Zahra Noorbakhsh was 14 when her Iranian immigrant mother discovered that Zahra was defying the family ban on mingling with boys: one was among her four friends heading to the movies together.

So the sex education talk that in a different life, back in the holy city of Qom, would have waited for her bridal night was instead delivered in the parking lot of a mall in Danville, Calif.

“Zahra, you have a hole,” her mother started. “For the rest of your life, men will want to put their penis in your hole. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, who is your ‘friend.’ ”

Young Zahra staggered from the car thinking: “I have a what?! A hole? Where? Was that what I had missed in sex ed the one day I had the flu?”

Read the full article at nytimes.com

SF Chronicle – 96 hours Cover Story (& at SF Gate.com)
Feb 3, 2011
‘All Atheists Are Muslim’: Boy meets girl, dogma by Nirmala Nataraj

SF Weekly
Feb 16, 2011
What A Dish by Keith Bowers

The Daily Californian
Nov 4, 2010
Beyond Belief by Arielle Little

The Daily Californian
Nov 23, 2010
Culture Shot: Theatre Review by Zachary Ritter

Video

KRON-4 Weekend Morning News
Jan 23, 2011
Interview with Henry Tenenbaum
Check back soon to watch the video!

Radio & Podcast

KPFA Women’s Magazine
June 6, 2011 on KPFA 94.1 Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco

An interview with Melihe Razazan, host and producer of “Voices of the Middle East & North Africa” in an interview with Zahra Noorbakhsh on her show and career as a comedian and performer.

West Coast Live Radio
February 19, 2011
Interview with Sedge Thompson on KALW 91.7

written and performed by Zahra Noorbakhsh,
directed by Lisa Marie Rollins

developed with W. Kamau Bell & Martha Rynberg in the Solo Performance Workshop

“Something to believe in”
Iranian-American finds humor in faith, family
by Aline Reynolds
Read the full review at Downtown Express

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT “ALL ATHEISTS ARE MUSLIM”:

“Noorbakhsh’s show seeks to skewer stereotypes as much as it elicits laughs from them.” – The San Francisco Chronicle

“Fucking delightful! Funny, moving, and, above all…Universal.” –The Daily Californian

Can Zahra have her Atheist and stay Muslim too? You see, it’s time for Zahra and Duncan to move in together. Duncan doesn’t know this, but Zahra does. She’s sure of it… mostly. And even if she’s not 100% sure, she knows he’ll need some time ruminating, deliberating… Oops, Duncan actually said yes! And he wants to move in now! That’s OK, that’s OK. In fact, that’s good. Right? Now, Zahra just needs to mention to her parents that it makes perfect sense for Duncan to move in with her.

That’s right, she just needs to let her immigrant, Iranian, Muslim parents know that her Southern Californian, white, Atheist—non-believing, infidel— boyfriend — who she has no intention of marrying anytime soon —- should move in with her. And in the process, she doesn’t want to get disowned… or forced into an arranged marriage… or end up stoned in a ditch in her parent’s backyard. (OK, maybe she’s not so worried about that last one… The Tea Party doesn’t allow that kind of thing in Danville.)

Can Zahra do it? Come find out all this and more at the show, “All Atheists are Muslim.” You just might find out you’re more Muslim than you think.

WARNING: The first 3 rows may be converted to Islam.

Book “All Atheists Are Muslim” for your organization!

DIS-ORIENTED. Cultural indigestion, color-blindness and inter-ethnic vertigo. Is there a cure? Is it treatable? Is it contagious? That’s what three women, Zahra, Thao and Coke — Iranian, Vietnamese and Okinawan/Japanese — try to find out as they aim to DIS-orient themselves from external stereotypes and internal expectations.

This show features a dynamic trio of performers whose individual solo pieces will lead you across a Muslim-Atheist supper table, the Mekong Delta, and Diagnostic Systems of Sexual Dysfunction. In between each solo performance are smart and biting vignettes — comic sketches, audience improv games, and contemporary dance — that will leave you happy to be as DIS-oriented as they are.

THE PERFORMANCES:

“All Atheists Are Muslim”
Written & performed by ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH.
How hard can it be for Zahra, an Iranian Muslim girl in her mid-twenties, to move-in with her Atheist White-American boyfriend and cheerfully tell her father that she doesn’t need his blessing?

“Soft Tissue: Secret Agent Bucket”
Written & performed by COLLEEN “COKE” NAKAMOTO.
What’s a woman to do when her va-j-j says “No!” and refuses to come out and play? As a girl, Secret Agent Bucket finds clues to womanhood beneath her piano teacher’s dress, in her family’s closets and drawers, and while fishing with her daddy. All while studying to be a professional go-go dancer. And aspiring to sing like Tom Jones.

“Fortunate Daughter”
Written & performed by THAO P. NGUYEN
Thao, 25, wakes up on a good morning in Vietnam, dons her full-metal jacket and goes deer hunting on Hamburger Hill with Forrest Gump and Martin Sheen. Only she survives. Later, her mom takes her to meet her grandmother for the first time.

ARTIST BIOS:

ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH is a solo-performer and stand-up comedian, who’s performed with Maz Jobrani from the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, and Shazia Mirza from Last Comic Standing. Her one-woman show “Hijab and Hammerpants,” recently debuted at the SF Theater Festival, under the direction of W. Kamau Bell (SF Weekly’s performer of the year, 2008).

COLLEEN “Coke” NAKAMOTO is a solo performer, curious about where words meet the body. Coke has presented her work at the David Henry Hwang Theater (LA), the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts (Carmel), and locally at NOHSpace, Stagewerx, CounterPULSE (Words First, APAture, Asian American Dance Performances), The Marsh, SOMArts (APICC/Eth-Noh-Tec), the San Francisco Theater Festival, and the Joyce Gordon Gallery (For Colored Girls Only). She is a proud member of Wing It! Performance Ensemble and the Solo Performance Workshop.

THAO P. NGUYEN has been writing and performing solo shows since she joined the Solo Performance Workshop in 2007. Her director, the critically acclaimed W. Kamau Bell (“Four Stars” in Time Out New York and SF Chronicle), has awarded her with the coveted “W. Kamau Bell Solo Performance Black Belt,” a distinction which to this date has been awarded only four times. She also co-produces two monthly solo performance series in San Francisco: “Words First” at CounterPULSE and “City Solo” at Off-Market Theater.

West End Studio Theater

http://www.westcoastarts.org

1554 Fourth St, San Rafael
Between E & F Streets

PRESS CONTACT:
Thao P. Nguyen
meanie.productions@gmail.com
High resolution (300dpi) photos available.

— Tissa Hami, comedian & co-star of the PBS documentary “Stand-Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age”

 – The Daily Cal Theatre Review

 – SF Theater Blog

 – The Daily Californian