The Knox Student
By Aakruse
October 9, 2014
Playwright Jamil Khoury creates plays as spaces that open up conversation across countries and cultures Ñ conversation not unlike that which takes place every day at Knox. Khoury is the author of “Mosque Alert,” a play that will be produced at Knox during winter term and directed by Professor Neil Blackadder. This past Wednesday and Friday, Khoury held workshops on his play in which students added to and revised a draft of his work. On Tuesday night, the night before the first workshop, Khoury showed one of his company’s films, entitled “Not Quite White: Arabs, Slavs, and the Contours of Contested Whiteness.” After the film he led a discussion in which students defined and debated cultural identity in America. It was clear Khoury wasn’t just there to lecture; he relished the conversation. That dialogue is a pillar of the Chicago-based theater company Silk Road Rising, of which Khoury is co-founder and Artistic Director.
Read MoreChicago Reader
By Deanna Isaacs
March 25, 2013
Silk Road Rising cofounder Jamil Khoury says the uproar over Manhattan's Ground Zero mosque inspired both his new play in progress, "Mosque Alert," and his attempt to crowdsource the playwriting process via a Web page.
Read MoreTheater Mania
By Zachary Stewart
December 17, 2012
Jamil Khoury wants to talk with you about mosque politics. He wants to talk with you about the marginalization of Muslim-Americans in the wake of September 11th. In fact, the Silk Road Rising Artistic Director wants to talk about a lot of issues with a lot of people, more than can fit inside a theater. So, he's decided to do something unprecedented. In a medium in which the writer is often seen as God, an unquestionable font of dramatic genius, Jamil Khoury is crowdsourcing his play on the Internet.
Read MoreNewcity Stage Chicago
By Caylie Sadin
March 9, 2012
Theater is moving online. Sure, poorly and often surreptitiously filmed stage productions already get uploaded to YouTube, but a pair of Chicago ensembles are taking a new, digital-first approach. Silk Road Rising and a collaboration between Octavarius and CNGM Pictures, have decided to create their theater on the web so that their work can be accessed by people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to see it.
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