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The Lower East Side Shakespeare Company is excited to announce that 2017 has brought with it the opportunity to develop a new work. 

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BEE, a story created by Melody Erfani (our founder) and written by Sean Michael Welch, focuses on the life & strength of Melody's Iranian Grandmother. It also weaves that tale with refugee stories with the aim to help bridge the growing cultural gap that contributes to discrimination.

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We have had the pleasure of attending an artist residency in Maine, with The Barns Art Collective, over the summer. It is here that this story, 7 years in the making has started to find it's legs. We are fortunate to be granted another residency with HB Studio in November to continue the development on this work.

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An integral part of this process is the research of the refugee experience. To accompany the research we have and are continuing to conduct interviews with Middle Eastern immigrants and refugees in America. We hope that these journeys will help shape our work to reflect the great strength inherent in anyone searching for a new home. 

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If you have direct experience as a refugee or a middle eastern immigrant and would like to share your story, we welcome you to reach out to us, info@lesshakespeareco.org. While we hope to use elements from these interviews in our work we would like to highlight that all interviews remain anonymous.

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We thank The Barns Art Collective and HB Studio for their support in this artistic endeavour. Without assistance we would not have the means to see this important work to fruition.