Tala Ashe, best known for her role as Zari Tarazi on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, has joined the cast of a new play debuting this spring at New York’s Linda Gross Theater. The play is the New York debut of playwright Sanaz Toossi’s English Only, which centers on a group of Iranians who are studying English as a second language. The play will be presented as a co-production with Roundabout Theatre Company and directed by Knud Adams. The play will run from February 3 until March 13, 2022, and tickets are available now to members, or go on sale to the general public on November 23.
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Per Playbill, Ashe is joined in the cast by Ava Lalezarzadeh, Pooya Mohseni (Chonburi Hotel, The Butterfly Club) , Marjan Neshat (NYSF’s Julius Caesar), and Hadi Tabbal. Neshat is currently appearing in Selling Kabul at Playwrights Horizons, while Ashe and Tabbal are set to appear together in an April staging of The Vagrant Trilogy at The Public Theatre’s LuEsther Hall, also in New York (more information on that here). English marks the Off-Broadway debut for Lalezarzadeh.
Here’s how Atlantic describes the play:
Two words set in motion award-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi’s intricate and profound New York debut: “English Only.” This is the mantra that rules one classroom in Iran, where four adult students are preparing for the TOEFL – the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Chasing fluency through a maze of word games, listening exercises, and show-and-tell sessions, they hope that one day, English will make them whole. But it might be splitting them each in half. 2019 Kilroys List & L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award winner Sanaz Toossi returns to Atlantic following her Middle Eastern MixFest debut!
English will feature scenic design by Marsha Ginsberg, costumes by Enver Chakartash, lighting by Reza Behjat, sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar, and casting by Stephen Kopel, CSA. Alex Hajjar will serve as production stage manager. You can get more information here.
Atlantic Theater Company was founded in 1985 by David Mamet, William H. Macy, and 30 of their acting students from New York University. It brings contemporary theatre to New Yorkers all year round.
