells the story of Heidi (played by Leslie Frame), an Irish American personal fitness trainer, and Hanan (played by Amira Sabbagh), her once morbidly obese Arab American client. Set in a downtown Chicago gym amidst a strenuous training session, the mood turns tense as the two women recount an event at the Arab American Cultural Center a few nights earlier, an event at which the evening’s political discourse got filtered through decidedly different lenses.
"The Balancing Arab" explores tensions that exist within and between political cultures and the challenges of messaging that gets stranded in context and lost in translation.
Playwright Jamil Khoury has dedicated "The Balancing Arab" to skilled personal fitness trainers - the unsung heroes of American health care and preventative medicine. Although entirely fictional, "The Balancing Arab" was inspired, in part, by Khoury’s weight loss of over a hundred pounds and his reversal of type two diabetes and gout arthritis, as well as political conversations with his personal trainer and a lifetime of involvement in the Arab American community.
Cast
Leslie Frame | Heidi
Amira Sabbagh | Hanan
Production Team
Playwright
Jamil Khoury
Assistant Director
Deann Baker
Director of Photography
Drew Pientka
Editor
Deann Baker
Gaffer
Tim Stotz
Director
Anne Jacques
Production Manager
Caitlin Duerinck
Assistant Camera
Jesse Hibbs
Script Supervisor
Elias Feghaly
Props Master
Jesse Gaffney
Producer Level Donors
Karen Atwood
Sheila Chapman
Geeta Citygirl
Jo Anne Davis
Executive Producers
Malik Gillani
Jamil Khoury
Original Score and Sound
Peter J. Storms
Sound Mixer
Jason Ssg
Make Up and Hair
Lydia Pligge
Athletic Consultant
Andrew James Preston