Betty Shamieh is an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

of Palestinian descent. She has written 15 plays and one novel.

Productions

''Roar''

Shamieh became the first

Palestinian-American Palestinian Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Palestinian descent. There are around 160,000 Palestinian American refugees according to the 2023 American Community Survey, making up around 0.05% of the U.S. population. Th ...

to have a play premiere

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

with the 2004 premiere of ''Roar'', a drama about a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

family.

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

-nominated

Marion McClinton Marion Isaac McClinton (July 26, 1954 – November 28, 2019) was an American theatre director, playwright, and actor. He was nominated for the Tony Award for ''King Hedley II''. He won the 2000 Vivian Robinson Audelco Black Theatre Awards, Direc ...

directed, and

Annabella Sciorra Annabella Gloria Sciorra ( , ; born March 29, 1960) is an American actress. She came to prominence with her film debut in '' True Love'' (1989) and worked steadily throughout the 1990s in films such as ''Jungle Fever'' (1991), '' The Hard Way'' ...

and

Sarita Choudhury Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury (born August 18, 1966) is a British actress. She made her screen debut starring in the romantic drama film ''Mississippi Masala'' (1991). She later appeared in American and international film productions, includ ...

starred.

''Malvolio''

''Malvolio'' premiered at the

Classical Theatre of Harlem The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) is an off-Broadway professional theatre company founded in 1999 at the Harlem School of the Arts. Producing on average 2–3 productions a year as well as implementing extensive educational programming, CTH rem ...

in the summer of 2023, co-directed by Ian Belknap and Ty Jones.

''The Black Eyed''

''The Black Eyeds original premiere was at The Magic Theatre in 2005. The off-Broadway premiere of The Black Eyed was at the

New York Theatre Workshop __NOTOC__ New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is an Off-Broadway theater noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it h ...

in 2007, directed by

Sam Gold Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. Having studied at Cornell University and Juilliard School he became known for directing both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He has received the Tony Award for Best Direction ...

with a cast of Aysan Celik, Lameece Issaq, Jeanine Serralles, and

Emily Swallow Emily Swallow (born December 18, 1979) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as The Armorer in the ''Star Wars'' series ''The Mandalorian'' (2019–present) and '' The Book of Boba Fett'' (2022). She is also known for her roles as ...

. The Theatre Fournos of Athens, Greece, produced a translation of the play in Greek.

''Fit for a Queen''

''FIT FOR A QUEEN'' was first produced by the Classical Theatre of Harlem in 2016.

''Free Radicals''

''Free Radicals'' was translated into Dutch by the Het Zuidelijk Toneel in 2012. She was also an artist-in-residence at the same theatre.

List of Plays

*''Malvolio'' *''Roar'' *''The Black Eyed'' *''Fit for a Queen'' *''Chocolate in Heart'' *''Territories'' *''As Soon as Possible'' *''Free Radicals'' *''Again and Against'' *''The Strangest'' *''The Machine'' *''The Alter-ego of an Arab-American Assimilationist'' *''Codes of Honor'' *''Veritas'' *''Dearborn'' *''Last stop to Andalusia''

Published novels

*''Too Soon'', Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster

Published plays

*''The Black Eyed'' & ''Architecture'', Broadway Play Publishing Inc. *''Roar'', Broadway Play Publishing Inc. *''The Strangest'', Broadway Play Publishing Inc. *''Malvolio'', Broadway Play Publishing Inc.