In an unpredictable encounter between art and science, seven playwrights from Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds agreed to take DNA tests and then write short plays exploring their ancestry and identity.
“Everyone’s engaged in a conversation about identity,” says Khoury. "Regardless of who you are," [playwright Jamil Khoury] says, "when it comes to the forces of family, heritage, and now genetic legacy, understanding what it means to be you is no easy task."
Each of the seven writers approached these questions in different ways. Khoury chose to focus on the sociology and politics of ancestry, a “story about the tensions of New America for a city filled with New Americans,” while fellow writer Elizabeth Wong infused her experience with humor... Both writers found that the source material encouraged divergent themes. Creating art out of science proved not a hindrance, but fertile imaginative grounds with more overlap than expected.
